What Happened to Michelle McManus?

(Image/ Source: bbc.co.uk)

We absolutely loved Michelle McManus when she appeared on Pop Idol all those years ago.

After bagging herself a £1 million pound recording contract when she won the show, it seemed like Michelle’s future would be very bright indeed.

While she might not do much singing these days, the star seems to be enjoying a varied career with her new hubby by her side.

Let’s have a look at what she’s been up to…

Pop Idol Fallout

After being dropped by her record company, Michelle McManus weighed more than 20 stone at the time, and said her success came too early for her to be accepted for her voice alone.

According to the Daily Record, the singer said:

“It wasn’t the right time in 2003, that kind of plus-size acceptance and revolution wasn’t to come until much later on.

I remember back then thinking ‘This doesn’t feel right’.

“When they said ‘We’re going to drop you’ it was devastating. I didn’t know how to tell my family.”

Michelle then returned to her native Scotland after her singing work dried up in London.

(Image/ Source: planetradio.co.uk)

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Michelle McManus: Career

A few years after her time on Pop Idol, Michelle started picking up TV work. She made appearances on Loose Women, while performing in UK-wide tours of The Vagina Monologues.

Here the star started to see her career soar. Michelle McManus joined the cast of the West End’s Discotivity, toured Asia in the production of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, and bagged herself a spot on STV. Go Michelle!

As if all of that wasn’t enough, the Pop Idol star has also taken to radio presenting- and it seems like she’s doing fairly well so far.

Michelle McManus started off by hosting her own Saturday show on Scottish radio station Clyde 1 , and was then picked up by the BBC to host two series of Let’s Do The Show Right Here.

And last year Michelle joined BBC Radio Scotland to present the show Our Lives- a programme of stories that reflect contemporary Scotland.

Every week she spends time chatting with guests from all walks of life, including breast milk donors, comedians and naturists. That’s quite a variety!

(Image/ Source: bbc.co.uk)

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But would the singer ever be tempted by TV talent shows again?

Speaking on the Russelled Up podcast, she said:

“You would need to want to be famous really bad to go and do a show like that now but I never wanted to be famous. All I wanted to be was a singer.. thank God I did it at a time when Twitter and Facebook weren’t a thing.

I wouldn’t do it now. I don’t want to be famous that bad.”

Married Life

While Michelle’s career has gone from strength to strength over the years, it seems like her love life has too!

Boyfriend Jeff Nimmo popped to question to Michelle McManus during a break to the Canary Islands- and the former pop star said she could “literally burst with happiness”.

After their two- year romance, the couple married in 2017 in a gorgeous ceremony in Mallaig, Lochaber, with their friends and family by their side.