Girls Aloud’s Nicola Roberts Welcomes Her First Baby With Fiancé Mitch Hahn

For anyone who spent the 2000s watching Popstars: The Rivals while texting friends on a Nokia brick phone, Nicola Roberts becoming a mother feels both beautiful and deeply alarming for the ageing process.

The Girls Aloud singer has welcomed her first child with fiancé Mitch Hahn, prompting an outpouring of affection from fans who still regard the group as Britain’s finest contribution to organised pop chaos.

Roberts always occupied a fascinating role within Girls Aloud. While Cheryl became tabloid royalty and Nadine perfected accidental comedy through transatlantic interviews, Nicola quietly evolved into one of the era’s most respected creatives.

Fans online reacted with the warmth usually reserved for beloved sitcom characters. Perhaps because for many millennials, Girls Aloud never truly felt like celebrities — they felt like part of the furniture of British pop culture.

Now, another chapter begins.

Somewhere in Britain, Sound of the Underground is probably playing softly while an entire generation wonders how twenty years disappeared so quickly.