Meet Kym Marsh

Plucked from obscurity on national TV and chosen to join dreadful, manufactured Popstars band Hear’say, Kym Marsh has been slated in the press, slagged off by her former bandmates, stalked by the paparazzi, had naked pictures of her splashed across all the rags and married Eastenders’ Jamie. Still, the bolshy mother of two from Wigan has proven that her backbone is made of steel and returns on 21 July with her debut solo album, Standing Tall. Minky meets Marsh and asks her 19 Questions.

1. How naïve were you when you walked into Popstars?

Nothing can prepare you for what it is. The amount of work that we had to put in as a part of Hear’say was crazy. Everyone around us knew – apart from us – that we had a limited shelf life, so we were being pushed to do everything all at once. We released our first single in March and in September we were doing our first arena tour which is ridiculous.

2. One of our members said, “I think Kym Marsh is great because she cried on national TV…” (…when Nigel Lythgoe singled out Kym on TV and told her that she had to lose weight)

(Laughs) Yeah!

3. What was going through your head when that happened?

Well, I did swear at him. I felt bad and let down by him and the TV company because when someone has suffered bulimia and has that as an Achilles heel…I mean, that was my weak point. He knew that and he attacked and exposed that. I was humiliated in front of millions of people.

4. That must have royally sucked.

I sat down and thought ‘you know what, I’m actually a stronger person than I thought I was’. I cried and blew up and whatever but at the end of the day I still got through it and walked through the door with my head held high.

5. When you left the band, the rest of Hear’say roasted you in the press. Their opinion of you was that “one day everything was fine, the next day she left.”

(Laughs ruefully). Which wasn’t true. I came out of the Popstars house and I was having a bit of a battle with my ex about the children. I couldn’t move my kids out of Wigan, and went through 12 months of having to think that I was going into a court case. I just couldn’t concentrate.

By the end of the year, the band knew what was going on. I said to them, it’s not fair to you, it’s not fair to me, it’s not fair to the children, I have to leave and I can’t carry on. And they always knew that I was going to go early the next year but maybe they didn’t believe it. And then they ended up getting really upset and angry and they took it out on me. But it’s okay. I came through it.

6. You also got a bit of stick for doing the Hear'say thing, even though you had two children.

Totally. It’s funny because when people talk about someone having children and going on to pursue a career and sometimes it gets frowned upon a little bit but I just think “why?” You’ve got more of a reason to go on and make something of your life for their sake. You need to provide a good home and family life for them.

7. But you were attacked a bit for that, weren’t you?

Yes, I was a little bit, which was a bit unfair because I was going through a lot at the same time where the children were concerned and it was a bit unfair really. But hey, that’s all in the past.

8. You must be one tough cookie.

Yeah, and it’s why we picked the album title. So often we all misjudge ourselves and we think that we’re going to crumble at the slightest catastrophe and we don’t. And we’re so much stronger than we think. But you don’t know that until it’s tested. I did think ‘god I’m a lot stronger than I thought I was’, which was a good realization. Before that, I thought I was a bit of a wilting flower…

9. And yet you still want to be in the industry? Are you mental?

It’s been my dream. So I’m not about to give up on it because of a few idiots.

11. Yeah, but you did sell the coverage of your wedding to Jack Ryder to a mag for £300,000…

Everyone says, “why did you do that? The simple answer is that I didn’t earn any money that year (laughs) and the money was there. And all my friends are like, “noooo, don’t say it was for the money” but of course it was.

12. So how did Jack woo you?

We’d met up in a few different places by accident. We met in a bar near Elstree first ‘cos that’s where Top of the Pops used to be filmed and where Eastenders is. Then I found out that he was going to be in Marbella when we were. He was on holiday and I was, like, “no way, we’re doing our video out there! How weird!” Our towns were right next door to each other so he said he’d come round and see us and we stayed up all night talking…

13. Does your dad still videotape all your performances so you can watch them?

Yeah, he does!

14. So you’re anal about stuff like that?

Yup, definitely. I’m very critical about myself and I don’t like watching myself on TV. I’m always thinking, “ooh, one eye’s bigger than the other” but I like to watch my performance to see where I can improve.

15. How did you come to the decision to carry on as a solo artist, especially after the backlash?

When I left the band I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do and I didn’t care at that point. When you’re a part of a band like Hear’say, it’s difficult to go solo, ‘cos you’ve just gotten out, you don’t really know much about business and you kind of take everyone else’s word for it, really but I’m really happy that I’m so hands on now.

16. Are you worried about how the album’s going to be received? I’d be bricking it!

Yeah! (Laughs) I’m very nervous about single releases and everything so my album release is going to be the big one.

17. You recently performed at Party in the Park and at the Summer XS festivals, where your old Popstar rival Darius also played. Is he as much of a t*t as he appears?

(Shrieking laughter) Umm, Summer XS was great. I love all those road shows…and Darius is, umm….a difficult one to work out. I think he did a really good job at coming back and reinventing himself because I think he was a bit of a victim of the Popstars’ ‘clever’ editing - as were we all. And I think he overcame that which is really great. He pouts a little but he’s a nice guy.

18. The best thing to have come out of Hear’say was that you had your own doll made.

It didn’t look like me though! I think David and Emily were quite scared by my doll; it looked like it was going to stab someone. It was a real horrible, witchy looking thing and I thought ‘is that how these people see me?’ Out of all of them I think that mine looked the least similar.

19. Did your kids play with them or use them to slap Noel around ‘cos he’s soft? I would have.

(Laughs wickedly) They’ve got a set of them each and Emily doesn’t really play with them anymore. Myleene was her favourite at one point but not now. So whatever that means… it’s nothing to do with me.

For all stuff Kym, click on www.kymmarsh.com