Claudia Winkleman's most awkward interview took an abrupt turn in 2003 when S Club 7 walked off the set of the BBC's Liquid News, after their publicist stormed into the studio to halt the conversation.
The 54-year-old presenter, best known for her 14-year stint hosting Strictly Come Dancing and for fronting The Traitors, welcomed four members of the 90s pop group - Jo O'Meara, Hannah Spearritt, Jon Lee, and Bradley McIntosh - to the daily showbiz chat show.
Financial Questions Spark Tension
Claudia steered the conversation towards financial rumours, noting that the band's manager, Simon Fuller, reportedly had a fortune of around £90 million, and asking whether the members were "grumpy" because they had not made as much money themselves.
At the time, the band had instructed lawyers to investigate why they earned "only" £400,000 each over four years, despite selling 12 million albums at the peak of their success between 1999 and 2002.
Addressing the controversy, Claudia asked: "Mr Simon Fuller has £90 million in the bank, there are rumours that you guys are grumpy because you guys haven't made mint." Lee replied "No," before Bradley and Hannah tried to dodge the question by pretending it was about an edible mint.
Publicist Interrupts and Band Leaves
Undeterred, Claudia pressed: "Are you not grumpy about it at all?" Jo diplomatically responded: "I think we are all really, really lucky to be where we are today at our age and have the bank balances that we do have."
Before Claudia could continue, the group's publicist stormed into the studio, interrupting the interview and fuming: "Can you not ask this question, please? I'm not having it." Brushing off a producer, she raged: "I've tried to stop this, and I've had to walk in here. We are going."
As the band members began leaving their seats, Claudia defended her line of questioning, saying: "It has been in the papers, and they didn't give a list [of questions that we couldn't ask]. You interview all sorts of people, and you are sometimes told, 'Actually, do you know what, don't ask this...' but they seemed fine."
