She’s the vibrant X Factor hopeful who has impressed the show’s judges with her stunning voice and gregarious personality.
In fact, she is already a favourite of Simon Cowell and Nicole Scherzinger and is being widely tipped for a place in the show’s finals.
But behind her smiles, Talia Dean has been hiding a devastating heartache that nearly saw her killed by her ex-boyfriend.
Miss Dean, 32, who works as a VIP concierge at Heathrow airport where coincidentally she found herself accompanying her X Factor mentor Miss Scherzinger, was left for dead by the man she loved after he smashed her head on a concrete wall while grabbing her around the neck.
X Factor favourite Talia has opened up about being a victim of domestic abuse after a show at a festival in Richmond
Her life was saved by a CCTV camera which police were watching, prompting them to speed to the scene within a minute.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday about her ordeal, which saw the 35-year-old man named Adam convicted of Battery at Wimbledon Magistrates court and being given a hefty fine, Miss Dean revealed: ‘I am very sadly, a victim of domestic abuse.
‘It was in July 2014, a year after we had been together, when I was performing at a festival in Richmond. On the way home we began to bicker, he was carrying my guitar. All I remember was that hitting the floor. Then, when I came to there were four police officers standing over me with my boyfriend in handcuffs. I didn’t want to press charges but the police told me they had CCTV footage so would be pressing charges anyway.
‘He had grabbed me around the neck, threw me in the show windows and then to the ground by my hair. With his hands around my neck he smashed the back of my skull on the concrete, strangling me. I was out like a light.
‘If it hadn’t been for the CCTV and the police watching them, I would be dead.’
She ended her relationship with the man, who she doesn’t wish to fully name for fear of reprisal, but took him back within weeks but by September of that year, Miss Dean claims he strangled her again, this time in her car.
Talia says she was only saved because police were watching the CCTV footage when she was assaulted and left for dead
Recalling the horrific incident, she said: ‘I’d driven to pick him up after a gig and we stopped for food. He flipped and smashed his fist on the car dashboard. I managed to swerve over and he grabbed my face and smashed it so hard into the driver’s window that cracked.
‘He got hold of my hair and dragged me to the back seat, he got on top of me and was strangling me so hard. I feared for my life, I could feel my soul leave my body, I started to drift in and out of consciousness. I ended up in hospital where I was again told I was lucky to be alive.
‘I didn’t report that to the police to start with as I knew he would go to jail given the previous incident and the guilt remained.’
He was convicted of criminal damage for what he did to Miss Dean’s car at Hounslow Magistrates Court on September 29 2014 and received a conditional discharge.
‘Eventually I got an injunction out on him. I am so sad that I have to talk about this but I want to help anyone else going through a similar, I was blinded by love. I hope now I have spoken out that something positive might come out of this situation.’