STEP BACK IN TIME
FORGET the Spice Girls - back in the 90s, we were nothing short of obsessed with Steps and had every piece of cringeworthy merchandise going.
Twenty-three years since the band first formed, Claire Richards, Lisa Scott-Lee, Ian “H” Watkins, Faye Tozer and Lee Latchford-Evans unveiled their sixth album What The Future Holds last month - and are starring at the Royal Variety Performance tonight.
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The Royal Variety Performance was filmed in front of a virtual audience on Sunday, November 2, but will air on ITV tonight.
While the band are back together and better than ever, the stars have spoken about how both their enormous success and gruelling schedule took their toll on their working relationship.
After shooting to fame in 1997 with their hit single 5, 6, 7, 8, and having two number 1 singles with Tragedy and Stomp, Steps sadly announced their split on Boxing Day 2001 - when Claire and H left the group together.
Here Fabulous Digital takes a look back at Steps' highs and lows - from fierce fights to marriage woes.
Claire Richards
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Steps' success changed Claire Richards' life in countless ways - not only did it turn the then 21-year-old into a star, it was also how she met her first husband Mark Webb.
However, the star admitted to cheating on Mark with her second husband Reece Hill (who worked as the band's manager) - and even romped with him backstage at Top of the Pops.
In her 2012 biography All Of Me, mum-of-two Claire, 44, wrote: "Reece and I would have sex anywhere and everywhere. We were at it like you wouldn’t believe and when I look back now you’d never think we were the same couple!
“We did it on a train once on our way to a TV show, in dressing rooms at gigs and TV shows — including Top Of The Pops, and in the car park of Hillingdon Tube Station — anywhere we could.
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“Reece had a tiny MG sports car at the time and we even managed to do it in that — afterwards I was covered in bruises from head to toe!
“We used to park the car in the next road to where my mum and dad lived, just in front of a hedge so there was no house overlooking us."
On the Sky documentary Steps Reunion in 2011, Claire claims that her relationship with her female bandmates broke down when she overheard complaints about her role as "lead" singer.
"From that moment it was not good," she says.
During her years in the band, Claire suffered with bulimia and anorexia and told Woman magazine in 2019 that she "starved herself" to cope with the stress.
She said: "I ate as little as I could possibly get away with."
After the band split, Claire's weight started to yo-yo and she got stuck in a vicious cycle of binge-eating.
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She added: "I’d look in the mirror and think, ‘I’m disgusting’, then I’d get depressed and eat another cake."
In the past 12 years, Claire has fluctuated between a size 10 and 20 - but now the band is back together, the singer has maintained her trim figure by "walking everywhere".
Admitting how she still battles with her body image, the mum said: "It’s a daily struggle. There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think about food."
Ian 'H' Watkins
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As one of the two members who instigated the band's split, Ian Watkins recently revealed that it was Robbie Williams who gave him a nudge to quit.
In an interview with , he said: "Once in Australia I didn’t stop crying – it was for days. I was having a breakdown. We were a machine. We were told where to go, what to do, what to eat – we never had any control.
"From that point we said, ‘No. Hang on, we’re human, not robots’. One time at Top of The Pops I was having another mini-breakdown. Robbie Williams said, ‘I know that face – it’s time to leave’. I remember it as plain as day. Not long after that I left."
In 2017, former Dancing On Ice contestant H had a messy split from partner Craig Ryder after a decade together and just a year after the couple had twin sons via a surrogate.
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But The Sun exclusively revealed that Ian has found love again with dancer-turned-tour-manager Tom Hope.
A friend said: “H is smitten and it’s lovely for everyone to see. He had been single for almost three years and was totally focused on his twin boys and his work."
In an interview with The Sun in 2017, H opened up about his complicated relationship with his bandmates.
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He said: “I love these guys and I hate them at the same time.
"I’ve known them for 20 years and they know I don’t mean it maliciously. They probably feel the same about me as well!"
Faye Tozer
During the band's 15-year break, Faye, 45, slipped into severe depression and has bravely spoken out about her struggle with alcohol.
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When band mates Ian ‘H’ Watkins and Claire Richards formed a duo in 2001, Faye struggled with the prospect of the fame she had dreamed of since being young, slipping away - after being "overshadowed" in interviews by her female bandmates.
Opening up about the difficult time, she said: "I got really depressed, drank too much and went into my shell."
"She was worried that the end of the band meant it was all over for her," a source told The Sun Online. "She took it really badly worrying what to do next. She thought the dream was over.”
Faye started boozing to get over the band break-up and it eventually led to the end of her first marriage.
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But in 2018, Faye turned it all around when she became a fan favourite on Strictly Come Dancing and even reached the final,
Discussing how the impact of the band's split on BBC Breakfast, Faye said: "With a lot of bands who do so much heavy work you get burned out.
"In hindsight it was the right time to finish because we left a great legacy behind us to come back."
Lisa Scott-Lee
Like bandmate Claire, Lisa Scott-Lee also met the love of her life during the height of Steps' success.
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She is married to former Hear'Say singer Johnny Shentall, who she has two children with: Jaden and Star.
In the lead-up to the band's split, it was reported that there was discontent in the band over Claire being given the best lines to sing.
In her first interview about the band's split, Lisa admitted that she was "more close to Lee and Faye" but wished H and Claire well with their solo careers.
What's more, during their 2011 documentary Steps Reunion bandmate Lisa Scott-Lee said H really got "people's backs up" when he started flying on Britney Spears' private jet rather than travelling on the bus with them between shows.
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She said: "They became such good friends that we were all on a tour bus for three months while he was on her private jet! See, and it's things like that that can create waves when you're in a pop group."
Addressing the rumours in 2011, H told The Guardian: “No one wants to sleep on a bus and I do suffer with insomnia. And Britney was so knackered she’d just sleep a lot. I was mainly chatting with her mum.”
Lee Latchford-Evans
As the band's strongest dancer, Lee was often overshadowed when it came to singing back in Steps' hey-day.
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After the band split, Lee - who had originally wanted to be a footballer - retrained as a personal trainer.
In November 2012, Lee married his long-term girlfriend Kerry-Lucy Taylor at an 18th-century mansion in Surrey.
Although he's remained tight-lipped about his time in the band, he told Talk Radio in 2017 that he was "scared" to return.
Discussing whether he regrets his involvement in Steps with , Lee said: "If it hadn’t been as successful as it was, I might have done. Our low point was when we were starting out in Germany and performed in a shopping centre.
"We were shoved into a corner beside these washing machines, then we’d come home and be in arenas."
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Steps perform their comeback single Scared of the Dark on This Morning
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