Church readys super-rich life

It will be eight more days before Charlotte Church gets her hands on her £16million fortune.

But she is already assuming the super rich lifestyle.

Far from her native Cardiff, the soprano is hunting for a house in fashionable Primrose Hill, North London.

And on her travels she is being accompanied by that essential accessory - the enormous minder.

Charlotte, who is planning a spending spree when she turns 18 next Saturday, got in some shopping practice on a trip to the West End with three friends.

Wrapped in a full-length cream fake fur coat, she tried on shoes in Dolce & Gabbana and Gina but left empty-handed.

Asked if she would be continuing her spree along Bond Street with a trip to Prada, she replied: 'I couldn't afford it - yet!' Under the terms of the trust set up in her name when she was 11, it was intended that she would have to wait for the money she earned as a child star until she was 21.

But it has now been agreed that she can have her fortune on her 18th birthday and she is said to have spent several months dismantling the trust.