The Pussycat Dolls are back for the first time in years, but their much-discussed reunion has sparked a flurry of drama that has dredged up old feuds and spawned at least one painfully cringe viral moment.
IYCMI, three original members of the aughties girl group — Nicole Scherzinger, Ashley Roberts and Kimberly Wyatt — announced earlier this month that they’d be returning to the stage for the Pussycat Dolls Forever tour. Great news! Well, at first…
Fans will note that the trio is only half of the original Pussycat Dolls lineup, with additional members Carmit Bachar, Jessica Sutta, and Melody Thornton not mentioned anywhere when news of the reunion dropped.
This exclusion set the groundwork for inevitable drama. Get caught up on WTF is going on with the Pussycat Dolls’ reunion below, from *that* Nicole clip doing the rounds to the “cash grab” allegations from a certain disgruntled bandmate.
Carmit said she was “never contacted” about the reunion plans
On the initial press run for their reunion, the Pussycat trio only vaguely addressed the fact that three core members were missing from the new lineup. “People are in different places in their lives, some of the other people have different commitments and priorities, but this worked out for us,” Nicole told the BBC.
While they tried to preemptively put the kibosh on any feud chatter, Carmit dashed those plans with a pointed Instagram Post just days after the reunion announcement, claiming she wasn’t contacted by anyone about why she was left out.
“In light of recent developments, I feel it is important to speak honestly and respectfully”, Carmit wrote. “I was not contacted regarding the group’s decision to move forward, and I learned of these plans at the same time as the public.”
Carmit said she “would have appreciated direct communication” about the reunion plans before they hit the press given her “history with the band” and her role in its foundation.
Still, Carmit remains “proud” of how she shaped the band, and said she addressed the situation “to honour the truth and the fans who have supported us”.
Fellow excluded OG member Jessica (more on her later) was among those to praise Carmit in the comments, calling her an “icon” and saying fans “who know the true history will never forget that”.
Carmit and Jessica were included in the group’s short-lived reunion in 2019 alongside Nicole, Ashley and Kimberly and there were plans to embark on a world tour before the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to be postponed — and eventually cancelled.
Nicole froze when asked about the beef
After Carmit’s call-out, the reunited trio appeared on the Today Show, where they were (predictably) asked about Carmit’s post. What happened next was the stuff of pure meme fodder, as Nicole, visibly frozen, barely managed to fumble her way through a reply.
“Well, I mean… listen, we are just… we are so… as women today…” Nicole said. She was thankfully saved by Kimberly, who whipped out a PR-ready response about the group always having an “ever-changing lineup” and the trio being in a state of “repairing”.
“I think ultimately we’ve gotta protect our peace and when something like The Pussycat Dolls has history, we have ruptured in the past and right now we are repairing and we’re sort of on the same page with that,” Kimberly said.
I think she should give some media training expertise to Nicole, because how did she not expect that question to be asked.
Jessica Sutta claimed she was excluded because she’s “aligned with MAGA”
Yet another spanner was thrown in the works when Jessica, another founding Pussycat Doll, unleashed on the reunion announcement and claimed she wasn’t included due to her support of US Health Secretary RFK Jr. and the broader MAGA movement.
“I was a liability. I align with Bobby Kennedy, which is aligning with MAGA,” Jessica said on The Mavericks Approach podcast.
“People are screaming at me, ‘You’re MAGA, you’re MAGA.’ Yeah, I am,” she said. “I triple down on it because I’m like, I’m so sick of people telling me who I should be,” she added.
Elaborating on Carmit’s sentiment, Jessica also spilled that “none” of the OGs were contacted or “told anything” ahead of the reunion news. “In fact, we were blindsided,” Jessica said, before revealing she did eventually get a phone call from Nicole.
“I don’t plan to call her back,” Jessica quipped. Sheesh!
The MAGA mess called to mind a similar situation endured by Nicole in 2024, when she was forced to apologise after praising some MAGA-adjacent merch worn by Russell Brand.
“I deeply apologise for the hurt caused by my recent engagement with some social media posts,” Nicole wrote on Instagram, claiming she mistakenly thought Russell’s hat — which read “Make Jesus First Again” — was not aligned with MAGA, but was “about encouraging people to choose love and faith”.
“I made the mistake of not realising this could be easily interpreted as being politically related and I apologise to anyone who understandably reached that conclusion,” Nicole said.
Despite the tumultuous journey to get there, Nicole, Ashley and Kimberly are moving forward with their Pussycat Dolls reunion tour, which kicks off in June and will take the trio to shows in North America, Europe and the UK.
It remains to be seen whether they’ll encounter anymore bumps in the road (Melody, the last remaining OG, has not yet responded to the reunion), but I imagine the first live performance of “Buttons” will make it all worth it.
Lead images: Instagram and X
The post Unpacking The Hot Mess That Is The Pussycat Dolls Reunion, From MAGA Allegations To On-Air Slip-Ups appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
