H from Steps couldn't listen to music "for two years" after the group split.

H from Steps

H from Steps

The '5,6,7',8' hitmakers - who have reunited for their 20th anniversary this year - went their separate ways in 2001 after he and Claire Richards decided to form their own band, but thinks never turned out how they planned.

He said: "Steps was a melodrama - it started off amazingly and then we imploded. When you are in a band you live in a bubble and things can become exaggerated. I do have a lot of regrets about the way we split up...

"After Steps ended I couldn't listen to music for two years. Claire and I went on to record together but it never really took off. We have only succeeded in the music industry when it has been the five of us."

The real reason for Steps' break-up came out in a 2011 documentary, and though H - whose real name is Ian Watkins - admitted the discussions with himself, Claire, and their bandmates Lisa Scott-Lee, Faye Tozer and Lee Latchford-Evans, were hard to hear, it was good "therapy" for them all.

He told You magazine: "Afterwards we needed therapy, and the television documentary was our therapy. Everyone said what they felt and it was very painful, but it needed to be said. I had to face up to what was said about me. I'm a very different man to the person I was back then."

And though it was Claire and H's decision to end the band at the height of their popularity, the blonde singer admits she was still distraught with how they split.

She said: "After we split I cried for weeks. I know the decision was mine and H's, but nothing about it felt good. I hate confrontation and I felt hurt. I was completely devastated. We'd spent every single day together for four years but after we left the final show we didn't see each other again for two years. The bubble burst."

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