Kym Marsh - 24, "horny mother of two", self-proffessed "gobby Northern lass", brassy "voice" of record-breaking chart toppers Hear'Say - is confused.
"I'm off men," she declares, all steely of gaze, during lunch with GQ. "I can't be bothered with them." Which is odd because earlier, reffering to a flammed-up fling she was reported to have enjoyed with a chap called Rich from the antiseptic boy band 5ive, she's stated firmly: "All these people I'm supposed to be having affairs with, it's like, what?. If I was getting that much sex I'd be really happy." Then, eyes downcast, top lip comically a-tremble: "The truth is I feel like a nun at the moment. I don't get to meet men because I'm just so busy."
Later still, at tea time, she will pivot suggestively in our direction and, in response to a compliment aimed at the chunky Nike trainers she's teamed with a less than enveloping pair of pants and a feather boa, pose the following question, one seductive eyebrow aloft: "Is this turning you on?" To which, of course, there can only be one answer.
As you join us however, such flirtatiousness is very much in the future: we're getting down to the nitty gritty of life as a newly minted pop star. Like her last boyfriend, who sold his story - and, says Kym a story is all it was - to the papers. "you find out who your friends are in this business. Definitely. Because people are always trying to make a fast buck off you." But for all the "shit and crap" that's been written in the tabloids, Kym happily admits: "If we opened them for a few days and we wern't in there, then we'd be really worried. Because at the end of the day, as long as they're writing about us, then it's always good." And you thoujt the girl was an amateur.
Not that she'd had much chance to come to terms with her dramatic change in fortune. "It's been such a whirlwind," she says breathlessly. "A few months ago no-one gave us a second glance, and now we're in every paper, we're on every tv show. People scream our names when we walk out of tv stations. And then we'll do signings and people start crying, breaking down in tears and shaking in front of you. That's when it's bizarre."
Her story may be familiar to millions, but it's worth repeating. A matter of months ago, Kym was bringing up two children on her own, on benefit, in a rented house on the outskirts of Wigan. "I was surviving on about £100 a week," she says of her years as a wannabe popette. "And that was to pay for bills and buy food, buy them shoes and nappies." Not much left for personal papmering, then? "No, before I did this I can't remember the last time I bought myself something new, because every bit of money I had, I had to spend on the children. We were always having to make do."
Now she's one of the most recognisable faces in in the biggest pop band in Britain, taking career advice from Robbie Williams ("He came up to us after we were booed at the Brits. He was like: "Don't worry about them, they're idiots, Do it for the fans."), receiving piggybacks from Donny Osmond ("I was so starstruck!") and hobnobbing with Steps(well it can't all be fun can it?).
Presumably, making do is not something Kym and the kids are going to have to worry about in the future. Is it true that she received £100,000 from the success of the first single? "I dunno," she says, uncharacteristically coy. "You'll have to ask my accountant But I do know we're comfortable, which is a nice feeling." Nicer, one gathers, than the Popstars experience: "We had 12 million people watching our every move for months. They've seen every mistake, and every cock-up and every tantrum and every tear, and that is pressure."
Pressure which became too much for Kym in ome infamous episode of Popstars when she came close to blows with "Nasty" Nigel Lythgoe, then LWT's machiavellion controller of entertainment, who had accused her of being overweight. "Throughout that whole show all I did was swear and complain, and it just looked like I was some big prima donna," she says. "I think that sort of hung over me a little bit, but thats the power of the edit: they cut out all the good bits and put in all the bad stuff. Every time there was someone swearing, it just had to be me: thats the character they painted. Suzy's the the little sweet, pretty one, Myleene's the sensible intelligent one and I'm the gobby one in the middle going "Come on!" At the end of the day that's how people see me. There's a sensitive side to me people don't see, but if I don't like something I'll say so. That's not because I'm a pop star now. I've always been like that."
So how long until she does a Ginger Spice and goes solo? "I'd be crazy to do that. The thought hasn't even entered my head. We know nothing lasts forever but we're going to do our best to stay around as long as possible. At least for a few years. Really, that depends on the public." A public which right now shows little sign of Hear'Say saturation. With a second sure-fire Number One out this month and a tour which kicks off on 27 August at Cardiff, Hear'Say are a phenomenom in a hurry: "Yeah, man! I can't believe it. It's gonna be wicked! I really can't wait."
Before we leave, a not of caution: "I can see," she says, "where people get carried away with all this. Because you do get special treatment and people fussig around you. But I think as long as you're aware of whats going on, then yiou can control it, and it won't become a problem."