🎶 2022-03-26 13:00:00 – Paris/France.
Nicola Roberts and her sister Frankie in 1995 and 2022Nicola Roberts and her sister Frankie in 1995 and 2022. Later photograph: Simon Webb/The Guardian. Styling: Georgia Nash. Archive photography: Courtesy of Nicola Roberts
Born in Stamford, Lincolnshire in 1985, Nicola Roberts is the oldest of four children and the youngest member of Girls Aloud. Rising to fame at 16 as a contestant on the TV show Popstars: The Rivals, she and the band went on to score some of the biggest hits of the 2000s, with 21 Top 10 and four No. 1 singles. released an acclaimed solo album, Cinderella's Eyes in 2011, and performed in London's West End and wrote songs for other artists. Roberts supports the Recycle Your Electricals campaign.
Frankie (left)
This was taken at our aunt and uncle's wedding. Nicola and I were pretty showy when we were kids; we liked the attention. But when it came to family events, we wanted to get dressed up and then go home – do whatever we wanted. That's why we look so well done.
Nicola and I were inseparable growing up. When our brothers arrived, we were like mother hens – we had to change nappies and give them bottles. We'd be silly too – at mealtimes we'd pretend we were in a restaurant and host our own TV shows.
Although Nicola and I never really had a fight, we fought a lot when we were kids. Rage ball fights. There would be accessories involved: pans, frames, sockets, vacuum cleaners – hot water was a thing at one time. Nicola was vindictive with that. One time we had a fight, probably about something stupid like me moving her Pot Noodle, and instead of having me right away, she bided her time. She said she would wash my hair before I went to bed and when it was time to do it she scalded me.
Nicola made her world normal for me, even though she was on TV. Fame has become just another version of our life together
I was 13 when she signed up for Popstars: The Rivals. We were just these little kids who lived in the northwest – and I didn't really understand what was going on. Our family was at a holiday camp in Devon when Nicola had to go to the auditions. Every day Dad hung up the phone and said, “She made it! and I was like, “Oh great,” not knowing how important that was. We would take trips to London, 14 of us in a minibus, watch her perform, then I would drive home the next day, hanging out with my friends on the street.
Although our local community supported her – there were banners on roundabouts saying “Vote Nicola” – the older girls I met were jealous of her and mean to me. There were pockets of real resentment. I tried to fight them and I always knew how to defend myself, even though they were six years older. They weren't going to do anything.
Whenever Nicola and I spent time together, we always did fun new things. She made her world normal for me, even though she was on TV. I loved going to photo shoots with her or going shopping and thinking, "I'm going to buy all these things I don't need!" Fame became just another version of our life together.
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That said, it's hard to have a sister in the public domain. I was so young when Nicola was the subject of a lot of criticism in the press, the kind of things you should never say about someone, especially not a teenager. Looking back, it's really hard to know that someone you love, someone so beautiful, might have been viewed negatively.
Nicola and I were close then, but we're fiercely close now. She doesn't even have to speak and I'll know what she's thinking or what she might need. It's us against the world – but it's always been that way.
Nicolas
We are from a fairly large family. My mother is one of six, my father is one of four and they all had four or five children each, so we were always at weddings, communions and baptisms. This was before the days of straightening irons, so the night before we would have put our hair in cotton cloths. We would wake up with curls, get dressed, go to the wedding and be bored while mom took her 500th picture of the day.
Until the age of nine, my family lived in a municipal housing estate in Runcorn called Halton Brook. It was a close-knit community and you stayed on your estate a lot, with your local chip shop, your church, your Catholic school. I was a tomboy and I went out with all the boys on my bike. Then we moved into a house and I spent a lot of time in my room, feeling quite lonely. Frankie loved it, though.
It made no difference that I was the eldest of four at home – it was a small pond and it was a huge ocean
We used to have bunk beds, I was upstairs and she was downstairs, and we could talk to each other using just “mmm” sounds. In terms of physical strength and sassiness, we were a total match, which is why we fought so hard. It was a nightmare for our parents. Mom was trying to yell at us and we were laughing. Dad would come home and berate us for making fun of Mom and we would make fun of him too. We were little cows.
I didn't initially make it into the final 10 of Popstars, so I went home. Then the producers asked me to talk about another ITV show and they told me I was going to the house [to live with the rest of Girls Aloud] live on air. It was such a whirlwind that I didn't have time to prepare. I went to London one day and never came back. I was too naive to know what it even meant to leave home.
There were certain moments in Girls Aloud where I was having a bad time with the media, and as a result, I never had a chance to get caught up in it all - I was always grounded in whatever was going on. . Some of the other girls had the luxury of being celebrated so much that they could thrive in a way that shaped them for the long haul. They seemed to have a lot more life skills than me too. I was from a small town, had done my GCSEs and auditioned for the band, so the only conversations I ever had were with my school friends, teachers and family. I didn't quite know how to talk to people.
One of the girls had to show me how to dry my hair and she had to buy me tampons and sanitary napkins because I had never bought them myself. It didn't matter that I was the eldest of four children at home – it was a small pond and it was a huge ocean. I liked it a lot, so I was happy that the girls took care of me like sisters. It's horrible to have lost Sarah [Harding]. Every day is still a shock and completely heartbreaking.
These days, Frankie is a great sounding board. I feel like I'm a bit more of a reach for the moon type – intuitively and spiritually intelligent – whereas she's more logical and book-smart. We fill each other's gaps very well. Even now, I still feel like her older sister.
I don't have kids, I'm single, I love my friends – but Frankie is my responsibility, and that's fine.
SOURCE: Reviews News
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