EXCLUSIVE: Jessica Sutta was left stunned after being publicly ‘humiliated’ when her Pussycat Dolls bandmates reformed as a trio, but insists she’s ‘grateful’ to not be participating in their tour
Jessica Sutta has hit out at her former Pussycat Dolls bandmates and said she’s “grateful” to not be participating in their tour. The singer and dancer was catapulted to global fame as one-sixth of the chart-dominating girl group.
Following the release of their debut single, Don’t Cha, which topped the UK charts and landed at Number 2 on the US charts, they went on to conquer the world with their catchy tracks and slick dance routines. But despite the united front the band put on, behind the scenes, the atmospher couldn’t have been more different.
To see more of the stories you love from The Mirror and to find them easily in Google, make us your preferred source. Free and easy to do, just click on the link here to find more from The Mirror at the top of your feed.
This year old tensions were brought to the surface as it was revealed that Nicole Scherzinger, Ashley Roberts and Kimberly Wyatt were reuniting the group but only as as a trio.
Jessica said: “Nicole is the main artist; you are just the background noise. I think Nicole and Ashley got what they wanted: a smaller group. They got it, and I’m happy for them.”
She added: “As much as I hate the way that they went about it, I’m grateful that I’m not there, yeah, ’cause it’s not the same show.” The singer, who has recently dropped her new single, Don’t Take Much, says she wants to be an “example” for her son, encouraging him to stand up for what he believes in.
Jessica said she didn’t realise how much she loved the band. “I had no idea until they publicly humiliated both Carmit and I, and Melody,” she said. She added: “It felt like a slap in the face. I was hearing murmurs through the grapevine, and I would not get a phone call back for months. Then [the tour] was released. I got a slew of phone calls.
“‘By the way, we’re doing this’, it was a spiritual experience for me. I didn’t realise how much I loved it. But it was a toxic relationship. Like your first love, maybe abusive, but you know they’re not right for you. Same thing with the Dolls. As much as I loved being a Doll, I loved the experience. I have nothing bad to say about it.”
During an appearance on the Today programme, Nicole, Kimberly and Ashley were asked about reuniting without informing their bandmates. Nicole replied: “Well, I mean, listen, we are so, as women today…” before she went quiet. Kimberly acknowledged it was an “ever-changing lineup”, adding the band had to “protect their peace”.
Nicole said: “But what I wanted to say is, we have so much love and respect for all of the women that have been elite Pussy legacy and once a Doll, always a Doll.”
Reflecting on her social media reaction to the tour, Jessica said: “It broke my heart and grieving and being sick, I lashed out because of the state I was in. Now, I’m more at peace. I didn’t think it was very fair to Carmit and I to do that. I thought it was very disrespectful.” Jessica also believes it was “disrespectful” towards fans of the band.
However, if her bandmates had called her first and given her a heads-up that they were reforming, she says she would have given them her blessing. “I was too sick to dance,” she said. Although Jessica is suffering from an autoimmune condition as a result of her COVID vaccine, she says she would have been unable to perform an hour-and-a-half-long, high-energy show through the dance routines.
Despite a reunion tour slated for 2020, it was later postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. In January 2022, Nicole announced that the tour was cancelled, with her bandmate learning about it on social media. Kimberly found out seconds before she was due to skate live on Dancing On Ice.
“She does whatever she wants to do,” Jessica said of Nicole. She went on to add that she would never work with Scherzinger again. But this isn’t out of jealousy; instead, Jessica praised Nicole for her singing abilities. “I respect her as an artist. I think she’s one of the best singers in the world, doesn’t matter what time of the day, that girl can sing,” she said.
However, on a business front, Jessica says she could never “put myself through that again”. “In many ways, it was abusive,” she said. She added: “The world revolved around her. The Pussycat Dolls were designed around Nicole; everyone else was replaceable. I wasn’t in a band, I was in a brand – with an R. They made it so it could go on.
“Maybe it was smart on their part, ’cause it’s somewhat successful in certain markets, not in the United States. I’m relieved it was able to on as the brand.” During her time in the Dolls, Jessica says she “knew her place”. “I loved Nicole, I respected Nicole as an artist,” she said, but says she got to “a point where I couldn’t do it anymore”. Instead, she wanted to branch off and find her own voice as a solo artist, which was “really difficult”.
“Even them reforming and moving on, it’s instilled something in me to not give up,” she commented. Looking back, Jessica says that she believed she would be close to all of her bandmates. However, these days, she’s still extremely close to Carmit. “She’s like a sister to me,” she said.
“2020 really kind of rupped the reality for me,” she says, adding: “It opened the curtains and showed me exactly who people are. It was heartbreaking. It was very much a Hollywood relationship.” When Carmit departed, Jessica says: “They made me turn my hair red. That hurt her [Carmit’s] feelings. I was under contract, I couldn’t say no to Robin Antin. What I love about Carmit is that we’re able to talk like adults, we’re able to get past things, and transmute it into a loving, beautiful relationship, and that’s what we have now. She’s a true sister.”
Reflecting on the PCD tour, which has been hit with poor sales, with fans claiming to have snapped up tickets for just £1, Jessica says it’s a “silver lining” that she “works her butt off”. “I’m so proud of myself,” she said.
Jessica added: “With the video, the Alchemy Land, to transmute everything that’s been thrown to me, into something beautiful, it’s fulfiling. I think everything that’s transpired was the way it was supposed to go, as much as that hurts to say, especially to the fans. But it was supposed to happen, I’m supposed to be a solo artist.”
Now, Jessica is fully establishing herself as a soloist – and producing and directing her music videos for her upcoming album, Sutta Pop. “I have been co-writing most of my songs for my album,” she said. Don’t Take Much was handed to her bu Micheal Warren, and she was instantly “obsessed” after penning the lyrics. “I like how laid back the vocals are,” she says, before adding that she “wasn’t born a good singer”.
“My dad told me I couldn’t sing when I was 11, so I stopped singing,” she said. However, now, Jessica has undergone vocal training and no longer cares what people think of her. Instead, she’s carving out a path for herself as the artist she wishes to be. This, she feels, is her “second chance at life” after falling ill.
“I was dancing again. I never thought that was going to happen. I was bedridden for years,” Jessica said. She says the power of God, her friends and family helped her navigate battling ill-health. The last five years for the singer have been more than heartbreaking. “I lost my mum, I lost my big brother, Pussycat Dolls is over, my grandma died, it was all of these things one after the other.”
Her husband, Mikey Marquart, and son Michael are the main driving forces behind Jessica’s continual self-pushing and perseverance, which echo throughout the lyrics of Don’t Take Much. “I love that balance of the dark and light in our lives,” she said. Jessica added that in the music video, she holds a ball of fire in her hands, symbolising “everything that’s been thrown at me in the last five years”.
She said: “I believe in my heart that I’m transmuting it into something good and powerful. So I’m alchemising whatever has been thrown at me to show people that no matter what happens in life, don’t give up, ’cause there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel.”
For her album, Sutta Pop, Jessica has been working continually with Dave Audé, who she says was one of the first people to believe in her as a singer in the Dolls’ early days. “We did really well together on the Billboard charts.” So much so that Jessica is the only member of PCD to debut on the Billboard charts with a number-one single, Show Me, in 2011.
“I’m very proud of myself; everyone doubted me,” she said. At the time, Jessica wasn’t signed to a major label; instead, she simply had a love for dance music, having grown up in Miami. Now, she says she’s seen a growth both personally and in her voice. “I’m not afraid anymore,” she said, having worked with vocal coach Andrew Byrne.
Her fans, her Suttas, she says, are like family. “They didn’t turn their backs on me when I got sick after the jab,” she says. She added: “I got very sick, I thought I was going to die. I lost 50 pounds in three months, and I still have burning in my rib cage. I didn’t want this to happen to anyone else.” Jessica says that when she shared her health story, people “left” her and isolated her.
She added: “The fact that the Suttas have not turned their backs on me, and they leaned in to listen, even though maybe they didn’t agree or they disagree or whatever, they stuck by my side, and I will never forget that. It’s been a dark couple of years, you know, grieving, grieving my health, grieving the Dolls, all of it, but they’ve never turned their backs on me, and it’s so beautiful to have that.”
Now, Jessica is performing as a fully fledged soloist with a live band, which she says is “incredible”. “I’ve levelled up with my voice, Im singing so much better than I did with the Dolls, I know technique now,” she said. She added: “When the group reformed as a three, it was such a blessing because it just put a fire inside my heart.”
Over the last five months, Jessica says she’s started to heal and feel “much better”, but experiences “lulls” in her health due to an autoimmune condition. She’s also no longer a people pleaser, having been “so easily manipulated back in the day”. “Finally, through this injury and through the experience of them reforming, I found my worth – it took me 40 years to find, that’s the biggest gift you can give yourself.”
Having sold over 55 million records worldwide, and the PCD brand raking in an estimated $250 million, although not all members saw such financial rewards, the band also inspired the next wave of girl groups, including GRL. The group, however, was hit with tragedy in 2014, when singer Simone Battle tragically died aged 25.
The group continued as a four-piece until they disbanded a year later. And earlier this year, Paula Vvan Oppen, Natasha Slayton and Emmalyn Estrada were left devastated once again, when Lauren Bennett sadly died aged 36. “The fact that we inspired anyone at all is such a gift from God,” Jessic said. She went on to add: “I feel so grateful that I um have been in this position to inspire people. G.R.L., they’re the most beautiful, sweetest girls ever, like better singers than all of us!”
“I love that female empowerment is so important, and I think that’s been kind of lost with everything that’s transpired, because what they did was not empowering at all. Maybe for them,” she said of her own former bandmates. Jessica added: “That was not a good example, in my opinion, of female empowerment.
“My true sister is Carmit. She has my back; she has not turned her back on me through everything.” However, Jessica says that Carmit is often flooded with messages, asking how she can associate with the singer who, in the past, has aligned herself with Robert F. Kennedy and MAGA views – despite not liking Donald Trump’s approach to war. “Carmit’s like, ‘I’ve known her for over 20 years, and she’s a sister to me, and she’s sick. I’m never gonna turn my back on her.'”
The Mirror has approached a spokesperson for the Pussycat Dolls and Robin Antin.
Don’t Take Much by Jessica Sutta, taken from her forthcoming album, Sutta Pop, is available now.
Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
