The former Girls Aloud singer is preparing to star in the West End for the first time. It’s a bold new start after years of harassment by her ex-partner
![Nicola Roberts: ‘My therapist said I was one of the most resilient people she’d ever met’](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d7a115b134891608e4bfd41c45b36189ca02b956/0_229_8369_5023/master/8369.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=56c8e81176c1be60760114bfef9d2fab)
Last year was one of the happiest of Nicola Roberts’ life. She signed off on the repossession of her home in Surrey and moved to London, close to friends, into a “gorgeous, French-style apartment, with flowers and plants everywhere and so much light,” she says, eyes widening. She had 12 months of trauma therapy, which she describes as “the best gift I ever gave myself”. And she won one of the leading roles in the West End production of the musical City of Angels, which opens in March.
We meet at a canalside bar in
London just before Christmas. “Prior to this year, I’d say I had five of the unhappiest years of my life. Just really tough emotionally,” she says. There was a long period in which an ex-boyfriend harassed and stalked her, which led to his prosecution in 2017, all of which “took a massive toll on my life”, she says. “I had a few heartbreaks along the way. I was kind of ground down.” Roberts says that just two years ago she would not merely have lacked the confidence to audition for her new role – “I actually would have been terrified for it to be in the public domain that I was going to be in the same space every night, because I was fearful for my safety”.