Whole Again: Kerry Katona rejoins Atomic Kitten for reality television show
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Your support makes all the difference.Atomic Kitten was whole again today as Kerry Katona put her troubles firmly behind her to rejoin her original bandmates for a one-off reunion TV show.
Katona, Liz McClarnon and Natasha Hamilton beamed and hugged each other at Sadler's Wells in London as they prepared for ITV's Big Reunion alongside 5ive and Liberty X.
The new show follows the pop bands from more than a decade ago as they are put through their paces during two weeks of intense rehearsals, before a one-off reunion performance.
Atomic Kitten's Hamilton said: "For us it's about coming full circle; going back to where we initially started. With Kerry being in the band, it's reliving our youth but also appreciating what we had, what we've achieved, and showing our families us now."
Katona, who left the band in 2001 after four years, said: "Believe it or not I left the Kittens, one because I was pregnant, but I didn't enjoy the fame. The girls will tell you it wasn't for me, but unfortunately fame followed me."
The Celebrity Big Brother contestant has had her turbulent personal life under the spotlight since leaving the group.
"Only in the last three years, since I've been clean, I've been able to handle it and I've been able to work with it now," she added.
The trio said the show has given them a chance to re-live their youth. Liz added: "We've been in the meetings about this show from the beginning, and it was always very exciting, the idea of it.
"When we started there used to be all those tours, all the bands would go out on the Smash Hits tour and we liked the idea of that."
Atomic Kitten formed in 1997 and had their biggest hit with Whole Again, the band's final single featuring Katona.
The show, which starts on January 31, will also feature 90s' bands B*Witched, 911 and girl group The Honeyz, as they prepare to perform again, the first time for many of them since they split.
With rehearsals now in full swing, 90s' heart throbs 5ive say they are loving every second of performing again.
Singer Ritchie Neville, who has lived in Australia for the past four years, said: "It's so funny. Even the bickering over just stupid rubbish is hilarious.
"I never thought I'd be doing this again."
The band have reformed as a quartet, after original member J Brown decided not to reform for the series.
"He doesn't want to be famous," said fellow member Scott Robinson.
Booted out in the first round of talent show The Voice last year, Sean Conlon said the show had also been a personal reunion for the group, who haven't kept in contact since their split over a decade ago.
"It's a bit like when you meet up with an ex-girlfriend and all you speak about is the past. You want to move on and you want to be in the present and find who you are, so I stopped answering the phone," the singer said.
"Everything's been in the true nature of 5ive, disjunction and function."
PA
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