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Kimberley Walsh has revealed that she hid her pregnancy from Girls Aloud band member Sarah Harding because she didn’t want to cause the singer any more “pain” amid her terminal cancer battle.
The 40-year-old singer became pregnant with her third child in September 2020, a month after Sarah revealed she was battling ‘advanced’ breast cancer – with the chemotherapy that “kills any chance” of starting a family naturally.
Tragically, Sarah died in September 2021 at the age of 39 without realizing her dream of becoming a mother.
Speaking on Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s podcast, Spinning platesKimberley broke down in tears when she shared her guilt about getting pregnant while Sarah was battling cancer.
Heartbreaking: Kimberley Walsh revealed she hid her pregnancy from Girls Aloud bandmate Sarah Harding because she didn’t want to cause the singer more ‘pain’
Kimberley – who is mother to Bobby, six, Cole, four and 15-month-old Nate – said: “It was in some ways the most horrific time for me personally because shortly after I think I found out she was bad, she was I was pregnant and I almost didn’t want to tell her.
I get really emotional about this. In reality, I kind of knew she wasn’t going to have kids – she won’t be able to – and she always asked me about the boys.
“And I didn’t tell her for a while. And I knew it was weird because I thought, “I should call her and tell her, like it’s great news.”
“And I just figured it out and I think I thought, ‘No, I can’t tell her right now.'”
Gone too soon: Tragically, Sarah died in September 2021 at the age of 39 without fulfilling her dream of becoming a mother (pictured in 2009)
But Sarah discovered the news of her own accord, with Kimberley laughing as she recalled: “And Sarah, who was Sarah, just called me up and she said, ‘Ah, I just saw you have another one, are you okay? “
“And I was like, ‘Yeah, I know I’m sorry,’ and I was so ashamed that I didn’t call her, but I couldn’t bear to give her another moment of pain.
“But she was just wonderful. She said: “My mom just saw a picture of you, I can’t believe you’re pregnant again”.
“So I face-timed her. We had a long chat and I felt so much better.
“She was incredibly strong. It just blew me away because honestly in the band I don’t know if I really saw the strength the same way I saw all her vulnerability and all the other sides of her.
“And I don’t know if I ever gave her credit for the strength she had, because when it really came down to it, it was breathtaking.”
Family: Kimberley is mother to Bobby, six, Cole, four and 15-month-old Nate
The pair spoke together about Sarah’s fertility issues, with Kimberley revealing: “She was amazing and she talked to me about that – about not having kids and we were very honest about it.
“When she finally came down and met the baby and spent some time with the boys, she really loved it and asked all these questions. It broke me completely. But I’m so, so thankful that I had that time and the kids had that time.
“When I talk about her, they know exactly. They saw a lot more of poor Sarah because of the timing, but kids just take it at first glance. They’re like “That’s the crazy Sarah you’re telling me about”.
Kimberley went on to note that her newborn son Nate “saved the day” at Sarah’s funeral while offering “hope” to the grieving guests.
She said, ‘I took the baby to the wake, not the funeral, I was still breastfeeding, I thought ‘I can’t leave him’. But they all said the fact that he was there saved the day for them a little bit.
“They were like, ‘We just needed it so much’. He was literally like a package that gave everyone that little bit of hope.’
In her autobiography Hear Me Out, Sarah revealed she cried because she never had children — calling her divorce from ex-fiancée Tom Crane “one of the biggest mistakes of my life.”
Band members: Sarah rose to fame in Girls Aloud with Cheryl, Nicola Roberts, Nadine Coyle and Kimberley (pictured in 2007)
In her book, Sarah explained how she had the emotional realization that she would never become a mother during a telephone conversation with former bandmate Cheryl.
She wrote: ‘I said we never thought of Nadine’ [Coyle] would be the first of us to have a child, and now three of them have children.
“It may seem strange to worry that I don’t have children when I don’t even know how much of a life I have left, but it’s there.
“The truth is, even if my prognosis was better, it still wouldn’t be on the cards because of all the chemotherapy I’ve had.
“That treatment, harsh as it is, will have wiped out any chance I’d had. It makes me cry just thinking about it.’
If you have been affected by this story, please call Macmillan Cancer Support on 0808 808 00 00
Candid: In her autobiography Hear Me Out, Sarah revealed that she cried because she never had children (pictured in 2018)