Members of girl group Bardot have revealed the depth of the divide with Sophie Monk, with one former bandmate confessing they haven’t spoken in almost two decades.
Three former members of the noughties girl group – Belinda Chapple, Katie Underwood and Tiffani Wood – appeared on Seven’s The Morning Show today as part of a media blitz to mark the 20th anniversary of the release of their debut single Poison.
Inevitably, talk turned to the two band members missing from the interview, Monk and Sally Polihronas. Both have declined to take part in any 20th anniversary reunion activities.
Wood revealed she hadn’t spoken to Monk since Bardot’s sudden split in 2002 – a break-up that left she and Chapple devastated.
“Sophie … I haven't spoken to her in 18 years. As far as I know, the answer (to reuniting) is no. I don't know why. I think she is doing bigger and better things, maybe. I'm probably the wrong person to ask,” said Wood, who revealed she’s on better terms with Polihronas.
“Sally is one of my good friends. She just didn’t want to join in …. she just didn’t have the vibe. She celebrated in her own way.”
Earlier, Wood didn’t hold back when responding via Instagram to a fan who asked why Monk wasn’t involved, writing that her refusal to acknowledge the milestone had displayed “a lack of gratitude for honouring her roots. If it weren’t for Bardot she may not be in the public eye doing what she likes now.”
Underwood, who left Bardot just a year after Poison’s release, told The Morning Show she too had not heard from Monk in a long time.
“I left the group early, so it was just the four girls and the next thing I knew, (Sophie) moved to LA. It is just one of those things. She was away for 10 years. Then, I don't know. Life moves on. I tried to reach out to her via social media but … it’s hard when you have 500,000 followers; she probably didn't get my message. You know, you don't take it personally. I certainly understand what it is like to be as busy as she must be.”
In an in-depth interview with news.com.au this week, Chapple opened up about the group’s most recent efforts to reunite – plans for which Polihronas was initially on-board. “Sally has been very positive in trying to get us all back together for many years, and she came to us again recently and proposed a reunion to us, which is the reason why we all ended up on the phone together on the first place,” she said.
“We got really close to doing something as the four of us – we’d had a no from Sophie’s management – but Sally’s not interested anymore. She’s busy with family, with her two little ones.”
Speaking to news.com.au in 2018 about her time in Bardot, Underwood revealed the group had attempted to reunite without Sophie a decade ago to mark the 10th anniversary of Poison.
“It was Sally, because she’s got the best business and marketing acumen, who put together a proposal for us all to look at about how viable it was for us to reunite. We considered it, but I know for a fact that Sophie was never interested in reuniting. Perhaps that was because of the way the band broke up,” said Underwood.
Monk has been the only member of the group to forge a long-term entertainment and media career post-Bardot, appearing as the Bachelorette and hosting Love Island in recent years.
While all bar Polihronas released solo music in the wake of the band’s split, the remaining members of Bardot now work out of the spotlight: Chapple is an interior designer living in Singapore, while mum-of-six Wood runs a children’s singing school on the Gold Coast. Polihronas, the group’s most publicly reclusive member, has two children and has worked in TV production and management, while mum-of-two Underwood parlayed her love of music into a spirituality business, Katie Underwood Sound Healing.
Chapple told news.com.au this week that, while they may be down on numbers for this reunion, the reaction so far from fans had encouraged them to explore further opportunities: “We are talking... and we might do something further down the track for the fans.”
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