The Wanted’s Nathan Sykes has opened up on the secret feud among the boyband members.
The group – also made up of Jay McGuinness, Max George, Siva Kaneswaran, and the late Tom Parker – formed in 2009 before splitting in 2014 to pursue solo projects.
The Wanted reformed in 2021, one year after Parker had been diagnosed with a brain tumour. He died aged 33 in 2022.
Despite enjoying runaway success with a string of hit singles and albums, behind closed doors, a feud was rumbling among the members of the group, despite hopes that their reconciliation in 2021 would heal some wounds.
Speaking to The Sun, Sykes claimed that the band’s original split came at a time when none of the members were on speaking terms.
He has also ruled out ever reuniting with the band, despite George and Kaneswaran touring together as The Wanted 2.0.
‘Looking back can be really happy, but it can be challenging as well,’ he said.
‘I think being content in where you are at in life and accepting things because they’ve happened and then navigating through them, that’s part of growing up and acknowledging things.
‘Look, everyone goes through difficult times, and everyone has challenging experiences.
‘I feel very lucky, very fortunate that I got to do the most amazing things with the band, and I have the most amazing memories.
‘If there were difficulties within that, then that’s something that I need to kind of process.’
Despite the difficulties, Sykes revealed he has an ‘amazing relationship’ with McGuinness, who was present at his wedding to partner Charlotte Burke last month.
He believes that he ‘naturally gravitated’ to the person closest to his age, pointing out that when the band started, he was 16, McGuinness was 19, and their fellow band members were 21.
Sykes said there is no bad blood from his side, continuing: ‘If I’m honest, I’m so bad with technology, I wouldn’t know how to.
‘If anyone rang me tomorrow and said, “I need a favour”, I think all of us would just be on the end of the phone.’
He described their reunion tour as a ‘healing experience’, especially because of the time the band got to spend with Parker before his tragic passing.
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‘I wouldn’t swap that time for anything,’ Sykes concluded.
The musician’s admissions come after fans noticed George and Sykes had seemingly unfollowed each other on social media, sparking feud rumours.
Sharing the details to a Reddit fan thread, @No-Sweet8458 said they had been a fan of the band since 2012, writing: ‘I remember vividly most of them unfollowing each other and specifically Max unfollowing all of them and then ofc all of them followed each other back after Tom announced his diagnosis.
‘I couldn’t help but to just check for fun to see if the boys are all following each other and couldn’t help but notice Max and Nathan unfollowed each other? I wonder if theres any beef between them.’
George has been open in recent months after the recovery from heart surgery, which saw him rushed to A&E to have a pacemaker installed after his mother noticed he had ‘turned blue’.
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