PRIDE main stage headliner Sam Bailey is dreaming of two things when she returns to Brighton – to satisfy her craving for fish and chips and to ride in the opening parade.

“I’m dying to get on one of the floats,” says the X Factor winner, who is currently expecting her third child.

“I want to be on a float or a double decker bus like when Leicester City won the league – up there waving away like The Queen.”

Having already performed at both London and Manchester Pride, Bailey is aware that she has a strong gay following – and she feels affinity for the Pride message having suffered homophobic taunts herself as a child.

“I was a tom boy,” she says. “I really wanted to play football but the boys’ coach said the only way I could play was if I cut all my hair off – it used to go down my back.

“I was a girl looking like a boy, so got bullied quite a bit and called a lesbian. I found it difficult to express who I was – I can understand how hard it is for people to come out.

“Pride is for people to celebrate who they are – and I want to be a part of that.”

She sees her debut album The Power Of Love as her way of expressing her own experiences and sharing memories.

“All the songs I picked have some sort of significant meaning for me,” she says. “I sang The Power Of Love on the X Factor live shows, and it set the benchmark for how I was going to perform each week.

“It reminds me of my mum with her hairbrush and rollers in pretending to be Jennifer Rush. Everywhere I go that song gets a standing ovation.”

She has been digging further into her past for her autobiography, which is set for release in November.

“It’s really hard to go through everything and bring stuff back,” she says – highlighting her father’s death in 2008 from cancer as being particularly tough to relive.

“It lets people into my past and how my life has panned out, how tough I had it as a kid. I don’t regret any of it – it’s made me into who I am.

“If it gives somebody a bit of hope that they can change their life around, and that it’s not as hard as you think, that would be great. I’ve done it – it might not last but I’m enjoying it while I’m here.”

The book also allows her to tell her story herself – having shared her life with the tabloids, and experienced firsthand some reporters’ more creative moments.

“Just after the X Factor show finished I was sat in my front room with [her husband] Craig looking at magazines,” remembers Bailey. “He suddenly said to me: ‘Are we splitting up? Because it says in the paper we are!’ “People have even been saying this is Michael Bolton’s baby which was news to me and my husband – I found that hilarious! I don’t take any notice of stuff like that.”

Having another baby wasn’t in the long-term plan – although she always saw herself as having three children.

“Before we couldn’t have another baby because of childcare costs,” says the former prison warder. “Now it’s a little bit easier for us. I’m having a little girl and I’m freaking out over everything!

“I performed pregnant when I was on the cruise ships in 1999. My waters broke in the middle of a song in a social club in Barnsley with my first child!”

She is taking it easy – and she is looking forward to spending Christmas at home with her new family of five.

“No-one is letting me lift a finger,” she says. “I did a festival show recently where I walked up to the stage in my slippers, put my heels on, sang for half-an-hour and then put my slippers back on!

“I’m taking every precaution possible – I might have to get an armchair for Brighton Pride. As long as there’s a bucket by the side of the stage and a couple of hot towels I will be fine...”

V Sam Bailey is also at the Brighton Centre on Saturday, February 14, 2015, tickets from £27.50. Call 08448 471515.