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
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”.