Girls Aloud may be on the cusp of a hotly anticipated - and long awaited - reunion tour, but sources are trying to damage the hype by suggesting the group could be torn apart by in-fighting.
The iconic chart topping band first burst into the spotlight back in 2002 when the members were placed together over the course of ITV talent show Popstars: The Rivals. Show judges Pete Waterman, Louis Walsh and Geri Horner whittled a huge number of hopefuls down to a final five - with Cheryl Tweedy, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh being grouped together to form the band.
The girls went on to unleash five albums together - including the chart topping record Out Of Control in 2008. But as the band continued to rise to stardom, rumours grew of in-fighting among the group - with reports suggesting Cheryl and Nadine fell out.
Next month, the band will hit the road for the first time in 11 years with The Girls Aloud Show arena tour. The show is in memory of Sarah who tragically passed away in 2021 at the age of 39 following a cancer battle. The late singer’s health battle is said to have been a factor in Cheryl, 40, and Nadine, 38, burying the hatchet, and the surviving members of the band enthusiastically announced their tour plans last November.
Now nefarious sources are suggesting old tensions are retuning within the group with a source telling The Sun: "It's no secret that Cheryl and Nadine had a fraught relationship and professional rivalry back in the day- they couldn't even agree when Girls Aloud split - so now, they're on best behaviour with the reunion. But behind the scenes a lot of the team are wary they'll clash again."
The source goes on to acknowledge that both Cheryl and Nadine have put the past behind them - but then attempts to wedge a rivalry between them. They claim: “Without all the drama of the younger years - who sings what part of what song, who is getting the most headlines - everyone is hoping they can put the past behind them. But a lot of people who know the band thought 'uh oh' when they saw how the band dressed for the tour announcement - Nadine, on purpose or not, totally upstaged Cheryl with her incredible outfit.
“Everyone is worried that when the pressure of the tour is on, tempers will fray and it'll end in disaster." The Mirror has contacted a representative of the group for comment.
Past tensions within the band were exposed back in 2013 when former manager Louis Walsh, 71, took a swipe at the ladies after struggling to work with them. He said in an interview at the time: "I didn't enjoy working with Nadine, Kimberley, Nicola, Sarah or Cheryl either. They didn't get along with each other and hated me. I found their rivalry difficult to cope with. It's hard to get them to get on well. They all pretend to get on well in public, but underneath, all they want is to be the skinniest and go out with the most famous footballer and be in the middle of pictures and all that."
The following year, Nadine hinted that there was a rift between her and her bandmates when, she claimed, they announced the band was over without consulting her. She told the Mirror at the time: "I didn’t want the band to end, it was as simple as that… "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.”
When Sarah fell ill in 2020, it put past arguments into perspective. A source previously told the MailOnline: “At that point a silly row seemed totally insignificant and the girls all started speaking again. There were reunions where there were lots of tears, laughter and more tears, but it brought the girls back together.”
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