Nicola Roberts seems to have finally found happiness after confirming her engagement to semi-pro footballer Mitch Hahn. The Girls Aloud singer joined her bandmates on stage at Brighton Pride and showed the crowd a diamond on her ring finger, fuelling rumours that she is close to tying the knot.

And now a source tells OK! that Nicola, 38, who has been dating Mitch for two years, is already thinking about her wedding and wants to pay an emotional tribute to her late and much missed bandmate Sarah Harding on her special day. “Nicola is so excited about her wedding, they are both so happy and she can’t wait to start wedding planning. She wants all the Girls Aloud girls to be her bridesmaids and will pay a special tribute to Sarah during the wedding,” the source said.

Sarah died in September 2021 at the age of 39 after a battle with breast cancer. And since then, Nicola and her bandmates Cheryl, Kimberley Walsh and Nadine Coyle have kept her memory alive with numerous tributes.

The quartet were by Sarah’s side towards the end of her illness, often staying overnight and meeting up with her. Cheryl, Nicola, Kimberley and Nadine have grown closer through the devastating loss. Nicola explained last year: “I think what we went through as a fivesome was massive in itself. It bonds you in a way that you don’t have 24/7 even with your own siblings.”

“Going through something where you’ve lost a part of yourself is a whole other dimension. Life is so fragile. It’s fragile for everyone, no matter who you are or what you do.”

The group disbanded in 2013, 11 years after their rise to fame, but reunited this year with a reunion tour dedicated to Sarah – something they have since revealed was their dying wish.

Cheryl explained that Sarah had asked the girls to go on tour after her death, recalling: “She told me, but at the time I honestly just wanted her to stop talking. It was painful to hear that she knew what was coming. It was bizarre. How do you have a conversation like that? It felt wrong.”

However, the band honored her wish and incorporated a number of emotional references to Sarah throughout the tour, including playing her isolated vocals over loudspeakers during the shows.

“We’re not trying to pretend that we couldn’t have done it without her – we feel that loss massively, on stage and in every song we make. I really hope we managed to make her presence felt,” Kimberley said of the tour.

And there were tears, too. On the second night of their tour in May, Cheryl burst into tears as the group played a heartbreaking rendition of “I’ll Stand By You” at Dublin’s 3Arena while a photo montage of Harding played in the background.

A clip captured by a fan and shared on X shows Cheryl, 40, crying alongside the post: “Cheryl breaks our hearts during ‘I’ll Stand By You’ on night two of #TheGirlsAloudShow in Dublin @CherylOfficial.”

On the final night of the girls’ tour in Liverpool, it was Nadine whose emotions got the better of her and during a tribute to Sarah she could be seen visibly wiping tears from her eyes on stage.

But life goes on and now the girls appear to be moving on to a happy chapter – and our source claims that Cheryl, Kimberley and Nadine couldn’t be happier for Nicola, who is preparing to tie the knot with Mitch, who reportedly proposed to her during their last holiday in Saint Tropez.

Nicola and her boyfriend, who hails from Brisbane, Australia, were first seen together in June 2022 and have kept their romance pretty secret since then. This is the red-haired singer’s first public relationship since 2013, when Nicola split from boyfriend Charlie Fennell, who she dated for six years.

“Nicola has found her soul mate in Mitch. She couldn’t be happier,” a source told The Sun.

And while the group doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to romances with sports figures – Cheryl was famously married to professional left-back Ashley Cole and split from him after a series of infidelity allegations – our source claims Nicola has no doubts about her man.

They said: “The girls are all so happy for her. Nicola knows what she wants and isn’t taking advice from Cheryl as Mitch is a completely different character to Ashley. Cheryl and Ashley were very young when they got married and they know it’s not the same situation. They’re not worried.”

Looks like it’s time to buy that hat, girls…