Kimberley Walsh says dealing with Girls Aloud bandmate Sarah Harding’s death has ‘been really tough’

Girls Aloud star Sarah Harding died in September 2021, aged 39

Kimberley Walsh has spoken out about the death of former Girls Aloud bandmate Sarah Harding and how she remembers her today.

Harding died in September 2021, aged 39, following a diagnosis of breast cancer the year before. Though she frequently appeared on competition and reality TV shows, such as Celebrity Big Brother and Celebrity Masterchef, Harding was best known for being one of the five members of pop group Girls Aloud, along with Walsh.

Appearing on Sky News on Wednesday (2 February), Walsh admitted that things had been “really, really tough” since her former bandmate and friend’s death.

“Obviously it’s been a really really tough year, tough for all of us,” she told presenter Kay Burley.

“We just take it day by day, that’s all you can really do. I think everyone’s got to deal with grief in their own way. It has been really really tough.”

(L-R): Sarah Harding, Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts, Cheryl Cole and Kimberley Walsh in 2012 (Getty Images)

Walsh has been one of the most vocal bandmates about the loss of Harding; in December 2021, she told Psychologies magazine that coping with the grief of the situation was a “daily challenge” that she didn’t feel she could anticipate before the time came.

She explained: ”Until you’re actually experiencing something like this with somebody who was close to you, it’s impossible to imagine what it’s going to feel like. And I honestly still can’t work out how you ever truly accept it.”

The remaining band members, Nicola Roberts, Nadine Coyle and Cheryl Cole, have each paid tribute to Harding in social media posts, soon after her death and on 17 November 2021, which would have been her 40th birthday.