Girls Aloud singer Kimberley Walsh has revealed details of her professional relationship with Louis Walsh in her new book.
"Louis has just never really been a hands-on type of manager, and back then we suffered because of it," the 31-year-old pop star said of the X Factor judge.
"He has since admitted to me he didn't know what to do with five girls and that he was a bit scared of us, but I'm not sure that's the whole truth.
"Whatever the case, his disappearing act meant we had nobody looking after us and nobody fighting our corner as far as record company decisions went.
"Louis managed the five-piece girl group when they shot to fame after winning Popstars: The Rivals in 2002 but Kimberley claims that his absence had a negative effect on the girls.
"In those days we had no-one planning our day-to-day diaries and no-one keeping us in line and organised - and very quickly it became a mess.
In her autobiography, A Whole Lot of History, which is currently being serialised by The Sun, she explained how Girls Aloud struggled due to Louis' absence in the early days.
"There seemed to be lots of hanging about and not knowing what was going on, and the main reason was that Louis seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth.
"Still, we motored on with recording our debut album. We followed that with roadshows and gigs at clubs and universities. The problem with the gigs was that we had no guidance from Louis whatsoever.
"The brunette pop star admitted that the girls committed numerous fashion faux pas back in the day. "Nobody organised hair or make-up, costumes, styling or anything like that, so consequently we looked absolutely horrendous most of the time."
"There we were, this fabulous new girl group with two top three singles under our belt, turning up in T-shirts, jeans and trainers, or whatever we happened to be wearing. "Sometimes we'd step out on stage looking like a complete hotchpotch of uncoordinated horror."
