S Club 7 star Hannah Spearritt says she and her fellow bandmates ‘may not have got what they deserved’ despite selling 10 million records.
Spearritt, 41, has recently announced she and her family have been left homeless and spent Christmas in a friend’s office after they were unable to pay £6,000 for a short-term rental property.
Spearritt - alongside Tina Barrett, Paul Cattermole, Jon Lee, Bradley McIntosh, Jo O'Meara and Rachel Stevens - enjoyed massive success in the noughties, with four UK number ones, a number one-selling album, four series of their TV own show and a handful of TV movies.
All in, the band were reported to have raked in a whopping £50 million.
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But in an interview with The Sun earlier this month, Spearritt said that despite making millions, she and the rest of the band weren’t as well-paid as people may think.
She said: “We may not have got what we deserved in comparison to how much we made.
“I won’t feel guilty for saying that, because we made millions and millions of pounds.”
The star is said to have been paid £150,000 a year for her part in the band.
In an interview with the same outlet over the weekend, she said: “We were not on a good wage compared to the money being made.
“People think we must all be millionaires but sadly it’s just not true. It was what it was and we enjoyed ourselves at the time.”
Spearritt said that she and partner Adam Thomas, and their two children, Taya, four, and Tora, three, were left with nowhere to go late last year when their landlord sold up.
Describing the rents for short-term lets as 'extortionate', the family went on to stay at a friend's house over Christmas 2022 before moving to the office.
"We just used it as our living room. We could work in there and the kids played," the singer said.
"It was extra space. The kids' beds were there and we had the crayons out. The climbing frame was up; it was fun for them.
"It was stressful but you deal with it, don't you? Especially with the kids.
"Whatever doesn’t break you, as they say."
Although they’ve had a rough few months, Spearritt and Thomas are optimistic about the future, telling the publication: “Last year was terrible but this year is going to be great.”
Looking to the future, she said they plan to move into a new family home and open their own ‘holistic’ cafe.
Claire Reid