The Brit guitarist at centre of Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox split rumours: Grammar-school educated musician, 27, grew up in Henley-on-Thames and got into music when her dad played Led Zeppelin – before joining US rocker’s tour when he slid into her DMs

• READ MORE: MGK and Megan Fox attend Grammy party days before ‘split’ 

The British guitarist at the centre of frenzied speculation over claims she was behind Machine Gun Kelly’s alleged split from Megan Fox is a former grammar school girl and the daughter of a pilates teacher. 

Sophie Lloyd, who is from Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, has hit back at the ‘merciless’ and ‘disrespectful’ rumours – which have prompted claims of sexism – and pointed out she is already in a relationship with her longtime boyfriend. 

The social media frenzy is an unwelcome interlude in what has otherwise been an extraordinary journey for the 27-year-old, who joined MGK’s Mainstream Sellout tour last year after being personally scouted by MGK, 32. 

Sophie has been an accomplished musician for many years, honing her craft since the age of 10 after developing an interest in music while listening to Led Zeppelin in the car with her father. 

‘Because I was a bit of an outcast, I had a lot of time to practise and this gave me an escape from reality, helped me overcome my anxieties and really gave me a sense of fulfilment,’ she told her personal website. 

Guitarist Sophie Lloyd has hit back at ‘merciless’ and ‘disrespectful’ rumours she has something to do with Machine Gun Kelly’s alleged split from Megan Fox

Sophie performs onstage with MGK during the 2023 Sports Illustrated Super Bowl Party on February 11 in Scottsdale, Arizona 

Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly – pictured in LA on February 5 – are said to have split 

Sophie was educated at Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, a selective state grammar in Kent dating back to 1624; and Gillotts School, a co-educational secondary in Henley.  

In 2018, she graduated from the respected BIMM Institute with a First Class Honours BMus in Popular Music Performance – following in the footsteps of famous alumni including George Ezra, Fontaines D.C. and Natasha Bent.

She marked the occasion with an Instagram post showing her in an academic gown alongside her mother Sue, a pilates instructor, and father Graham – a keen rower who studied Chemistry at Imperial College London. 

Her sister, Hayley, is a business coach living in Sydney.     

The rising star has been in a relationship with her boyfriend Christopher Painter for over five years. 

He’s attended multiple shows on the Mainstream Sellout tour to support her and she recently marked Valentine’s Day by sharing a selfie with him.  

In previous interviews, Sophie recalled how she began playing guitar as a child to ‘escape reality’ due to feeling like a ‘social outcast’ – practicing on her Yamaha Pacific for five hours a night after school.

Speaking in a YouTube sit-down with Kiesel Guitars, she described how the lack of a live music scene in sleepy Henley forced her to turn to the Internet instead .  

‘I didn’t have friends who played guitar, which was why I turned to the Internet,’ she said. 

‘None of my family were musicians, none of my friends were  musicians. There really wasn’t a rock music scene there at all.’ 

In 2018, Sophie graduated from the respected BIMM Institute with a First Class Honours BMus in Popular Music Performance

Sophie with her mother Sue, a pilates instructor, and father Graham – a keen rower who studied Chemistry at Imperial College London

Her rising star’s sister, Hayley, is a business coach living in Sydney

Sophie has been in a relationship with her boyfriend Christopher Painter for over five years; seen Valentines Day 2023

Sophie’s boyfriend Christopher Painter seen with MGK in August 

Sophie would go on to launch a wildly successful YouTube career, with fans flocking to her edgy videos. 

With her incredible guitar skills and glamorous looks, the star has amassed a huge social media following, boasting 815,000 subscribers on YouTube, where she shares guitar riff cover videos as well as clips of her original songs.

She also has 793,000 Instagram followers where she regularly documents her time on tour, with many of the posts featuring MGK as well as other members of the band and crew.

Sophie previously revealed to NME how MGK slid into her DMs to approach her about his tour, after being wowed by her social media videos,

She said: ‘MGK literally just messaged me on Instagram one day, after seeing some of my videos. We Facetimed, we seemed to vibe really well and before I knew it, I had my visa and was flying from London to LA for rehearsals.’

‘Touring with Machine Gun Kelly was amazing. It was like one big family, and I felt so comfortable and safe from the get go. I also love how he uses his music to tell a story and portray a message.’  

Sophie is inspired by metal bands including Iron Maiden, Black Label Society and Pantera and blues guitarists such as Rory Gallagher and Joe Bonnamassa.

And she credits her rhythm playing as being inspired by punk bands including Misfits and The Offspring.   

Fan favorite: The musician often shares glamorous snaps from her travels to her followers

Sophie launched a wildly successful YouTube career, with her edgy videos leading Machine Gun Kelly to slide into her DMs and offer her a job (pictured on February 11)

Sophie previously revealed to NME how MGK slid into her DMs to approach her about his tour, after being wowed by her social media videos

Speaking to The Express about her time on tour with MGK, she said: ‘The fans of MGK, you see a lot in the media about him but my experience has been he’s so f**king awesome, he’s incredible, he’s caring, he’s so loving and passionate and his fans are exactly the same.’

To mark her time on tour with the star, she also now has MGK’s double X symbol tattooed behind her ear, saying she’s ‘an official part of the family for life’. MGK has an identical tattoo.

This marked the first time Sophie had toured with a musical act, and the musician said it was an important part of shaking off any claims she was merely a ‘bedroom guitarist.’

She said: ‘I’ve always been pretty open about my struggles with performance anxiety and imposter syndrome.

‘I definitely haven’t followed the normal path most musicians take. I uploaded videos onto the internet instead of playing live in pubs and I always just felt like because of that, I wasn’t good enough. I started feeling anxious, and that held me back. This album has been me working through those things.’

In a March 2021 interview with Guitar World, Sophie revealed how she was impacted by online trolling after she posted a ‘shred’ cover of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit.

She said: ‘I took it as fun. I was jamming over a cool, well-known song and then everyone in the comments – I don’t want to blast anyone but it was shared on this Facebook page. It was crazy. ‘Kill yourself!’ All of this. ‘Kurt Cobain would shoot you!’

‘It was horrible. It was dark. That got me down for a few days, but that is when I got this epiphany where, ’I am on the internet, and I have to just deal with this.’ The next day I made a ‘shredding to Justin Bieber video‘ instead. It was a retort. You can shred over anything you want.’

The metal musician, 27, hit back at the ‘merciless’ and ‘disrespectful’ rumors in a statement provided by her management team to Page Six 

With her incredible guitar skills and glamorous looks, the star has amassed a huge social media following, boasting 815,000 subscribers on YouTube

Sophie is currently working on her debut solo album, Imposter Syndrome, alongside her touring commitments with MGK. She previously released Delusions EP in 2018

Sophie has received more online abuse in recent days over rumours about her relationship with MGM, leading to her management team issuing a statement to Page Six.

‘Sophie Lloyd is a professional, accomplished musician who has been needlessly dragged into the media based off of meritless accusations made by social media,’ the statement read.

‘Any suggestion that she has ever acted in an unprofessional manner or stepped out of her relationship are untrue. It’s disrespectful to her as a female artist.’

Sophie is currently working on her debut solo album, Imposter Syndrome, alongside her touring commitments with MGK. She previously released Delusions EP in 2018.

She said of her aspirations: ‘I think a few of my music-based dreams would be making a collaborative album with artists that I’ve always looked up to, such as Slash, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai etc…

‘I’d also love to do some kind of tour where I go around to different primary/secondary schools and do a masterclass to encourage younger, especially girls, to pick up the guitar. And finally I’d like to have my own custom line of guitars with a company that people can buy.

‘I’ve gone on to meet so many amazing people and gone on to do things I only dreamed of. The fact that this is my career is still mind blowing to me.’

In November 2022, she released Iron Maiden inspired single, Do Or Die, featuring Inglorious rocker Nathan James.

‘Do Or Die’ is inspired by Iron Maiden and features vocals from Nathan James of hard rock band Inglorious. ‘

Sophie’s status as a guitar influencer has led her to collaborate with brands including LiveNation, Harley Davidson and Amazon Prime, as well as performing at Paris Fashion Week

Fans of MGK have flooded Sophie’s Instagram with rude comments accusing her of ‘home wrecking’ and comparing her and Megan’s appearances

Sophie’s status as a guitar influencer has led her to collaborate with brands including LiveNation, Harley Davidson and Amazon Prime, as well as performing at Paris Fashion Week.

She has also performed alongside the Bloody Valentine hitmaker at several events and festivals.

Most recently, she played guitar with MGK on Saturday, February 11 at Drake’s star-studded Super Bowl party in Arizona, which was also attended by Megan.

The split rumors surrounding Megan and MGK kicked off over the weekend after the actress shared a cryptic post about ‘dishonesty’ and proceeded to delete all traces of the rocker from her Instagram.

She also unfollowed MGK and went on to follow his musical nemesis, Eminem. She famously appeared as the video vixen in the music video for Eminem and Rihanna’s hit song Love The Way You Lie in 2010.

Megan – who has been in a relationship with Machine Gun Kelly since June 2020 – posted a video in which she appeared to burn a letter in a bonfire, along with a bag.

She also uploaded a very raunchy string of mirror selfies while joined by a male pal, which included the caption: ‘You can taste the dishonesty/ it’s all over your breath.’

These are lyrics from Beyoncé’s 2016 track, Pray You Catch Me, about her husband Jay Z’s own affair.

Just before deleting her page, Megan responded to a fan in the comment section of the post who speculated that ‘Sophie’ – which many presumed to be Sophie Lloyd – was possibly to blame for MGK and Megan’s alleged relationship woes.

‘He probably got with Sophie,’ the user wrote, to which Megan – who has spoken about her bisexuality in the past – jokingly replied: ‘Maybe I got with Sophie.’

Sophie Lloyd is from Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire and attended a local grammar school 

Speaking in a YouTube sit-down with Kiesel Guitars, she described how the lack of a live music scene in sleepy Henley forced her to turn to the Internet instead 

This quickly prompted fans of MGK to flood Sophie’s Instagram with rude comments accusing her of ‘home wrecking’ and comparing her and Megan’s appearances.

But many of Sophie’s 788,000 followers came to her defense by telling haters to ‘leave her alone’ and insisting she ‘has nothing to do with’ the state of Megan and MGK’s relationship.

In photos exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com, the couple looked visibly upset as they left a marriage counseling office in California on Monday.

Megan appeared emotional as she wiped her eyes with her hand while leaving the building while a pensive MGK followed closely behind.

A source claimed to PEOPLE reported earlier this week that Megan is no longer wearing her engagement ring and is currently giving MGK the cold shoulder. 

‘They haven’t officially called off the engagement but Megan took her ring off,’ the source said. ‘They have had issues in the past, but things seem pretty serious this time.’

The report did not indicate what they were arguing about.

The pair were last pictured together just hours before her shock post at Drake’s Super Bowl party in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Just six days ago, Megan shared a gushing tribute to her beau the day after the Grammys, where he had been nominated for Best Rock Album award for his record Mainstream Sellout.

The split rumors surrounding Megan and MGK kicked off over the weekend after the actress shared a cryptic post about ‘dishonesty’ and proceeded to delete all traces of the rocker from her Instagram; seen on February 5

MGK ultimately lost out to Ozzy Osbourne, but Megan praised her partner’s ‘humility and maturity’ in her lengthy tribute post.

She enthused that watching her MGK ‘become a better man is an immeasurably more satisfying experience than watching you accept an award.’

She also praised his ‘beautiful face,’ and promised to remind him of the night forever.

‘Congratulations on being in the very small percentage of artists who have received a Grammy nomination,’ Megan gushed.

‘You have handled this process with a grace and maturity that I haven’t seen from you before and I’m so proud of you.’

‘Watching you walk in humility and gratitude, watching you grow into yourself and become a better man is an immeasurably more satisfying experience than watching you accept an award.’

‘Although those will come… and this is irrelevant I guess but I will just never ever get over how beautiful your face is’

‘I hope one day you’ll see yourself the way I see you. I love you and I’ll keep this memory of you forever.’

Megan and Machine Gun Kelly began dating in June 2020 after meeting on the set of the thriller Midnight in the Switchgrass earlier that year.

It came shortly after her split from husband of 10-years, Brian Austin Green, 49.

The former couple share three children: Noah, 10, Bodhi, nine, and Journey six.

MGK proposed to Megan in January 2022.

Source: Read Full Article