Reeling from the crushing disappointment, Kimberley went back to work as a waitress before registering for her first year of university.
She told Fabulous’ podcast, Things I Told My Daughter with Lisa Snowdon: “I was in the competition but I got knocked out, and I decided, I said ‘I’ve just got to go back to normal’. And went back to my jobs and everything.”
Then just a week later finalist Hazel Kaneswaran was suddenly kicked out of the competition.
It turned out that Hazel, then (*************************************************************************, was 17 days too old to take part and lawyers for the show only noticed when she signed her contract for the final.
“I never lied about my age. They saw my passport but it was only when contracts were being sent to the lawyers that it became an issue,” she said at the time.
And there was more drama in store when finalist Nicola Ward quit in an apparent row over pay.
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According to the BBC, she deemed the £ 1, 615 weekly wage for the winners to be too low and was branded “too cocky” by Pete.
Years later Nicola – who ended up working as an office manager in Kent – said a controlling boyfriend had been behind her decision to quit.
She told Closer magazine in (**************************************************************: “He said, ‘it’s either me or the group, you’re going to have to make a decision because if you continue with this then I’m never going to see you and that’s it between me and you, it’s over ‘. And at the time, that was quite an ultimatum. ”
“ Obviously it was a great opportunity that I missed out on. At (****************************************************************************, I did not realize how hard it was going to be to get into the industry or how big a chance it was at the time . “
She auditioned for Pop Idol 2 butSimon Cowellsaid he couldn’t see her as a solo artist. She later joined two bands, Cookie and Cushh, who supported Girls Aloud on tour.
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Sarah, Nicola, Nadine , Kimberley and Cheryl won and went on to land the Christmas number one(Image: PA)**********************Read More
Their loss was Kimberley and Nicola’s gain with the pair reinstated before winning their place in the band and selling more than four million singles in the UK alone.
“Louis Walsh turned up and was like, there’s been a problem with one of the girls, you’re back in,” Kimberley recalled.
“And I was back in and I never came home. So it was very fast, it was very weird.”
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