S Club 7's Paul Cattermole claims he was forced to date bandmate Hannah Spearitt

S Club 7’s Paul Cattermole has claims he and bandmate Hannah Spearitt were pushed into a reationship by their management.

The Bring It All Back singers - who met as teenagers in the National Youth Theatre - began dating two years after the band launched in 2001 and stayed together until 2006. They dated again for several months in 2015, when all seven members of the pop group reunited for a comeback tour.

Cattermole, 42, has now told The Guardian his five-year relationship with Spearritt, 38, was written into their Hollywood 7 TV show – “and because of that, it sort of happened.”

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It was previously reported that the pair had begun dating in secret and so six months into the relationship it was written into the series. But Cattermole has now denied that was what happened.

Asked if he was forced into the relationship?, he said: “Yeah, but like I say. It didn’t feel like that because I had totally grown into the idea, quite quickly. I thought she was great.”

In 2017, Cattermole claimed Spearitt had been advised to end their relationship in order to further her career as an actress.

He told The Sun Online at the time: “I very much felt she thought she needed to ­prioritise her career.

"I’m betting she was told, 'So your current boyfriend is doing music stuff. Well, that’s great, but you really need an actor boyfriend'.

“She was much more impressionable then than she is now so I reckon if an agent told her to ditch me then she might have listened.”

He went on: "I’d gone from thinking that we were going to be together forever to being replaced by someone who looked like me.

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"It took me years to get over it and made me go to a really bad place. I think she made a decision purely based on her career.

"I still care about her and loved that girl like crazy.

"If it hadn’t been for Andrew-Lee [Potts, who she dated from 2008 to 2013] I think we’d now be three children in."

Spearrit hit back at his comments, calling them, “cringe” and “hilarious”.

Spearritt has found love with personal trainer Adam Thomas and is now mother to an eight-month-old baby girl.

Cattermole will appear on Channel 4 dating show First Dates Hotel on Thursday, where he struggles with how to tell his date about his past career.