Nadina Coyle has vowed to ‘live her life to the fullest’ and ‘have as much fun as she can’ after losing her friend and Girls Aloud bandmate Sarah Harding.
Nadine, Cheryl, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh made up the iconic girl band alongside Sarah until her tragic death from breast cancer in 2021.
Now, in a new interview with The Mirror, Nadine, 39, has said that losing her bandmate has made her look at life differently.
She told the publication: ‘I just try to enjoy it, because Sarah really enjoyed life. She made the most of so many things. That’s really important.
‘You can worry about so much stuff that just becomes irrelevant. Hold the people close that you love and spend time having fun, as much as you can.’
Discussing Girls Aloud’s recent reunion tour, where they paid tribute to Sarah, Nadine said: ‘You could totally feel her presence, like she was right there. But when we all stood together to sing I’ll Stand By You, it was very obvious that she wasn’t. It was devastating, every single night.’
Nadina Coyle has vowed to ‘live her life to the fullest’ and ‘have as much fun as she can’ after losing her friend and Girls Aloud bandmate Sarah Harding (pictured in 2022)
Nadine, Cheryl, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh made up the iconic girl band alongside Sarah until her tragic death from breast cancer in 2021 (Nadine and Sarah together in 2004)
In November, The Girls Aloud Show: Live At The O2 viewers were left ‘sobbing’ after the show featured an ‘incredible’ tribute to late band member Sarah on what would have been her 43rd birthday.
The band reunited to tour the UK earlier last year in her memory, with their O2 show now transmitted on ITV.
The girl group performed a rendition of I’ll Stand By You set to a video of Sarah and her vocals as held hands and supported each on on stage.
Black and white footage of Sarah singing were then shown, followed by a emotional montage dedicated to the late star which read: ‘The darkest nights produce the brightest stars.’
Meanwhile, bandmate Kimberely Walsh described how ‘crazy emotional’ it was for Girls Aloud to go on the reunion tour without Sarah.
In an interview last year, Kimberley admitted that paying tribute to Sarah night after night was ‘gut-wrenching’ and that reuniting the band without her felt ‘so emotional’.
The mother-of-three even revealed that during the rehearsals for the show the group had ‘let it all out’ so that they could be strong enough to get through the live shows.
However, she added how important they all knew it was to follow Sarah’s wishes and show how she was an integral part of the band, admitting that despite it being ‘tough’ for them, they wanted to be able to honour and remember their friend.
Speaking to The Sun, she explained: ‘She wanted us to do it. She made it clear when she was here, but equally we felt it isn’t Girls Aloud without her. She’s such a mᴀssive part of it, so we wanted to keep her part of it. We’re trying to keep her spirit alive.
She told the publication: ‘I just try to enjoy it, because Sarah really enjoyed life. She made the most of so many things. That’s really important’ (Girls Aloud pictured in 2012)
Nadine added: ‘You can worry about so much stuff that just becomes irrelevant. Hold the people close that you love and spend time having fun, as much as you can’ (Sarah pictured in 2015)
In May 2024, the group returned to the stage for the first time in 11 years to go on a huge UK tour, where their late bandmate was kept as the focus throughout
Read More Nadine Coyle breaks down in tears as Girls Aloud pay a tribute to Sarah Harding on final tour date
‘There wasn’t just one moment of her, we made the whole show have a thread of her throughout. And at times we were like: “Is this actually too sad?” Because for us it felt just gut-wrenching. But then, equally, she deserved that time and for people to remember her.’
Kimberley said the end result was ‘crazy emotional’, but described hearing Sarah’s vocals in arenas as ‘epic’ and confessed celebrating their bandmate alongside the fans had ended up being a ‘cathartic’ experience for the group.
She said: ‘It’s been cathartic for all of us to have that time and to almost grieve with the fans. They’ve grown up with us. And there’s no denying that her energy was really missed on stage. But I think everybody could feel that she was still very much intertwined within the show and the band.’
Speaking to MailOnline in September, Kimberley elaborated on how painful the experience was initially.
She said: ‘Honouring Sarah was quite cathartic, it really was, as tough as the first part was, the planning – the rehearsals without her were painful.
‘But then seeing her honoured and her voice playing out in the arena again and people’s outpouring of love, seeing how happy it made her mum and all of that, it made us feel really amazing.’
Meanwhile Cheryl revealed that she misses her Girls Aloud bandmate Sarah’s ‘electric and wild side’ after her death.
Speaking in a special two-hour show for Radio 2, Cheryl said: ‘There are little moments that you would share with her individually on stage on tour.
‘Where there’s no more Sarah than in that moment and I can’t describe… like, nobody else would know her that way, other than us four.’