Paloma Faith's song 'Kings and Queens' was inspired by her teen sweetheart's tragic life.
Paloma Faith
The 36-year-old singer - who welcomed her first child with partner Leyman Lahcine last year - explained that her ex boyfriend was the victim of discrimination when he was younger and ended up going down a bad path.
She explained to the Daily Star: "It's quite hard for me to talk about it, because I always get emotional talking about it.
"I had a boyfriend from when I was 13 to when I was 16. We were both brought up in Hackney. He was always getting arrested - not because he was badly behaved. He was getting arrested because he was black and fit a criteria."
The man has since been in trouble with the law, and even ended up in jail, but Paloma feels that this never would have happened if he had not been discriminated against.
She revealed that her new song was inspired by a chance meeting between them a few years ago, when she and Leyman were out walking in Dalston, London, and they saw her ex getting arrested.
She said: "I heard through the grapevine that he ended up in jail for things he did do, but I knew in my absolute heart that this wasn't him.
"And about two or three years ago, I was walking in Dalston -where we basically grew up - and I was holding hands with my current boyfriend, who's now the father of my child.
"There was a big clearing, lots of police cars, with an area cornered off and someone was getting their face shoved into the wall... and being handcuffed quite aggressively.
"I met eyes with the person, who then bowed his head in shame. It was my ex-boyfriend.
"I just felt so sad, because I know that he could have been where I am now. He was super talented. Totally on my level creatively. He played the saxophone, he was super great at art, and he could have been anything."
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