“It was just kind of like, ‘Work them to the bone until they’re passed out.'”

Nicole Scherzinger is looking back on her time with The Pussycat Dolls, calling it “overwhelming”.

While sitting down with the Sunday Times, the 45-year-old opened up about the 2000s multi-platinum-selling girl group which catapulted to fame after hits such as “Don’t Cha” hit the charts.

“So the Dolls, it was a profoundly overwhelming experience, right?” Scherzinger told the publication.

“I’m really proud of the music that the Dolls made, and I’m very proud of the little mark that we made with our group. But it was very difficult because I was really learning about myself along the way.”

“It was such a difficult time,” Scherzinger recalled to the Sunday Times, “struggling and battling your own demons and issues and always being on the road, and they never allowed sleep in our schedule.”

“It’s a lot different now,” she continued. “They have rules set in place, and, you know, it’s more of a woke community now. But it wasn’t like that when we were doing it. It was just kind of like, ‘Work them to the bone until they’re passed out.'”

The singer was just 24 when she signed on to be a part of the group, and revealed she did not “feel comfortable” in her own skin yet. However, she insisted she “didn’t feel exploited at all”.

“Maybe I didn’t love some of the clothes I was wearing, but I got to create a lot of the clothes and say, ‘No, I want to wear trousers,'” Scherzinger explained. “I wanted to look like Will.i.am and Gwen Stefani. So I got to wear clothes that I felt empowered in, and then the girls got to choose what they wanted too.”

The lead singer was recruited to the group in 2003 by founder-choreographer Robin Antin. The all girl group consisted of Scherzinger, Kimberly Wyatt, Melody Thornton, Jessica Sutta, Ashley Roberts and Carmit Bachar. They released two studio albums together, PCD and Doll Domination, which sparked eight Top 40 singles. However in 2010, the group went their separate ways and each launched their own careers.

10 years later the group reunited in 2020 when they released the single “React,” before attempting to embark on a new tour which was ultimately cancelled due to the pandemic. Scherzinger was then sued by The Pussycat Dolls founder Robin Antin over the planned reunion tour in 2021.

Nicole was accused of refusing to participate in the tour unless she is given a majority share of the take and final decision-making authority, according to the lawsuit.

However, Scherzinger’s lawyer Howard King, called Antin’s claims “ludicrous and false,” per People.