For the first time since quitting Young Divas in 2007, Ricki-Lee has opened up about the backstage spat that led to her departure from the girl group.
In a recent interview on the A Journey Through Aussie Pop, the singer admitted a dramatic fight with a manager spelled the end of her time in the band, comprising four former Australian Idol contestants.
“I’ve never even talked about this – this is wild,” Coulter said as she recounted the blow-up.
Young Divas was formed in 2006, initially for a one-off single and tour to promote Coulter and fellow members Paulini Curuenavuli, Kate DeAraugo and Emily Williams as solo artists.
READ MORE: Legendary ABBA guitarist Lasse Wellander dead at 70
During the group’s tour, which involved a relentless amount of performing and promoting, Coulter lost her voice.
Knowing she had to perform later that evening, she saw a doctor with hopes they’d offer a solution to allow her to perform for the night, but the advice was to take vocal rest for a week.
The star organised to speak alone with “one of the guys in charge” and upon showing him her doctor’s certificate and explaining the situation, she was met with anger rather than compassion.
“He was so enraged,” the Can’t Touch It singer explained on the podcast.
“He lost his mind. I’m a 20-year-old girl, having an adult conversation with a grown-ass man. He was yelling, screaming, and then he threw a sandwich in my face. That is so wrong!”
READ MORE: Truth behind Taylor’s shock split revealed
His dismissal of the significance of Coulter permanently damaging her voice frustrated the star enough to want to leave the group.
“That was very much the end of it for me. My voice is my career, and that’s how you’re going to react? I thought it was so embarrassing for him,” she said.
The Aussie pop star explained that upon being approached with the idea of the tour, she never would have signed up had she known what she was in for.
“It was never pitched to me as ‘Hey, do you want to join a girl group?’ I would never have said yes,” she revealed.
After Coulter, Curuenavuli, Williams and DeAraugo recorded a promotional single together, their cover of the Donna Summer classic This Time I Know It’s For Real quickly became a hit, and a girl group was born.
“It went off. Suddenly, the tour went from three dates to a million dates. Then it became, ‘Let’s capitalise on this and record an album’,” Coulter recalls.
“Every step of the way, it was very clear that I’d do the tour and then I was out. I still had a couple of albums left to deliver on my [solo] contract.”
READ MORE: Shakira begs for privacy from paparazzi after split
Coulter said that, despite having a “wonderful” experience with her band mates, she began to feel exploited.
“We were doing the AFL, the tennis, all those things … I knew how much I was getting paid for those gigs [solo] the year before, but then we were getting told that it was all for free, that they were promo,” she shared.
“That didn’t sit well with me.”
Despite her frustration, the singer confessed that despite rumours, the group themselves never had any ‘real’ issues.
“For the most part, we really got on,” she admitted.
“I just felt like I was a bit different – I have an insane work ethic and I’ll do whatever it takes to get the job done. At times, I felt like other people weren’t taking it as serious as me and weren’t as respectful of time,” she said.
“But there was no real dirt – we had so much fun, like this little travelling family. We were very much in it together.”
By June 2007, Coulter had quit the group, choosing to resume a solo career that has continued to this day.
For a daily dose of 9Honey, subscribe to our newsletter here.