Sarah Harding has opened up about a reunion with Girls Aloud bandmates Cheryl, Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh; following her terminal advanced stage breast cancer diagnosis last summer.
Writing in her autobiography Hear Me Out, which is released Thursday 18th March, the Celebrity Big Brother winner reveals the group put past issues aside as they met up at Soho Farmhouse; watching their 2006 E4 fly-on-the-wall documentary series Girls Aloud: Off the Record to reminisce on their time in the band.
Writing in Hear Me Out, in extracts published by Glamour, Sarah details Girls Aloud's reunion at the secluded Soho Farmhouse; away from press attention.
"I arrived at Soho Farmhouse just as Nicola, Nadine and Kimberley pulled up, so actually, the reunion moment was mainly in the car park," Sarah writes.
"We all stayed in the same big house, and we had the most amazing Japanese dinner delivered in from Pen Yen, which is one of the beautiful restaurants within the farm.
"By then, I’d loosened up and started to enjoy myself. There was much reminiscing. We decided to watch all the episodes of Girls Aloud: Off the Record, which was the documentary-style behind-the-scenes TV show we’d made for E4 in 2006."
Girls Aloud - where are they now?
1 of 10Cheryl
During her time in Girls Aloud Cheryl married and divorced footballer ex-husband Ashley Cole after he cheated. Cheryl was also found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm following an altercation with a nightclub toilet attended in 2003. On a slightly lighter note (well, kind of) she threw a lot of shade when she said she "didn't think" Nicole Scherzinger would make it as a solo artist…
2 of 10Cheryl - 2020
Since her time in Girls Aloud, Chez has gone on to launch her solo career, she was a judge on The X Factor, moved onto The X Factor US but was sacked three weeks later and had a falling out with Simon Cowell. Despite texting him "f—k you. F—k the UK X Factor. F—k you all. I hate you," she returned to the show four years later. Cheryl has since become a judge on BBC's The Greatest Dancer. Chez was also an ambassador for L'Oreal and in 2020 she starred in the movie Four Kids and It.And after her divorce from Ashley, Cheryl got married to Jean-Bernard Fernandez but they split in 2016. She then dated Liam Payne and despite splitting in 2018 they're now co-parenting their son Bear Grey Payne.
3 of 10Kimberley Walsh
Kimberley was pretty unproblematic in Girls Aloud, although we can't forget when she completely backed Cheryl throwing shade at Nicole Scherzinger. Kimberley also didn't seem keen on the idea of the Pussycat Dolls star launching a solo career.
4 of 10Kimberley Walsh - 2020
Post-Girls Aloud, Kimberley climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 2009 to raise money for Comic Relief, she has presented on TV and in 2012 she starred on Strictly Come Dancing and came runner up alongside her professional partner Pasha Kovalev. She's also married her long-term partner Justin Scott and they're parents to Bobby and Cole.
5 of 10Nadine Coyle
After Girls Aloud split in 2013, Nadine made it clear that it was not her idea. "You should know by now I had no part in any of this split business. I couldn't stop them. I had the best time & want to keep going," she tweeted at the time.
6 of 10Nadine Coyle - 2020
Nadine has pretty much become a meme after the nation discovered how she says "flour" on Sunday Brunch. She launched her own solo career, took part in I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! 2019 and following a brief split from her fiancé Jason Bell they went on to have a child and tie the knot. Unfortunately they split months before she flew out to the jungle.
7 of 10Sarah Harding
Sarah was definitely the funniest of the group. Remember at the Brit Awards in 2009 when Girls Aloud won Best Single for The Promise and Sarah shouted down the microphone, "Can I just say, it's about timmmeee… I think I just wet myself." Obsessed.
8 of 10Sarah Harding - 2018
Sarah has starred on Coronation Street as Joni Preston, she won Celebrity Big Brother 2017 and in 2017 it came to light that she allegedly had an affair with Danny Dyer back in the day. She also got engaged to DJ Tom Crane but they called off their wedding and in 2011 she entered rehab for alcohol dependence and depression.
9 of 10Nicole Roberts
Remember when Matt Willis called Nicola a "rude ginger b-tch" and she hit back but writing 'I'm a rude ginger b-tch… bothered!' on her shorts? Now that's iconic.
10 of 10Nicola Roberts - 2020
Nicola has also launched her solo career and she won the first series of The Masked Singer UK.
Sarah continues, "We were all so different then; there was a sort of sweet naivety about us. I remember Cheryl in particular almost watching her old self through fingers over her eyes, mortified at some of her comments and antics. There was a difference in how the girls were then to the sophisticated women they’d since become."
Admitting she felt 'helpless' on hearing the news of Sarah's devastating diagnosis, bandmate Cheryl explains the situation has 'hit her hard.'
"The news of Sarah’s illness hit me so hard. Since that day, she’s been on my brain every waking hour – so much so that I feel like I want to be with her," Cheryl writes.
"Of course, that’s not possible. Sometimes, she and I FaceTime, she sounds strong, and we can chat away happily for hours. Other times she’s just wiped out. I suppose that’s the nature of it; it seems so unpredictable.
"Initially, I felt helpless. I struggled to find the right words to say when I spoke to her, and I didn’t know what to do or how to be."
This comes as Sarah explains that, before Christmas, her brain and lung tumours had shrunk in what she describes a 'little victory.'
In her book, she writes, "Before I put this book to bed, I wanted to share a little bit of positive news.
"MRI scans at the end of December revealed that the tumours in my brain and in my lung have shrunk a bit with the treatment."
"Right now, every little victory feels momentous"
Our thoughts are with Sarah, her friends and family at this time.