The woman who discovered Billie Piper fears for the mental condition of the former DOCTOR WHO star after she blasted her drama school in recent autobiography GROWING PAINS.

The founder of the famous British children's performing art centre SYLVIA YOUNG ART SCHOOL was stunned to hear Piper's critical account of her time at the academy - and insists she never recalled the actress being anything but happy during her time there.

In a chapter entitled 'Sylvia Young Theatre School For The Perversely Dramatic', Piper claims her time there was spent with "stinking rich kids" and pupils could not only "get away with bad behaviour, but they were off the scale".

SYLVIA YOUNG refutes the claims however, saying, "I am very worried about Billie. I really wonder if there's something wrong, because to me, my staff and even Billie's former classmates, this sounds nothing like the girl we knew, nor the experiences we know she had here. Several of Billie's contemporaries have told me that they're horrified by what has appeared.

"She makes reference to her being a poor girl among lots of 'stinking rich' kids, but 80 per cent of the pupils in her class were given assistance from us to attend. I am genuinely bewildered."