Chantelle Barry

Chantelle Barry (born 18 March 1980) is an Australian musician and actress from Perth, best known for being in the original line-up of girl group Bardot before leaving the group suddenly under controversial circumstances.

In 1999, Barry auditioned for the first series of the Australian version of Popstars, competing against over 2,500 hopefuls who turned up to auditions around the country which required both singing and dancing experience. After a series of elimination rounds Barry, along with Belinda Chapple, Sophie Monk, Sally Polihronas and Katie Underwood were chosen to form a group and moved in together in Sydney to work on their debut single “Poison”.

However after only a few weeks Barry was asked to resign from the nascent, still-unnamed girl group after stealing money from Sophie Monk, but the reason for her departure was not revealed at the time.[1] She first confirmed the circumstances around her departure in a 2006 appearance on the TV show Where Are They Now?, and further elaborated on the incident in later interviews.[2][3] Barry states that she had taken Monk’s weekly $100 money allowance from an envelope left in Barry’s room with the intention of giving it back to her, but forgot to do so and was therefore removed from the group. Subsequently she was paid $1000 and offered a solo record deal to leave the group and to stay silent on the matter at the time, leading to the widespread speculation over her firing.[3] She blamed the incident on her youth and naivety, and felt burdened by it for years afterwards.[2][3] She was replaced by Tiffani Wood in the final line-up of what would become Bardot. Polihronas would later state that Barry was “exploited” by the show and made out to be “the villain”