because I've never heard of them before.

http://www.gm.tv/index.cfm?articleid=35191

Speaking on GMTV, Gerry Boyle talked about the recent rumours regarding his sister. Once again, it appears that the media is desperate to whip up a more dramatic story than is the reality.

He said:
*Susan was feeling far better on Monday, everything is moving in the right direction
*Attributes problems to a build up of anxiety over 7 weeks
*She is now wondering if she has a career beyond the show
*Susan gets anxious when building up to things, such as exams at school and takes things terribly seriously.
*"Susan’s learning difficulties amaze me because I’ve never heard of them before"
*Susan wanted to be taken seriously as a singer, credit to BGT for giving her the opportunity
*No regrets about entering the show
*She’ll bounce back in a few days and once she knows more about her career, everything will be well.

Sometimes, I think it doesn't pay to be honest which unfortunately Susan is. Otherwise she might just have been described as eccentric by people.

I guess it must be true about the learning difficulties, because Susan has admitted to them herself. However, I also think that she's a bit of an eccentric and didn't seem to take herself too seriously.

Just because someone has learning difficulties, shouldn't detract from their natural character.

I think she's learned to laugh at herself first and get in there before anyone else knocked her down. It's like a coping mechanism she's had to learn when people ridiculed her.

I think it's incredibly sad that she's probably tried to use humour as a defense, but it has gone tragically wrong and where she's likely to have been provoked to the point of not knowing any other strategy or way of coping other than lashing out.

I think with the heaps of praise that she initially got and then the backlash that followed, she's been unable to identify or suss out who was on her side. Journalists come to mind here with their suave ways and probably luring her into a false sense of security.

I've no doubt that this is a tact employed by journalists and media savvy people many times, but Susan must have been initially highly bemused by it all and then finally alarmed to the point that she probably got paranoid and afraid to trust any stranger at all.

Perhaps I'm over analysing things here, but it's just a feeling that I get especially after watching Saturday's show.

Yea, she tried to lean on Dec's shoulder at the audition and she just fell flat on her face.

Maybe "learning difficulties" was a euphemism for something else?

By the way is anyone else sick of Brother Gerry coming out of the woodwork & popping up all over the media? Is he SB's official spokesman now?

I don't understand why she didn't use the words, 'learning difficulty', as that would have been correct if she had one, and is of common usage nowadays. Instead she said, 'a bit slow'.

She seems to be able to lean enough when she does those hideous skirt lifting gyrations she's fond of doing!

I don't really see that it makes much difference in the term that she actually used. If someone says they are a bit slow, that to me would mean that they are slower to catch on. It doesn't mean that they never will catch on.

I just hope for Susan's sake that Brother Gerry has her best interests at heart and not his.

I'm not saying she'll never catch on. Just that she said, ' a bit slow', and its progressed to having learning difficulties and god knows what else people reckon is wrong with her. If her own brother doesn't think she has learning difficulties, why are people saying she has? Is it possible to misread someone's behaviour and demeanour because you've been already set up to look for it?

I would have thought so. Is that surprising?

The phrase 'learning difficulty' may be common usage now, but it it wasn't earlier in her life. If she has got used to one way of describing herself there is no particular reason why she should change.

But her brother isn't correcting anything Susan has said. If she does have a problem, and right now she is on the inside of whats happening to her, but he is on the outside, so he must be aware of all this and what people are saying, but he is not saying she has learning difficulties either, and by now I would have thought he would have agreed that her being slow or whatever it is, is more or less the same thing. So guess I still feel puzzled about it.

Er - it's her brother. What's wrong with him speaking onbehalf of his sister? It's hardly his fault that she's become a major news story.

Susan is 47 or 48 isn't she? Learning difficulties is not a term that was in use when she was at school, so it is not one that she is likely to use. Children with LD were referred to as being slow then, and other people may have said that to her and that is how she still thinks of herself.

To be honest I would have been very surprised if a woman of Susan's age and from her background had described herself as having learning difficulties, 'a bit slow' is far more likely imo.

Actually, thinking about it some more, he might be holding off trying to say anything too much, so that Susan has the opportunity to speak for herself when she gets home.

You're both most likely right, and I'm being picky. But in some ways I'm glad I am, because I don't want to see this woman get labelled for life as being something she might not be.

I understand where you're coming from, but at the same time I want to protect her from the accusations of arrogance and being a diva that have been levelled at her by the press and some people on here. I don't want to label her but I do think she's more vulnerable than some. She's unsophisticated and unworldly and I hate the press for what they've done to her.

I don't know who to believe. The BGT team, ITV, even her brother - they all stand to benefit from her earnings and her fame, so they'll play it down and say she just needs a rest. But the doctor from The Priory has hinted that it's more than that hasn't he?
Her brother was pretty quick off the mark before all this blew up saying that he wanted her to make a record now (presumably to cash in on the instant fame). Trouble is, he's probably getting off on that fame connection too.
Given what has been reported about her odd behaviour, if she goes on that Tour or is rushed over to the US to make a record in the next couple of weeks, then I seriously doubt anyone's really looking out for her.

It's quite worrying what you've said actually. The brother also said Susan doesn't care about the money, it's just the singing. And also, I can't remember where I saw this, but I read something saying she was going to give some money to her family to set them up for life. A couple of weeks back now I think it was, I read that the brother is also going to be her manager, I think this was when the family were wanting her to withdraw and make a record now so as not to miss her chance.
No wonder she's exhausted, she's got a lot riding on her. I think she needs someone who is not going to benefit from her helping her or representing her. Maybe all this happening now to her might actually work out well in the longrun, because it's bringing about questions publicly that might not have been quite so public otherwise. There are going to be an awful lot of people that want to know that she is going to be safe and protected and not taken advantage of in any way. That is, if she can face the public again after all this happening, because having your mental health discussed on national tv has to be uber embarrassing and hard to deal with along with endlessly getting called a virgin in the press.

"Learning difficulties" may be in common use, but what the heck does it mean? It seems very vague / ambiguous.

And what particular learning difficulty does she supposedly have?

I partly feel with the press, that they've made this decision, of, 'you want to be treated like a normal person?;, 'well we'll treat you like a normal person'. And gone out and crushed her. I hate them too, they are despicable. And for each of them involved in any stories about Susan, there is no way they could honestly say they'd be happy about it if it was a member of their own family.

I'm only a couple of years younger than Susan, and I know that 'being slow' was a more popular description used years ago. But I know that 'learning difficulty' is a phrase used now, so I dont see why her brother wouldn't either know that description, or realise what is meant by it, when someone else says it to him. It seems he either doesn't know it at all, or he thinks she has no learning difficulty at all or he's stalling for whatever reason.

I don't know what to think anymore.

Two people I know, one of them quite normal, but got depressed and ended up on some medication. The other one then considered the first person to have 'mental health issues'. How that would seem correct is beyond me, as we all have good and bad times in our life and have to find some way of dealing with it and getting through it. I don't know what 'learning difficulties' really refers to. I'd much rather the saying of, 'a bit slow'.

Susan's brother Gerry is a financial consultant in Edinburgh and apparently he wants to start up his own record company to hopefully sign people from talent contests, including Susan, because he knows full well that Simon generally drops people after he's made money from them and the initial interest has waned -- a good example is Leon Jackson who comes from only a few miles from Susan -- I have read that Gerry wants to take his concept to America... and good luck to him and to Susan!