Interview: Kimberley Walsh

The down-to-earth music star is looking forward to motherhood.

A mysterious thing happens before I interview Kimberley Walsh.

I tell just one person who asks what I’m working on and before I know it, I have a trail of men at my desk asking questions. Can you get a photo of Kimberley for me? Can you ask her what her favourite song is? Have you spoken to her yet I bet she was nice.

I’ve interviewed plenty of gorgeous women in this job (it’s not great for the self-esteem), but no-one has had quite the same effect as Kimberley.

But when I tell her this, she shrugs it off. Most celebrities say they never think of themselves as sexy or irresistible. Let’s face it, we always think, yeah sure you don’t. You love it! But with her I kind of believe it.

“I never think about that, I honestly don’t,” she says in her broad Bradford accent. “I actually feel I get a lot of warmth from women in my daily life, which means more to me to be honest. Sorry, men!”

She’s right. Despite the gorgeous face, the run-your-hands-through-me hair and the killer curves, she’s a girls’ girl.

“Ooh, yeah, I get women coming up to me all the time. Me and Cheryl [Cole] seem to be the same. I think people know that we’re not threatening women at all. We’ve got morals. We don’t give off a bad vibe because it’s not who we are.

“I think people know that’s not us. So women will come up to me and say ‘oh my boyfriend wants me to get a picture of you. I wouldn’t normally do this but I don’t mind because it’s you’. That’s a massive compliment.”

She’s having a baby with boyfriend Justin Scott, a former member of boyband Triple 8, and is blooming beautiful with it, one of these women who actually glows. “Aah, thank you. I’m fine now. I’m over the tiredness and quite enjoying it. I did have a scare because I fell and broke my wrist. Instinct kicked in and I was so worried about the baby, I put my hand out to protect my tummy. I was so glad to get the reassurance that everything is OK.”

Kimberley looks great and you just know she will throughout her pregnancy. But is she going to be one of these amazing but annoying women that pings back into shape the minute the baby is born? It’s practically the law for celebrities these days. Think Victoria Beckham, Myleene Klass and even the Duchess of Cambridge, whose celebrated ‘mummy tummy’ seems to have disappeared into thin air.

“Haha! I doubt that to be honest with you. I’m not like that now, I have to work at it, so I don’t see it being any different after I have the baby,” she laughs.

Part of me is glad. I feel sorry for ‘normal’ mums today, who have to put up with endless celebrities effortlessly slipping back into skinny jeans.

“That’s a fair point,” she says. “My older sister has had two kids. So we’ve got one two and a half year old in the family and one six months old. And she’s actually said to me, I can’t believe Holly Willoughby or whoever looks so good. I said to her ‘look, calm down, it’s fine, all these people will have had help’. It’s important for people to realise that.”

I’m speaking to Kimberley, 32, today because she’s been chosen as the face of the Spectacle Wearer of the Year competition. Changed days. When I was younger, we were brought up thinking men didn’t make passes at girls who wear glasses.

“You’re so right. Even when I was at school wearing glasses had a stigma to them. It was never going to get you a date at the school disco, was it?” she hoots. “But I love the way people are wearing them as part of their whole look now. It’s that whole geek chic thing.”

Of course, it helps if you look like Kimberley in the first place. She looks amazing, but she’s not just a pretty face. There was a time during her Girls Aloud days when she practically ran the show and was both secretary and director of the band’s official company. She’s widely credited with helping to make them the huge success that they became.

Kimberley’s admits all this meant she became a bit of a bossy boots so I wonder what she makes of the celeb campaign to ban the word ‘bossy’ for girls, supported by the likes of Beyonce.

“Ha-ha-ha, well Sarah [Harding, her former bandmate] said to me I would be a bossy mum, which is funny. But I’m not surprised she said that, because I probably did boss her around in the group. She needed it she was a nightmare, but she was funny! I’ve always been strong willed and know what I want, but as you get older, you learn to listen to other people.”

She seems pretty down to earth and ‘normal’, not really starry at all. Does she think being a Northern lass has helped?

“Maybe. I think people think I might look all right. But then they hear me and think, well, she sounds friendly. And my sisters, Sally and Amy, and brother Adam help. I’m sure they sometimes think ‘oh for goodness’ sake, she’s not that good’. I can go out unrecognised if I want to. I get stopped occasionally but you’d be amazed. People just ignore me because they’ve got their own lives to get on with.”

She’s still great mates with former bandmates Cheryl Cole and Nicola Roberts, but says her best friend is someone she’s known much longer.

“I’ve known Alix since I was five and we went through three schools together,she says. “With Alix it’s on a different level because she knew me before all THIS happened.”

“She’s just become a mum, too, so we’ve got lots to talk about.”

Spare time is spent with friends or her sisters and nephews. “I said I might have been bossy. But with my nephews I’m just a total pushover. I’ll probably be that kind of mum!”