During the podcast, which asks guests to share a special person, place and possession which has shaped them, Church said her father was an “absolutely extraordinary human” who had been through “so much” – including battling septicaemia seven times.
Describing the start of her career as a child touring with her mother Maria, she said: “We really missed him on the road. My family aren’t very traditional in any way at all, and so my father was far more sort of like the nurturing one.”
The singer, who recently appeared on Celebrity Traitors, was just 11 years old when she rose to global fame and earned the moniker the Voice of an Angel.
Church said her father joined them on the road after a year and would help take care of her while her mother dealt with the business side of her career, describing him as like “the hearth”.
“He was sort of worldly and wise enough that he could ground me in a perspective, ground me in the transience of it all, and that it probably wouldn’t be forever, and just [try] to say let’s enjoy it while it’s here.”