Nicola Roberts’ guest column

I’m the kind of person who doesn’t have a large circle of friends, because I’m quite selective about the people I surround myself with. According to new research, it takes around 50 hours to make the move from mere acquaintance to casual friend; it then takes 90 hours to go from that to a friend, and more than 200 hours before you can consider someone your close friend.

If I meet someone and we gel straight away, I know we’re going to be firm friends; but if we don’t, then I won’t force it. I am confident in my judge of character, and when I meet someone I know if they’re authentic. I am very quick to sense if something is not right.

I feel so lucky to have the best friends that I do have – my former Girls Aloud bandmates Cheryl and Kimberley Walsh being two of my closest. After everything we have shared, it is a bond that’s hard to replicate. We see each other as much as we can and we recently took our friend Beth Honan to dinner to celebrate her birthday. She worked with Girls Aloud for nine years, choreographing many of our dance routines, and we have known her for almost 15 years.

I’m helping Cheryl make her next album, so we’re getting to work together at the moment, too. I can’t wait for the new series of Love Island to start, either. Last year, me, Cheryl and Kimberley watched it together and loved it. I hope they cast it as well as they did last year.