Hear Frankie in her own words above
LOOSE Women panelist Frankie Bridge has revealed she blew her pop star fortune as a teenager and admitted: “I wish I had some of it now”.
Frankie. 35, is best known for being a singer in The Saturdays – one of the most successful girl bands to come ot of the UK.
Frankie Bridge is now a panelist on ITV’s Loose Women
Credit: Rex
She started working aged 12 in S Club Juniors – pictured here with the band on the right – and says she hasn’t got any money from those days to show for it
Credit: Getty
The band included Rochelle Hulmes, bottom centre, who is now a presenter on ITV
Credit: Getty
Frankie joined The Saturdays and were a huge success after supporting Girls Aloud on tour
Credit: Getty – Contributor
She was given access to her wages from the band when she was a teenager, and was allowed to splash the cash, admitting her parents didn’t want to restrict her because she had worked so hard.
Frankie explained how she didn’t save any money while speaking on Spencer Matthew’s Big Fish podcast.
She said: “It was tough in that I think, because parents were involved. We were so young and doing what we were doing, loving what we were doing.”
Asked what happened with her finances, she said: “I don’t have anything to show for it anymore, I think that’s one of my biggest regrets.”
Frankie continued: “I think my parents always felt that they allowed me to work from such a young age that they were unable to tell me what to use my money for and what to spend it on.
“We didn’t have loads and loads.”
Asked if she was paid, she replied: “Yeah of course, I was in control of it to a certain extent. I remember I had my own bank card. I think I only just closed it down like last week …
“They helped me to invest little bits. But at the time I had no mortgage, no bills, no nothing, I wasn’t really thinking about it. But when I look back it wasn’t as much money as I thought it was.
“It would have been nice to has some of it left.”
Frankie explained what it was like back in 2001 when she began work as a kid.
She continued: “Legally, they had a real issue with us working, and they made it very difficult and there were loads of rules, but they still taxed us on that money.
“We had chaperones, there was only a certain amount of hours you were allowed to be in front of the camera, certain days you could work, stuff like that.”
Reflecting on her transition into an adult pop star, she revealed she was signed to the Spice Girls’ manager Simon Fuller.
She said: “I had an opportunity afterwards. I was signed on my own for about a year as a solo artist and he wanted me to be the new Rachel Stevens, because she was the thing at the time.
“I felt so lost, I didn’t know what clothes I was into, what music. I was more an Avril Lavigne, a bit more emo. And that was not the style he was going for.
“So there was a year of that and we kind of made an agreement, he was like, ‘go away for a while and figure out what you want to do.’
“I was a bit gutted when that happened but I just knew that it wasn’t right, I hated all the music that they gave me.”
Frankie said it was a blessing, as she got to experience normal life working in retail and in Essex nightclub Sugar Hut.
When she turned 18 she tried to get back into the music biz but she was turned down.
She went on holiday to Zante with her mates, and during the trip she got a call to be part of another group – but initially didn’t want to join “another girlband”.
The Saturdays ended up dominating the charts with hit songs including Up, All Fired Up, Issues and many more.
They formed in 2007 after industry giant Polydor Records held open auditions to form a band.
They were then catapulted to stardom after they supported Girls Aloud for their nationwide Tangled Up tour.
In an exclusive interview with Bizarre in 2022, Una revealed she is still hoping the girl group will one day return.
However, Frankie recently revealed she’d landed a role in a huge film – confessing it’s a “bucket list moment”.
She told fans she has voiced the part of Snowdown the Goose in the upcoming Dreamworks movie The Wild Robot, which stars huge names including Lupita Nyong’o and Pedro Pascal.
