She was the highest paid female singer of the sixties and her shows regularly drew 28 million viewers.

Hailed as the British Marilyn Monroe she appeared alongside Lulu, Cilla Black and Sandie Shaw and was romantically linked with some of the best know stars of the time.

But today she is little more than a half-remembered name to many, and her life could not be further removed from the showbiz glitz of her singing heyday.

Known as the Golden Girl of Pop, Kathy Kirby is believed to have been worth £5 miilion in 1970, but now, according to the man who wrote a biography about her, she is living in obscurity and on benefits.

Despite her massively successful career the star descended into poverty and mental illness, disappearing from the showbiz radar while many of her contemporaries remain household names.

But despite her obscurity and her Garboesque' lifestyle Kathy still has her fans. Interest in her was reignited by the publication of her biography and its serialisation in a national newspaper. And now she is set to become a household name again with the opening in Leeds of a musical about her life.

Written by Yeadon journalist and writer Graham Smith, Secret Love details her dramatic rise to fame and her equally dramatic fall from grace.

Graham's early memories of the star go back to 1964 when he was 13 and saw her perform in Blackpool. She made such an impression on him that he can still remember today the dress she wore half a century ago.

And his interest was rekindled when he stumbled across a manuscript in 2005 written by her last manager.

He said: "I discovered the Kathy Kirby story in 2005 when I found an old manuscript written 20 years previously. Whilst I knew something of Kirby I read it and thought this is an amazing story.

The document inspired him to write her biography which was serialised in a national newspaper.

A statement from his company, Mediaworld, says: "The highest paid girl singer of the swinging sixties, Kathy had a remarkable rise to stardom and an equally remarkable fall from grace as disaster after disaster struck the star who was hailed as the golden girl of pop' and Britain's answer to Marilyn Monroe.

"But when we discovered her story in 2005 and launched her website at www.kathykirby.co.uk we also found an enormous worldwide fan base which had stayed loyal to the singer who now lives reclusively in her London flat. Fans e-mail daily to find out more about this remarkable personality, and after publishing an acclaimed biography of her story Secrets, Loves and Lip Gloss' our show was born out of sheer demand to hear her story and music."

Former Bradford Telegraph and Argus journalist Graham said: "When we founded the website I was amazed at the number of visitors it got. The site got 10,000 hits a day regularly. I was getting email from all over the world asking about her. The question everyone asks is whatever happened to Kathy Kirby?"

What he found when he interviewed her was a star who had experienced the very depths of poverty and despair.

Now he says: "She lives alone in her London flat, hardly ever drawing back her curtains and only occasionally venturing out. It is a very sad story for a lady who gave so much pleasure to people," Graham stressed.

Seen as one of the greatest female voices of 20th century popular music, convent educated Kathy O'Rourke was born in 1938 and set out on the road to stardom when her talent was spotted by the great forties and fifties bandleader Bert Ambrose.

He predicted: "I have never known anyone with what Kathy had to offer. Voice, tone, range feeling, personality and looks. In fact this girl has it all and nothing can stop her becoming one of the greats of our time."

The band-leader who was more than 40 years older than her exerted a Svengali like influence, becoming her manager and her lover before she was even 18.

"She was taken into the clutches of Bert Ambrose who was 42 years older than her. He had had a good run already but got a better one from Kathy because she earned the money and he went out and gambled it," Graham said.

He described how Ambrose used to lock her in her hotel room and totally controlled her life - but despite that she still managed to enjoy flings. Rumours circulated that she had become pregnant after an affair with one international singing star - an allegation she will not comment on.

But she is not as reticent about everyone. Graham said: "She will speak about Bruce Forsyth, who in his own biography confessed to her affair with him."

In the face of Ambrose's jealousy the two had to meet in secret, and ended up with the farcical situation with Bruce hiding in a wardrobe. Used to being dominated by Ambrose, when he died Kathy's life spiralled out of control.

"Ambrose's death was the beginning of the end for Kathy," Graham said. "He had exercised control over pretty much every area of her life, he refused to let her do film tests and when he'd spent his own fortune he moved on to hers. God knows how much he went through, but like a lot of other people he came to see her as a meal ticket.

"It wasn't a particularly healthy relationship, but it was the only one she knew. Overnight she lost the person who told her how to live her life. She was like a boat without a rudder."

Graham said: "Then after Ambrose's death, she began her unbelievable spiral into drugs, mental problems, even becoming the victim of a woman who was to coax her into a lesbian wedding ceremony, when she was at her lowest psychological point."

As her life spiralled out of control she was making the papers for all the wrong reasons.

Graham said: "More headlines told of an incident where a man was hospitalised from her West End flat sporting a knife wound. Now she was becoming more and more reclusive, reduced to dancing alone in front of a wall to wall mirror to her own records. Rumours of her troubled finances began to circulate and culminated in 1975 with bailiffs arriving at her flat and leaving only a bed and a carpet underlay."

There followed a failed marriage, where she lost a baby, a stay at a mental hospital and a lesbian wedding'. But within hours of posing for celebratory pictures her new partner was arrested on fraud and forgery charges and jailed for three years.

Kathy never hit the heights of her former career again. And today the singer, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, lives alone.

"Her career had finished when she was only in her early 40s. She walked away - partly because of the mental problems she has had which were quite well documented." Graham said. "The mental problems were always there but never went on stage with her. But this was the reality behind the lip gloss."

He added: "Still the fans buy her recordings and contact us asking how she is. Still she refuses to make TV or personal appearances, the demons that destroyed her career returning regularly to haunt her and deprive her fans of a great star, a great survivor, a legend of the sixties whose trademark song Secret Love' is such a poignant reminder ofthe days when a lady who has little left in life had it all."

Secret Love opens at Leeds City Varieties at 7.30pm on Friday May 9. It will then tour nationwide. Further details of the show are available at www.secretlove. info or on 01992 470907.