Katherine Jenkins refuses to speak for a day before her gigs

Welsh singer Katherine Jenkins has shared an insight into her pre-performance rituals which include not speaking for a whole 24 hours and a series of superstitions. The 44-year-old singer says she won’t utter a sound for a whole day ahead of shows to preserve her voice – even if it means being unable to control her kids.

Katherine has children Aaliyah Reign, eight, and six-year-old Xander Robert Selwyn with her husband American painter and filmmaker Andrew Levitas. She told The Times: “I don’t have alcohol, I drink loads of water and I stop going to noisy places so I don’t overuse my voice. I want to stay focused.

“In the 24 hours before the show I won’t speak at all. The voice is a muscle and when you whisper, you’re still vibrating the cords and not getting the rest. I’ve got a six-year-old and an eight-year-old, and they find it hilarious that they can do whatever they like to mummy and I can’t speak back, so the house becomes a big game of charades.” For the latest TV & Showbiz news, sign up to our newsletter

Read more: BBC Morning Live's Gethin Jones says ‘I’m in bits’ as he sends message to Welsh star

Read more: I stayed in 'the strangest town in Wales' and completely fell in love

Katherine also said she has a series of superstitions before concerts, adding: “I do things in a certain order, silly things like putting my right shoe on before my left. I always stop by myself for a little minute and I say a prayer. I ask God and my dad to bless my voice and help me to remember my words, more of a comfort than a necessity.”

The soprano was speaking to the newspaper about how losing her dad to lung cancer when she was 15 years old became her driving force to pursue a singing career. She said: “Life can go either way. It can be the reason that things unravel, or like in my case, my dad became a driving force.

“I’m trying not to cry – you know it’s so silly because it’s so long ago and now and again it just catches me. I’ve been without my dad longer than I was with him yet I think about him every day, every time I sing. I speak to him. He informs all my musical choices because if you’ve had loss, you’re more drawn to emotional music. Music has helped me.”

Katherine added that the disease that claimed her father’s life has afflicted her relatives and husband: “Cancer is a big thing in our family. Andrew also lost his dad to cancer, I lost a best friend to cancer when she was just 32, my mother worked in breast cancer screening, my sister worked for Macmillan. At school my best friend’s mum passed away to cancer within six months of me losing my dad.” For the latest TV & Showbiz news, sign up to our newsletter