Pussycat Doll Carmit on Overcoming Bullying and Being a Mom During a Pandemic

Pussycat Doll Carmit Bachar is covering Mr. Warburton magazine, and appears inside in an appropriately red-hot shoot by Rowan Daly!

She opens up to editor in chief Derek Warburton about the push and pull of being a pop star — the Dolls' reunion single "React" was a dance smash in the U.S. and around the world — while raising a daughter, talks about the bullying and other struggles she has overcome, and reveals she was almost trapped in the U.K. by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I was quarantined in my hotel room in the U.K, terrified that they would close the borders," she says. The members of her phenomenally successful girl group, recently reunited, were still promoting their new music in Europe when the virus began to spread. "I was worried for myself, our fans and especially for my family at home. We didn't know if we could get out."

Her biggest concern was her 8-year-old daughter Keala Rose. "I've never been away from my daughter that long. I have shed tears over leaving her and until now our schedule has been insane." Luckily, she was able to fly home and be with her daughter in the end.

In the interview, Bachar references her many surgeries as a child to overcome a cleft lip and palate, saying of the Dolls, "The ladies and I have all been through so much, sharing our very life-altering issues from Nicole's bulimia, Jessica's sobriety, and my lifelong struggle with my cleft. All of us together have leaned on each other and have so much respect for everything we have been through, it has made us stronger as women and performers."

But she is mostly looking to the future, when the Dolls are set to tour, possibly in October — virus willing. "No matter how dark it gets, we must remember we are the light and we have a responsibility to create in these times. It's time to level up! We have to embrace what we have. We are all in this together, as a group and in the world," Carmit says. "Whatever happens we are gonna come back stronger. We owe it to ourselves and the world."