Under the tight control of X Factor bosses, Rachel was encouraged to give an interview to a Sunday newspaper in which she detailed her terrible childhood and adolescence and, once again, spoke of her remorse and determination to stay on the right path.
She pinpointed the birth of her fourth child, a boy called Tishon, in June 2002, as the moment that she turned over a new leaf.
'From that moment on I said: "Enough is enough!" I changed,' she revealed.
Nobody could deny that Rachel is to be heartily commended for her efforts to put the past behind her, although some people that know this super-confident young woman suggest that the truth is not quite in keeping with the bad-girl-turned-good story the show's makers would have us believe.
A former neighbour who lived next to her in Hackney five years ago explains: 'I looked after her baby son once. She knocked on the door and shouted at me "I've been stabbed, I've been stabbed! Here, look after him," and she shoved the baby in.
'She was stabbed in her arm or shoulder - I can't remember where exactly - and she was hurt, but she was running after the guy who stabbed her with a broom.
'What could I do? I just took the baby and called the police. It was about 2pm in the afternoon and the poor child wasn't even dressed.'
When it came to day-to-day existence near Rachel, the woman added: 'There were always people coming and going. There was loud music, arguments, things thrown out over the balcony of her flat. She was trouble - pure and simple - and a nightmare to live alongside.'
Others who had the misfortune to live near to a flat that she moved into in Harrow, North London, three years ago were equally unimpressed by her behaviour.
One man, who did not wish to be named, said: 'I was talking to my friend outside once, and she had her window open. I said something about the social services and she thought I was talking about her, which I wasn't. She went mad and started screaming and shouting accusations at me. You could see she was a right troublemaker.
'Another time I was in the garden one day and she came outside and started yelling at me for no reason and then said: "I'm going to fetch my boyfriend and get him to shoot you." She was a total bitch. If I ever went in the garden she would be out there, watching. I don't believe she can have changed so much in such a short time - it's all a front.'
Another neighbour claimed that she had been forced to move home because of Rachel.
'She was a very, very violent, aggressive person,' said the woman. 'People were in and out of her flat at all times of the day. I don't know what she was doing in there but her behaviour was very erratic.
'She didn't work, and to begin with she was always coming down to ask to borrow cigarettes and money. When I made it clear that I couldn't help her, that was when the trouble began.
'She had been in prison, and she lived her life as if she was still in prison. On one occasion she even pinned me up against the wall in the hallway. I had the police out to me all the time, but the only advice they could give was to tell me to pack a bag and to move out for the weekend so things could cool down.
'In the end I had no choice but to move for good. Anybody who thinks about voting for her on future shows should try living next door to her for a week first.'
Such goings-on would appear to be at odds with the way in which Rachel now claims to be living her life as a conscientious mother and law-abiding citizen. She even feels qualified enough to dish out advice to others.
'I know this is a cliché, but don't ever give up,' she said. 'Whether you want to be a builder, a singer, a doctor, a nurse - anything you want to be in life, go for it. I am 26 and I am not going to give up my dream.
'I am going to still work on my music until I am, like, 28, and if nothing happens in the next two years then I will go to college and go and do something boring.'
That Rachel considers study and work 'boring' comes as little surprise given the bad hand she was dealt from the very start. Born in London in 1981, she was the eldest of three children to Sharon Scott and her partner Alan Hylton.
The family unit, however, was short-lived, her father leaving for another woman with whom he would have six children. Two of them died in suspicious circumstances in a fire in 1990 at the age of ten months.
By the age of 11 Rachel was having her own problems with the authorities, being expelled from two schools for violence. From there on in, according to an interview in a Sunday tabloid following her X Factor appearance, it was all downhill.
'I lost my virginity when I was 11 to a boy who lived next door to me,' she told the newspaper. 'He was 14. I also had sex with older men. I became promiscuous and started to run away more.'
At 12 she fell pregnant to a 28-year-old drug dealer ('He was done for statutory rape, but I did give my consent') who introduced her to ecstasy and crack.
Her first child, a boy, was taken into care soon after he was born. 'I didn't really take to motherhood,' she told the paper. 'I was only 13. My mum took the brunt of looking after him, but then she got really sick with glandular fever. Social services were meant to place me and my son in a mother-and-baby unit. But they didn't do that.' Instead, she was sent to one foster home and her son was placed in another.
Rachel said: 'I was meant to be having contact, but I put drugs before seeing my son. I would be so high on crack I didn't show up to the visits. Some days I couldn't even get out of bed.'
At the age of 14 there followed another relationship with another drug dealer. He introduced Rachel to heroin, and at the age of 17 she had her second child, another boy, who was again taken into care shortly after the birth.
Rachel, meanwhile, was funding her addiction with crime. She shoplifted, she mugged people and she carried out street robberies.
On one occasion she mugged a middle-aged woman, running off with her handbag before being caught by the victim's husband. She was given 60 hours community service and 18 months probation.
Four months later she burgled a house in Hackney, East London, to get money for drugs and was subsequently jailed for 18 months.
Already pregnant by another man when she was sent to Holloway, Rachel gave birth in the prison's hospital wing, after which her daughter was immediately placed into foster care. Like her other children, the child was subsequently adopted.
Released, she continued taking drugs, breached her probation and was once again jailed.
She was pregnant for the fourth time but, according to her version of events, it was at this point that she decided to turn her life around and quit drugs. But she didn't stop having children - her fifth, Tashanee, is now four years old.
Today she describes herself as a 'full-time mum' and does not work, evidently supporting herself and her children on benefits.
Given her disturbingly bleak childhood and all she has been through, who could deny that this young woman deserves to be given the second chance that she appears to so desperately crave? Some X Factor fan forums have already made up their mind, it would seem.
'I like to see talented, hardworking, dedicated people succeed - not just on The X Factor but in real life,' writes one contributor.
'If the singer who was dim enough to conceive five illegitimate children with five different men and spent time in prison for drug offences and was an addict herself really wants to "turn her life around" for her "children's sake", why not go and get a job in a supermarket and work double shifts and weekends to bring some real dosh in?
'Committing yourself to a tiring, routine job is what millions of mothers and fathers do to provide for their families, and that's something to be admired. Not auditioning for a TV talent show.'
Another points out: 'Sorry, but if you get pregnant at the age of 13 it's your fault. If you take drugs and get addicted it's your fault. If you go to prison it's also your fault.
'I have nothing against anyone trying to turn their life around, but what I do object to is someone thinking their so-called sob story will get them where they want to be.'
While The X Factor's producers' manipulation is obvious, there's no doubt that Rachel's intentions to prove herself as a singer are entirely genuine.
Her new neighbours in Stanmore, North-West London, say she can be heard practising around the clock.
And it's pretty clear that the rest of the nation will soon also be hearing more of her.
'Rachel is brilliant - it looks as if she could go far on the show,' an X Factor source revealed.
'She has got past boot camp and the next stage will be the judges' houses, which we will film in a few weeks' time.
'That's when the four judges each pick their final three and those 12 go through to the live shows, so Rachel is in with a great shot of making it to the elimination stages.'
As for Rachel herself, with her Cinderella story now firmly engraved in the viewing public's mind, she has been forbidden from giving any further press interviews.
Well, at least for the time being, until the show enters the voting stage and the public are encouraged to ring in and part with their money.
Then, no doubt, Rachel will be encouraged to reveal more details of her tragically compelling life.
Simon Cowell and X Factor hopeful Rachel Hylton come to blows on this week's boot camp episode of the show.The argument centres around Hylton's rendition of Snow Patrol's 'Chasing Cars', of which Cowell says: "That performance will not work on this show. It's fine you slowed the piano down but what you started to do was ruin that song."Hylton fires back: "Can I defend myself? It's so easy for you to sit there. For everyone who stands up here I have to defend our position. [I] have practiced and practiced and I know I know this song."However, Cowell refuses to let her finish, stating: "I don't need you telling me what I should or shouldn't be saying. Rachel, don't ruin it for yourself here, you are beginning to ruin it for yourself. "Yes stand up for yourself, but don't play the victim. We have invited you all here, I understand the pressure you are under so don't use that as an excuse. You cocked up the arrangements and I don't want to see you do it again."One of us has to work with you. You have to listen as we are trying to help you."The first boot camp show airs on Saturday on ITV1 at 7.45pm. The second part follows on Sunday at 7pm.
Rachel yelled at Cowell during the boot camp auditions for the ITV1 smash.
Simon Cowell says he is banning bleeding-heart sob stories from his TV shows.
The X Factor has stringent rules about contestants appearing on their show. I understand that anyone with outstanding Police matters are automatically disqualified from the competition. I am pretty sure that given her self confessed background that the producers would have made sure that all her convictions were thoroughly investigated.
Under the tight control of X Factor bosses, Rachel was encouraged to give an interview to a Sunday newspaper in which she detailed her terrible childhood and adolescence and, once again, spoke of her remorse and determination to stay on the right path.
Rachel Hylton hopes her troubles are over for good....
Rachel Hylton has pledged that nothing will stop her quest for success in The X Factor.
After the xfactor show Hylton told of her life of drug addiction, crime and under-age sex and revealed her heartache at having three of her five children taken into care.
Up to ten million viewers watched feisty Rachel, 26, sing a pitchperfect version of Amy Winehouse's You Know I'm No Good, with judge Simon Cowell telling her: "I love you, you're fantastic, a breath of fresh air, my favourite audition." Now she is on the verge of stardom as a favourite to win ITV1's new talent show series. But her path to the top has been deeply troubled.
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