Leona Lewis "too hard" to be upset at assault

Leona Lewis is “too hard” to let being assaulted by a fan upset her.

The singer was punched in the face by Peter Kowalcyzk at a London signing of her new book Dreams last month. Although she admits the incident left her badly shaken, she insists she quickly got over it thanks to her upbringing in the tough London area of Hackney.

She told The Sun newspaper: “I’m from Hackney, so I’m hard. I’m not going to let something like that bother me. When you grow up where I did you learn to move on. There was always some kind of craziness going on in my neighbourhood.”

Leona thinks her positive outlook has helped her get over the attack. She tries hard to see the best in people and views the attack as a one-off incident which could have happened to anyone.

“It’s horrible, no matter who you are, to be physically attacked by someone, but I’m not letting it worry me,” she said. “I know it was an isolated incident. It’s a shame it happened at all. I’m now trying to put it in the past and get over it.”

Leona, 24, took time away from her job after the assault to come to terms with it and spend time with her family and boyfriend Lou Al-Chamaa. She is now ready to return to the spotlight, but has resisted calls to surround herself with burly security guards.

She said: “I’ve tried to keep it pretty much the same. I won’t be doing a Beyonce Knowles and employing a 7ft bodyguard, although it seems to work for her!”