Cheryl has revealed she was given Sarah Harding's 'approval' for Girls Aloud to reunite without her, before the singer's death from terminal cancer in 2021.

Following a wealth of speculation that Girls Aloud were about to announce something big, news broke on Wednesday evening that Cheryl, together with bandmates Kimberley Walsh, Nadine Coyle and Nicola Roberts, were getting back together for a massive UK and Ireland arena tour next year, with the shows set to get going in Dublin on May 18. The Girls Aloud Show stage will see the Brit Award winning girl group back on stage for the first time in over a decade and more than 20 years since their win on Popstars: The Rivals.

Of course, one notable absentee with be Sarah, who, like the four other ladies, saw off scores of hopefuls to land a place in Girls Aloud and then see the band set a new record for the girl group with the most consecutive top 10 hits in the UK. She revealed in 2020 that she'd been diagnosed with breast cancer that her spread to other parts of her body, with her fighting the disease all the way until her death, at the age of just 39, two years ago.

READ MORE: Girls Aloud announce reunion tour including two Newcastle dates

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In autobiography Hear Me Out, which she released before her death, Sarah opened up about a night the girls spent together to talk about the good times they'd shared together and, in an interview with Heart radio on Thursday morning, Cheryl mentioned a conversation she had on Sarah, when the two women were on their own, about the possibility of Girls Aloud ever reuniting.

The Geordie star explained: "I did speak to Sarah one on one and she said to me 'I hope you four do something when I'm not here' but, in that moment, I couldn't entertain that thought. I was trying to keep her up and be like 'no, no, it'll be all of us.' In the same interview, Cheryl admitted feeling Sarah's absence that morning as she would always be the one that was "10 or 15 minutes late," whenever they were going anywhere.

Cheryl, Kimberley, Nadine and Nicola have highlighted their intentions to 'celebrate' Sarah on the tour, with Cheryl explaining: ""It's the right time to celebrate Sarah, it's the right time to celebrate the band and the right time to celebrate the fact we can still do this 21 years later. That's a big honour in a late of ways."