Natalie Jane Appleton Howlett (born May 14, 1973) is a pop singer and member of All Saints. During All Saints' five years of inactivity, she was a member of Appleton with her younger sister Nicole.

Biography

In addition to Nicole, Natalie has two older sisters, Lori and Lee. Natalie was born in Mississauga, Ontario but the family lived in Toronto, New York City, and London while the girls grew up. She attended high school in Ellenville, New York and eventually quit to sing at a Borscht Belt country club at age fifteen.^[1]

In 1983, Appleton moved to London to enlist in the Sylvia Young Theatre School. In 1986, she made a brief appearance in an episode of Grange Hill.^[2] She moved back to New York City and, in 1990, back again to Camden, England, where she met Carl Robinson (born c.1967), a stripper with The Dreamboys whom she met when seeing them perform on a night out in London when she was 17, She moved in with him three months later. On May 19, 1992, their daughter Rachel was born. She married Robinson in New York in 1993,^[3] being with him for a short period, divorcing in 1995.

Appleton's father met Melanie Blatt, with whom Nicole had attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School, and heard that Blatt was considering starting a girl group and was looking for new members. Nicole asked whether her sister could join the group as well.^[4] In 1996 both sisters joined Blatt and Shaznay Lewis in forming the band All Saints. In 2000, both Natalie and Nicole appeared in the universally panned film Honest.

All Saints split acrimoniously in 2001 amid much foment and rumour. In their five year career, the band scored a total of five #1 singles.

Natalie and Nicole formed a new band Appleton and launched their first single "Fantasy" in September 2002 which features Natalie doing a stage dive. Initially it was to be Nicole doing the stage dive, but she backed out at the last minute, and thus Natalie took her place.^[5] The album Everything's Eventual was released in early 2003 and coincided with the documentary Appleton on Appleton which gave an inside look into the life of the sisters.

On June 6, 2002 Appleton married Liam Howlett of The Prodigy. In addition to Appleton's daughter from her first marriage, the couple have one child, Ace Billy Howlett (March 2, 2004). In 2004 Appleton was a contestant on the fourth series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. While on the show she was not very successful in completing the challenges and left after one week.^[6]

All Saints reunited in early 2006 and released their third studio album titled Studio 1^[7] on November 13, 2006.^[8]

References

External links

• All Saints Official Website
• Natalie Appleton at the Internet Movie Database