Katherine Jenkins never wants to "look the other way" when it comes to helping those in need.
The 39-year-old singer stepped in to help save a pensioner from being mugged in December last year, and after doing so, the attackers instead turned on her and managed to steal her phone.
And now, Katherine – who was heading to the Henry Van Straubenzee Memorial charity carol service at St Luke’s Church in London at the time of the attack – has said that whilst the incident left her shaken up, she always wants to be the kind of person who would step in to help others.
She explained: "I was standing there on the other side of the road, thinking: ‘Why is no one helping?’ and then I just ran over, shouting: ‘That lady is being attacked, stop it, stop it!’ and threw myself in. I didn’t think twice. If it was my mum being mugged, it would kill me to think no one did anything. I was shouting at the girls and because I’d intervened, they gave the bag back to her. The lady then just disappeared and the girls started on me.
"[When I got away] I carried on to the church and got on stage and somehow managed to sing. My husband was in New York at the time and I sent a message to him to tell him I was OK. When we finally spoke later that night, he said: ‘I’m proud of you. You did the right thing.’ I never want to be that woman who looks the other way."
In January, a 15-year-old girl – who cannot be named for legal reasons – pleaded guilty to robbery and assaulting a police officer, and said in court she was willing to say sorry for stealing Katherine’s phone.
And Katherine says she wasn’t even aware the case had gone to court.
She told The Mail on Sunday’s You magazine: "I didn’t mention it to anyone at the time. I was shaken up and kept thinking about all the photos of my babies on that phone, but then I knew they were all stored on iCloud and it was just a phone."
Following the mugging, the teenager was handed a six month referral order, meaning she had to attend sessions with the youth offending team to address her behaviour, and her mother was also ordered to pay £20 compensation.