Ashley Roberts, a former member of The Pussycat Dolls who has since gone on to star in several British reality shows, said she was hospitalized at the height of the group’s popularity. At one point, she thought her body was “shutting down” and she had an MRI because she feared she was having a brain aneurysm. A doctor even told her she desperately needed some rest.
“I’m not going to lie, by the end, I was breaking down. I was in the hospital,” Roberts, 40, told The Sun last week. “They thought I was having a brain aneurysm. I think it was just from going, going, going and my body was just shutting down really.”
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At the time, Roberts and the Pussycat Dolls were on tour in London. The Phoenix native insisted she fly to Germany to see a doctor immediately. “As I was walking to get the MRI because they thought I was having a brain aneurysm, my knee locked up and I got this viral arthritis so I couldn’t bend my knee,” she told The Sun. “The doctor was like, ‘I think you need to just rest.’ It’s wild.”
The Pussycat Dolls began life as a burlesque dance ensemble troupe founded by choreographer Robin Antin in 1995 before she decided to rebrand it as a girl group. In 2003, Roberts joined Nicole Scherzinger, Carmit Bachar, Jessica Sutta, Melody Thornton, and Kimberly Wyatt to record the first Pussycat Dolls singles. Their first album, PCD included the hits “Don’t Cha,” “Stickwitu,” and “Buttons.” They released one more album in 2009 but disbanded the following year. In 2019, they announced a reunion without Thornton, but the coronavirus pandemic and internal disputes forced them to cancel the tour.
“We were on the road for eight years pretty much solid, and then spat out the other end and I was like, ‘Who am I without this identity in the group?’” Roberts told The Sun of the Pussycat Dolls touring days. “I actually went and sat with this guru, I was on a journey. I was doing mantras, I was doing yoga and taking different acting classes and trying to figure out who I was and to get that passion back for the arts and creativity because I just felt burnt out.”
Outside of the Pussycat Dolls, Roberts has carved out a successful career as a U.K. reality star. She’s done stints on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, Dancing on Ice, The Jump, and Strictly Come Dancing. Roberts lives in London and is the showbusiness correspondent on the Heart Breakfast radio show. She’s also performed on stage in Waitress on the West End.
“Great things are happening over here. I’ve still got my home in LA although I think I might sell it,” Roberts recently told Jamie Laing on the Private Parts podcast. “Not because I’m not going to go back to LA, I don’t know, I just feel better over here. I like it. I miss my mom and I miss the lifestyle in LA because it’s nice to go out and go hiking in the sunshine and all that, but I don’t know. The U.K.’s been good to me.”ย
