Hannah Spearritt has recalled the moment she first fell in love with late S Club 7 bandmate Paul Cattermole.
Spearritt, 42, and Cattermole first met as child performers at the National Youth Music Theatre in London, where Spearritt described him as being “larger than life.”
As friends, they lived together in a flat in London that was converted from a corner shop, but their romantic feelings didn’t start to emerge until a group trip to the US.
The whole band moved to the States to film their sitcom, Miami 7, which ran for four seasons and was watched by 90 million users, and it was here that Spearritt remembered feeling “jealous” when Catermole was “flirting with everyone else.”
After a “drunken snog”, they began a secret romance that involved “sneaking around” for six months and leaving one another’s houses first thing in the morning.
Speaking to The Sun, Spearitt revealed what happened when they finally came clean to their other bandmates Jo O’Meara, Rachel Stevens, Tina Barrett, Jon Lee and Bradley McIntosh, saying: “Their reaction was, ‘Yeah, we knew something was happening.’
“But they were all really happy for us. Then we broke it to the management team.”
“We were loving life, we were young and we had an amazing lifestyle,” she added, further noting how their love was “honeymoon like,” and was even written into the TV show.
Despite Cattermole deciding to quit the band in 2002, which she admitted put a strain on their relationship, they continued to date – but eventually split in 2006 after five years together.
When the band reunited in 2015, they found themselves drawn to one another again and rekindled their relationship, however it was short-lived, only lasting three and a half months.
They then didn’t speak to each other for seven years, but finally made peace earlier this year when S Club 7 announced in February that they were reuniting for a 25th anniversary tour and even discussed the possibility of recording new music.
Cattermole was said to be “buzzing” about the prospect of getting on stage again, however it was announced on April 7 that he had died the day before, after being discovered in his Dorset home. He was 46.
Dorset Police has confirmed that there were no suspicious circumstances with no cause of death currently given.
While no official announcement has as yet been made, the tour is expected to still go ahead and is likely to include a tribute to Cattermole.
