LONDON — Hours after being beaten into second place on the “Britain’s Got Talent” TV show, Susan Boyle, an instant celebrity who rose from obscurity to global renown and recognition, was taken from a London hotel to a private clinic under police escort Sunday night, the police and her associates said Monday.
Scotland Yard did not explain what she was suffering from, or identify her by name. But, in response to questions about Ms. Boyle, a spokeswoman said: “Police were called to doctors assessing a woman under the Mental Health Act. The woman was taken voluntarily by ambulance to a clinic. At the request of doctors, police accompanied the ambulance.”
British newspapers reported that she had been begun to behave erratically after losing to a dance group called Diversity in the Saturday night finals of the show that had transformed her into a worldwide phenomenon. In public she had seemed gracious in defeat.
But one of the show’s judges, Piers Morgan, said Monday that Ms. Boyle, 47, was emotionally drained and exhausted. “Nobody has had to put up with the kind of attention Susan has had. Nobody could have predicted it,” he told GMTV.
“It has been crazy, she has gone from anonymity to being the most downloaded woman in history,” he said.
“She was very tired and hasn’t been sleeping. She has just gone away to have some time to herself and to sleep and eat, doing all the things she hasn’t been able to do in the last week.”