Five star Ritchie Neville reflected on his two-year romance with Billie Piper as he expressed his ‘regret’ at breaking her heart.
The couple met when they were teenagers, having just been thrust into the spotlight with their respective pop careers.
Reflecting on their romance, which ended in 2000 when Ritchie was unfaithful, he shared on BBC documentary, Boybands Forever: ‘Billie and I, we met backstage.
‘And it was really weird because we walked up backstage to say hello and we hugged. And it was really odd because we just stood hugging for 10 minutes.
‘Ultimately we were kids that had been thrown into a lions’ pit. We were each other’s safe place. It was very much young love in a very strange environment, in a very strange life.’
For two years the couple were love’s young dream, but it all came crashing down when Ritchie fell victim to a honey trap – being seduced by a Russian beauty while on tour in the country – who subsequently sold her story to the press.
Five star Ritchie Neville reflected on his two-year romance with Billie Piper as he expressed his ‘regret’ at breaking her heart when they were both teenagers (pictured in 2000)
Reflecting on their romance, which ended in 2000 when Ritchie was unfaithful, he shared on BBC documentary, Boybands Forever: ‘Ultimately we were kids that had been thrown into a lions’ pit’
Reflecting on when he met the temptress, Ritchie confessed it did cross his mind that it was ‘slightly odd’ but ultimately he ended up back in bed with her.
Cringing as he remembered The Sun newspaper’s headline at the time – in which Ritchie was described as taking off the beauty’s skirt with his teeth – he winced: ‘It’s almost like a porn story!’
Sharing his upset at the fallout, Ritchie, 45, continued: ‘It massively hurt somebody that I loved.
‘I regret any pain I caused but equally I was 19 you know? I made a mistake. It ended a relationship.’
Billie, 42, previously revealed how finding fame at an early age ‘suffocated her’ and that she and Ritchie would spend several days locked in her flat, turning her into a ‘recluse’.
The singer became a superstar overnight at the age of 15, when she became the youngest female artist to have a number one hit in 1998.
She told Fault magazine: ‘When you’re a pop star you’re always on duty. You’re suddenly a role model even though you don’t start out with ambitions of being a role model and also you’re a fallible mess yourself.
‘So trying to keep some resemblance of togetherness and good behavior was just shit as a teenager.
‘Mostly that you couldn’t walk anywhere without people wanting pictures and autographs and I found that so suffocating. We all did at that time.
‘I went out with Rich from Five and we used to just sit in our flat for days, if we weren’t working, and never leave. It made you really reclusive. That’s the stuff I hated.’
Billie previously revealed how finding fame at an early age ‘suffocated her’ and that she and Ritchie would spend several days locked in her flat, turning her into a ‘recluse’ (pictured in 1999)
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the documentary, Ritchie revealed the staggeringly small amount he earned during his band’s hayday, despite selling 20 million records worldwide.
The singer soared to fame when he and bandmates Scott Robinson, Sean Conlon, J Brown and Abz Love – were signed by signed by Simon Cowell and BMG/RCA for a six-album deal in 1997 but struggled to cope with the pressure of fame and their gruelling schedules.
He said the group had just ‘two days off in two years’ while starting out and were paid just £100 each a week to begin with, even after hit singles like Everybody Get Up had been released.
In one shocking moment, Ritchie claimed he even had his passport confiscated so he couldn’t go home when he fell ill on tour.
As reported by The Guardian, 5ive were touring Australia and New Zealand when he contracted chickenpox and was advised by a doctor to fly home and rest at his parents for two weeks.
Ritchie said 5ive had just ‘two days off in two years’ while starting out and were paid just £100 each a week (L-R Richie, Scott Robinson, Abz Love, Jason Brown and Sean Conlon)
Yet Ritchie claims he was told by a label representative: ‘Doctors over-exaggerate, don’t they?’.
He added: ‘In the end they wouldn’t give me my passport to fly home. [bandmate] Scott had to go in and nick my passport and just hand it to me and bundle me in a taxi at four in the morning.
‘At the time, I didn’t think that much of it. Now, that’s an encroachment of power, isn’t it really? It’s almost imprisonment.’
5ive split in 2001 and after reuniting several times over the years, the group are currently a trio formed of Ritchie, Sean and Scott.
