S Club Paul Cattermole: Group’s panicked phone calls to bandmate hours before star found dead in Dorset

S Club stars have revealed that they made panicked calls to former bandmate Paul Cattermole just hours before he was found dead at his home. They said their concerns grew when he didn’t pick the phone or return any messages.

The group were reportedly informed of Paul’s death when they were in a phone call late at night. It left fellow bandmates Rachel Stevens, Jo O’Meara, Bradley McIntosh, Jon Lee, Tina Barrett and Hannah Spearitt reeling.

Jo, 44, said: “Our management called. Me and Jon were the first to hear. It was about half past nine on the Thursday night. I think I just went completely silent at first. It was awful.” Jon said: “It was like someone had punched me in the stomach.”

46-year-old Tina, said: “I was at home with my son, we were just watching TV and I picked up the call. At first I was just like, ‘This isn’t real . . . it can’t be real. You’ve made a mistake’. I still can’t believe it’s real.”

Paul was found dead at his home in Dorset back in early April aged just 46. According to a coroner’s report, the singer died of natural causes weeks after announcing he was rejoining the pop band.

Jon recalled: “We’d done a Zoom call with him, all of us, on the Monday. Then our management had messaged him a few times and it hadn’t shown that it’d been read on WhatsApp.

“So it was like, ‘Is he all right?’ But then it was like, ‘Yeah it’s Paul. You know, sometimes he doesn’t answer his phone’. Then the next day I phoned him and messaged him. Everyone was trying to get hold of him . . . and no-one could.”