Girls Aloud rose to astronomical fame when they won Popstars: The Rivals in 2002.
In the years that followed they achieved huge musical success and continuously hit headlines due to the ups and downs of their personal lives and relationships.
Now members Cheryl, Nadine Coyle, Nicola and Kimberley Walsh – are planning to hit the road in May and June 2024 for a reunion tour in memory of the late Sarah Harding.
And while their pop star careers have been massively successful the bandmates have been hit by their fair share of trials and tribulations over the years.
From Nicola Roberts’ stalking hell, cheating scandals, and Cheryl’s toilet attendant assault here MailOnline takes a look at the bands’ lows:
Exciting: Girls Aloud rose to astronomical fame when they won Popstars: The Rivals in 2002 and are now reuniting for a new tour
Nicole Roberts’ stalking hell
Nicola has previously revealed she underwent a year of trauma therapy as a result of the five years of hell she went through at the hands of her stalker ex-boyfriend.
The singer, 34, from Stamford, Lincolnshire, said his cyberstalking campaign left her fearing for her safety in public and made her own home feel like a ‘prison’.
She added the therapy was the ‘best gift she ever gave herself’ as it has enabled her to feel happy and confident again.
Nicola’s ex, former soldier Carl Davies, whom she met in 2007 and dated for 18 months before ending it after a series of public rows, sent her up to 3,000 messages from 35 different social media accounts, including threats to stab and burn her.
He was given a suspended 15-month prison sentence and a lifetime restraining order forbidding him from contacting her by Guildford Crown Court in Surrey in 2017.
Speaking ahead of her acting debut in the West End production of City of Angels last year, Nicola said she would have been too terrified to audition two years ago as a result of the ordeal.
She told the Guardian: ‘I was kind of ground down… I actually would have been terrified for it to be in the public domain that I was going to be in the same space every night, because I was fearful for my safety.’
Tough: Nicola has previously revealed she underwent a year of trauma therapy as a result of the five years of hell she went through at the hands of her stalker ex-boyfriend
Scary: Nicola’s ex, former soldier Carl Davies, pictured together in 2007, whom she dated for 18 months before ending it after a series of public rows, sent her up to 3,000 messages from 35 different social media accounts, including threats to stab and burn her
She added that the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision to drop the charges against Davies after he breached his restraining order by following her on Instagram was ‘extremely unfair’.
The CPS apologised for its ruling – made on the grounds there was little chance of a conviction – in 2018, but for Nicola it was ‘too late’.
‘That’s the first time in my whole life, I am extremely fortunate to say, that I ever felt [I had been done] an injustice because I was a woman… I felt genuinely begrudged, like something extremely unfair was placed upon me, because I was a woman. And it was a horrible feeling.’
In October 2021 Nicola was forced to do a mutual deal with the bank to repossess her stunning £1.25million Surrey mansion, which she bought in 2009, in exchange for clearing the mortgage so she could start afresh.
She had been trying to sell the house for years and even slashed the price to £825,000, but took the hit financially as she was so unhappy.
Nicola said she was ‘scared to be there’, telling the Guardian it was a ‘prison’. She’s since moved to French-style apartment in London and the paranoia and ‘nervous energy’ she once felt have gone.
Davies had been the star’s boyfriend at the heights of her Girls Aloud fame but the pair parted company in 2008.
He then began a cyber-stalking campaign, sending her disturbing messages containing knife and fire emojis as well as more affectionate tweets where the Afghanistan veteran declared his love to the flame-haired singer.
Nicola never replied to any of the messages; instead she meticulously copied every vile missive until, after five years, the target changed to her friend, R n’ B singer Joel Compass, which prompted her to contact the police.
Davies, from Flint in North Wales, admitted one count of stalking and another count of persistent use of public communication network to cause annoyance or inconvenience from 2012, and was handed a 15-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.
She was also granted a lifetime restraining order from the former soldier, who was subsequently banned from looking at her social media posts.
Cheryl’s toilet attendant assault
Cheryl, 40, was convicted for assaulting toilet attendant Sophie Amogbokpa at the Drink nightclub in Guildford, Surrey, in 2003.
Cheryl, then a member of the band Girls Aloud, was convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and given 120 hours of community service and a fine.
She wrote about the incident in her 2012 autobiography Cheryl: My Story.
In it, she insisted she was acting in self-defence but added: ‘As the months went on and I prepared for the trial, I started to see that it was not acceptable to have hit her under any circumstances, even in self-defence.’
In 2019 it was reported that she was seeking to prevent the media from reporting her conviction for assaulting the toilet attendant – despite writing about it in her autobiography.
The Mail on Sunday learned that lawyers acting for her had sent a legal letter to a newspaper that carried details of the nightclub attack as part of an interview with the singer.
It was understood they argued that any mention of the crime, the subsequent trial, her conviction or sentence was a breach of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.
The law is intended to ensure that those convicted of minor offences are not disproportionately penalised through references made to the crime many years later.
But media lawyers and freedom of speech campaigners criticised its attempted use by Cheryl and warned of the risks of setting a precedent that could be used by the rich and famous to airbrush their criminal past.
The legal row began when The Guardian published an interview with her, timed to coincide and promote her single Love Made Me Do It.
History: Cheryl, 40, was convicted for assaulting Sophie Amogbokpa at the Drink nightclub in Guildford, Surrey, in 2003
Incident: Cheryl, then a member of the band Girls Aloud, was convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and given 120 hours of community service and a fine (Sophie pictured)
Nadine Coyle and Cheryl feud amid band’s breakup
The relationship between the band was not always harmonious and it appeared that Nadine Coyle was not even aware of the band’s decision to split.
In 2014, the Northern Irish vocalist revealed that she was told about an impending break-up mere minutes before she was due to perform on the final date of the band’s Ten: The Hits Tour.
‘I didn’t want the band to end, it was as simple as that,’ she told The Mirror in 2014.
‘I didn’t think we were going to end – we had done all the promo saying we were all together, having a great tour, wearing Victoria’s Secret wings and stomping up and down the catwalk every night, loving every single minute of it.
‘And then, on the very last night of the tour, our management and publicist came up to me and said the girls wanted to split up the band. I was thinking, ‘What?!’
‘I was in hair and make-up, about to get into my costume, and the show was starting in 20 minutes. I was shocked.
‘I went back to my make-up lady and told her, and was like, ‘F***! I don’t have a job! What am I going to do?’ I screamed and cried on stage and off stage.’
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, the morning after the incident, Nadine said: ‘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. Xxxx’
Three days after Nadine’s tweet in 2013, an insider elaborated on what went on behind the scenes, revealing that both Nadine and Cheryl were furious with one another over how the break up unfolded.
‘It was really dramatic and there were a lot of tears. Nadine and Cheryl were both fighting their corner and nobody was prepared to budge,’ the insider told the Daily Star.
‘Nadine was saying [Cheryl] was trying to control everything.
‘But Cheryl thinks it’s nonsense. They only ever agreed to get back together for an anniversary tour and then leave it at that.’
Not good: The relationship between the band was not always harmonious and it appeared that Nadine Coyle (seen) was not even aware of the band’s decision to split
Cheryl clapback stokes raging fire
In 2017, Cheryl went public with her own grievances over the group’s split, adding fuel to the fire over their acrimonious separation.
She said that Nadine was ‘full of s***’ as she accused her of holding the band to ‘ransom’.
‘She was the one who wanted to make a solo record. Which is why we took the hiatus. She wants to come out and say we broke the band up? No! She shouldn’t tell porkie pies,’ Cheryl told Attitude magazine.
‘Okay, so do you want us to tell the truth? She wasn’t going to make another Girls Aloud record until she got a solo deal. I feel she held us to ransom and then made her solo record deal.
‘It’s the truth. She’s saying that we broke the band up. So there you go.’
Awkward: In 2017, Cheryl went public with her own grievances over the group’s split, adding fuel to the fire over their acrimonious separation (seen with Nadine in 2003)
Ashley Cole cheats on Cheryl
They were dubbed the new ‘Posh and Becks’ after they married in a lavish £1million wedding in 2006.
But four years later, Cheryl – at the time known as Mrs Cole – was left heartbroken when she discovered her ex-husband, Ashley Cole, had been cheating.
The star was made to go through her BRIT Awards 2010 performance shortly after the infidelity allegations came to light.
‘To be honest, I coped in public and crumbled in private,’ she previously candidly confessed in an interview with InStyle magazine.
She married Ashley under the glare of publicity but filed for divorce in 2010 after it was revealed the footballer had been unfaithful.
The former X Factor judge also revealed that many people who judged her for getting back with Ashley after they split have since apologised, having gone through the same thing in their own relationships.
Over: Cheryl – at the time known as Mrs Cole – was left heartbroken when she discovered her ex-husband, Ashley Cole, had been cheating in 2010
Emotions: The star was made to go through her BRIT Awards 2010 performance shortly after the infidelity allegations came to light
‘It’s funny – those who didn’t understand my actions at the time have now had that happen to them and they get it,’ she explained.
‘A friend of mine told me her husband was having an affair and she said, ‘I understand everything that must have been going through your head. But what I will never understand is how you had to face the world.’
The Girls Aloud singer previously said she was left her feeling ‘horribly numb’ and seeking medical help when her marriage to Ashley broke down.
‘I was borderline. I was walking crazyville. I had no fire in me belly. I didn’t feel passionate any more, just a bit dead. Getting out of bed was difficult,’ she told The Times Magazine in 2014.
‘I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat properly,’ she added. ‘Trying to go to sleep, and suddenly when you’re sleeping, the world gets loud.’
