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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Tina Campbell

Nicola Roberts reveals how her outlook on life has changed following Sarah Harding’s death

Nicola Roberts has opened up how her outlook on life has changed as she continues to navigate her grief following the untimely death of Girls Aloud bandmate Sarah Harding.

Harding died aged 39 on September 5 2021, following a battle with breast cancer, leaving Roberts and the other members of the group devastated.

Last year marked the first anniversary of Harding’s passing and Roberts, 37, admits it’s a date she now dreads.

Appearing on Darren Kennedy’s new podcast The Number, she explained: “We had the first anniversary of it last September, and I just know every year it’s going to be an awful day.

Nicola Roberts pictured with Sarah Harding in 2009 (Getty Images)

“[It’s] just such a prevalent day out of the year now, it was just another day before [but] now that day has an anniversary and it has a meaning, it’s a sad one.”

Reflecting on what losing her friend had taught her, she said: “Time is the most precious thing we have as human beings, it can run out at any point.

Nicola Roberts and bandmates Cheryl Tweedy and Nadine Coyle took part in a 5k Race For Life event in memory of Sarah Harding last year (PA)

“I think it would be very easy to become extremely fearful over time, when someone so young and so close to you has ran out of it and I think it’s important not to become obsessed with it because things are still happening on their own, in your own time.

“I think it’s important to still sort of go through the pace of your life as you were, and not become frantic about your time possibly coming to an end, or someone else that you love’s time possibly coming to an end. I think that is a dangerous place to be.”

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