'It could have been worse. I am still alive. It made me realise it's important to always be vigilant and aware of your surroundings,' said Leona Lewis on being punched in the face at a book signing by a deranged 'fan'

The room I’m sharing with Leona Lewis is a very private space. Or at least it would be, if not for the big, strong man in a pinstripe suit with an open-necked shirt who’s staring at me intently. He goes everywhere with her now. They’ve even had to increase the security at her home in Los Angeles, because of what was reported as a stalker.

‘There was a paparazzo who kept following me around,’ she says. ‘I didn’t want to change the house.’

Then came the ‘gun siege’ last month, when Leona was waiting in a parked car outside Starbucks on the way to LA airport. Men waving guns ran towards her as they fled from the police; her manager was knocked to the ground.

‘We were caught up in the tail end of a high-speed police chase. It was all so quick we didn’t really know what was happening. It was scary, but we were all fine – very shaken but so grateful we were OK.’

'There is definitely a pressure to be a stick insect. Generally, in life, there is. All of the magazines have tiny stick insects on their covers. But no one has ever said (I should be like) that to me, and if they did...'

Most dramatically, a deranged ‘fan’ punched her in the face at a book signing in London in October.

‘For a while afterwards that had a big effect on me,’ she says. ‘It was very shocking. He attacked me out of the blue. He was very unwell. It was really random, something that was done by a very ill person. It wasn’t fun – I was extremely hurt and upset.

‘It could have been worse, though. I am still alive. It made me realise it’s important to always be vigilant and aware of your surroundings – but I don’t want to make myself too closed off.

'I’m a positive person, I don’t like to dwell on negatives and I love what I’m doing. I was sorry for those who I wasn’t able to meet at the signing because of what happened, and grateful for all the lovely messages of support I got.’

The attacker was later detained under the Mental Health Act. Leona’s witness statement read, ‘I feel completely devastated by this attack. Now I am very frightened about going out in public and I don’t know where the next attack will come from and if this will be more serious than what has just happened.’

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The star performing on BBC1's So You Think You Can Dance last night

Now, though, she says, ‘I just see it as a one-off thing, very isolated and something that I’m moving on from. I’ve still got the same people around me who I’ve always had looking out for me, but I think they’re much more vigilant now.

‘I put myself out there in front of people every single day of my life. I’m always in situations where there are a lot of people around me. I’m in the public eye, and with that comes a certain amount of risk, but if you think about it all too much then you’d never leave the house.’

In May she’ll kick off her world tour at The O2: ‘I’m not nervous yet, but I will be.’

I’m glad we’re beyond the well-coached platitudes with which she parried all my early questions. There’s only so many times you can hear answers like ‘It’s all about the music. I always give 100 per cent.’

Now I can ask what I really want to know. ‘Leona, who are you?’

It’s a fair question. Is she Leona Lewis the shy secretary from Hackney who won The X Factor in 2006? Or the glacial soul diva who’s become a huge star in America, and who seems to think smiles and sweet nothings will get us through our time together? She laughs, and offers her manic schedule as an excuse for – initially, at least – barely being in the room.

Leona turned down a £1 million gig opening the Harrods summer sale in 2008 because the store stocked animal skins and furs

‘I just got in from Canada, I did a Radio 2 live show this morning, then I went to Somerset House for a photo shoot, then I came here for another one, then you, then two hours of Australian interviews. Then tomorrow, in the morning, I fly to Monaco. That night, I fly to Germany. So much travelling. I love it. To see things I never thought I would.’

Out of the car window?

‘Yeah. Exactly. As you’re going past.’

And as if she weren’t busy enough, she’s just taken part in the recording of a cover of REM’s Everybody Hurts alongside Cheryl Cole and Susan Boyle. The single will raise money for earthquake victims in Haiti.

‘I’m so proud to be involved. I found recording it quite upsetting, but I feel very hopeful about the good it will bring and hope that people get behind it and support it.’

She sits there on the sofa, one leg tucked up, in her tight pale jeans, black plastic leather-look jacket and a studded leather bracelet. Her thick, tumbling hair is tied up simply on one side. Those huge eyes are framed by Cleopatra make-up and massive lashes. She looks like what she has become so quickly – an immaculately groomed global superstar.

Have we lost her to America forever? Hasn’t it been bewildering, this rapid shift into extreme fame?

‘At first I was swept up in it; it was all a bit “Wooh!” A big rush. Now, I feel like I have more of a grasp on it. More control. I’m just trying to make the most of every opportunity. I don’t feel as bewildered by it all now.’

One element of her mega-makeover Leona seems to be resisting with all her might: the pressure to dump Lou Al-Chamaa, an electrician she has known since she was ten.

‘I don’t really talk about it any more,’ she says, but then annoyance gets the better of her and she does just that, veering away from the script.

‘I can’t deal with people constantly scrutinising the relationship and having an opinion about it when they don’t really know me. It’s like I’ve become a different species. I’m supposed to go out with Brad Pitt or something. It’s so bizarre to me, because I’m so not in that world.’

Ah, but she is, whether she likes it or not. And she appears to be learning to enjoy it. The couple spent Christmas Day together with family in London, but were photographed arriving in LA on Boxing Day and visited Las Vegas for New Year’s Eve.

‘I went for fun. A load of my friends came with me and we all hung out, and I saw the Cirque du Soleil show while I was in Vegas, which was very inspiring. Incredible.’

'I do believe in destiny. If I had continued to do my music, I would be doing what I'm doing now': Leona insists she could have found all her present success on her own, even without The X Factor

What she doesn’t mention – and she was careful to ensure no one could see in any of the paparazzi snaps of her there – is that she was on crutches.

‘I had a little accident. I was riding a big Swedish Warmblood horse, a jumper, and, I don’t know, I just came off. Accidents happen. I’ve come off so many times that it’s not really a big deal to me, but when everybody else hears about it they go, “Oh no!”’

Maybe that’s because millions have been spent on her spectacular tour and it would have been a disaster if she’d been unable to appear after falling off her horse, which she keeps in stables near her Hollywood home.

She is passionate about animals. She turned down a £1 million gig opening the Harrods summer sale in 2008 because the store stocked animal skins and furs.

‘I think animals are treated really poorly,’ she says. ‘When I see people wearing fur it makes me so sick. Especially when I see young singers doing it. That sickens me. When I rocked up to my first photo shoot they had feathers and fur there and everything I despise. I had to make it so clear I just do not go there.’

She usually gets her way. It’s less clear, though, if she’s winning the battle over body image.

‘There is definitely a pressure to be a stick insect. Generally, in life, there is. All of the magazines have tiny stick insects on their covers. But no one has ever said (I should be like) that to me, and if they did...’ She’d resist, she says.

But that flies in the face of the photos that suggest she has done something to her body over the past year to bring it more in line with the showbiz ideal. In real life she looks fit, not freaky, but still far skinnier than most.

‘Everyone says I’ve lost weight. I don’t see it. It’s getting back on the wheel, I suppose. Eating healthily. When I’m at home I eat worse than when I’m travelling.’

Naturally, she’s a vegetarian. Today her management has insisted on ‘well-grilled tofu, grilled asparagus, steamed broccoli and a side of soy sauce’, but she doesn’t appear to have touched it, so is this really the sort of stuff she eats at home?

She laughs and covers her mouth with her hand, as if about to confess a guilty secret.

‘I get takeaways for tea, or beans on toast. I don’t like bread that much. I get Chinese – it’s so much effort to cook. My mum always cooks; she babies me. That’s why I live around the corner.’

That’s just not true any more, though, is it? For most of the past two years she has been in America, recording and working the circuit.

'I can't deal with people constantly scrutinising the relationship and having an opinion about it when they don't really know me': Leona above with boyfriend Lou Al-Chamaa

So, can she honestly say that Hackney is still home?

‘Yes,’ she says, eyes flashing with irritation. ‘I don’t understand why people keep saying I’ve left.’

Could it be because we’ve all seen pictures of her massive villa in Hollywood?

‘I rent somewhere in LA for while I’m recording there; I live in London, but when I’m travelling so much in America and recording out there it’s nice to have a place that’s a base instead of a hotel. And it’s to save money as well.’

Leona does still have the Hackney flat she bought with her X Factor winnings, close to her mother and father. Joe Lewis is a youth offending officer of Guyanese descent, and her mother Maria is a Welsh social worker.

‘My mum and dad help me out loads, but they still work part-time. I know the Beckhams have members of their family working full-time with them, but they’ve been doing it for ages. I’m only just starting.’

There’s still just a faint trace of the thought that it might all end tomorrow, despite the hit singles and albums and the fact that she has been aiming at stardom for most of her life. Her parents sent her to stage school until they couldn’t afford it, and for a while she was at the Brit School for Performing Arts in Croydon, where Katie Melua and Amy Winehouse were once also students. Leona had already recorded a demo album when she went in for The X Factor – her boyfriend Lou had to persuade her to audition.

‘He was like, “Come on, do it.” I was unsure. I didn’t know if it was the right avenue to go down. Obviously it was.’

The trouble is that everyone knows where she comes from now, and when she goes back to her old neighbourhood it’s impossible to walk down the street unbothered. After the attacks, that really matters. The local council hasn’t helped by making her the face of

Hackney, and putting big posters of her up in the streets, even on dustbins.

‘It’s really sweet that they feel proud of me, but it does make me embarrassed. It’s weird. I do still live in the area. If you’re walking around and people see your posters it does draw attention to you, like an arrow pointing at you.’

That must make her quite afraid, but she insists that she does still have warm feelings for the place.

‘Hackney is so multicultural, and I love Britain. To me, apart from Cuba, it’s the most accepting country ever. There are parts of America and Europe that still have a bit of a stigma.’

Has she never had any racial abuse in Britain?

‘No. Never.’

Actually, though, Hackney can’t contain her now. It seems inevitable that she’ll move on. She knows some people will see that as selling out, and it makes her angry.

‘I really don’t understand why people keep saying that. It’s really weird. I still live in the same place; I just travel loads. But if I did decide to move one day, I will always remember where my roots are. My family is there. To me, home is where the heart is. But I’m still young, and when you’re young you have to see the world and travel and not be stuck in one place.’

She will do that from a limo and a jet on her new tour, the look of which has been based on her favourite film, Labyrinth. Yes, the bizarre Eighties fantasy directed by Muppets creator Jim Henson, starring David Bowie in a fright wig.

‘It’s the film I grew up with. I was obsessed with it, and still am. I love fantasy. Just getting into something a bit mystical, a bit mythical, getting lost and having an adventure.’

But hang on, isn’t Labyrinth a lot like her real life?

‘Yeah… I guess you could compare the two. I’m certainly doing something different now. It’s quite surreal.’

She’s thinking of the mad whirl of recording studios, airport lounges and red carpets, and comparing all that to the way the heroine of Labyrinth gets swept up into a thrilling but frightening fantasy world. But I’m thinking of the character played by Bowie, the mysterious Goblin King who is secretly making everything happen. Leona’s dark lord is Simon Cowell, who invented The X Factor, saw her pure talent as the answer to all its critics, and is still her manager. He is worth an estimated £123 million, some of it earned from the remodelling of Leona.

She’s not about to bad-mouth him, obviously, but she wants me to know she’s strong, autonomous and absolutely in control.

‘Every part of what I do, I’m very involved in. I’m making the decisions, especially with the live show. It’s representing me. I want it to be spectacular and the best it can be. I want people to get a sense of me. I’m very direct and very hands-on with everything I’m doing.’

Leona is so keen not to be seen as a kind of puppet that she even insists she could have found all her present success on her own, even without The X Factor.

‘I do believe in destiny,’ she says. ‘If I had continued to do my music, I would be doing what I’m doing now.’

Perhaps that self-belief is keeping her sane in the strange, faraway world of superstar divadom she now inhabits. Every now and then, there’s still a glimpse of the tough, shy but determined East End girl people fell in love with when she won The X Factor. Would our heroine have made it as far as this without her Goblin King? Sounds like a fairy tale to me, but there’s no denying, for her millions of fans and all those X Factor dreamers, the life Leona is living now seems to offer proof that fairy tales can come true.