Josh Cuthbert reveals he’s QUIT Union J – leaving the future of the band hanging in the balance
JOSH Cuthbert has quit Union J after seven years, The Sun’s Bizarre column can reveal.
The singer decided to leave the band earlier this month in order to focus on his flourishing career as a model and presenter.
Announcing the news in an exclusive interview, Josh said: “To be successful you have to dedicate all of your time to it, and to be completely honest, I just don’t have the time as much as I used to, to dedicate everything and all of my time to the band, and I feel that’s unfair to the rest of the guys.
“We’ve had some brilliant times and I don’t want to be in something half-hearted.
“I spoke to them on the phone and I just hope that they support me, I want to stay friends with the boys, I love them.
“They’ve been a part of my life for years, literally years. I don’t really remember my life before the band.
“So I just hope they support me and the things I do. I’ll be supporting them and keeping a close eye on everything that they do. I hope that our paths will cross again.
“I don’t want this to be the end of our relationship because we are genuinely brothers.”
Josh, 26, now presents on heat Radio every Sunday and has landed a series of lucrative modelling campaigns.
But he admitted he is unsure what will happen with the band, with only JJ Hamblett, 30, and Jaymi Hensley, 28, remaining.
On what they will do without him, he said: “I don’t know. I’m not too sure.
“I guess that’s not really my place to say about whatever they want to do as a two, but whatever they do I just wish them every luck in the world.
“I genuinely from the bottom of my heart wish they go on and do really well.”
After finishing fourth on the X Factor in 2012, they went on to release two albums and score four top ten hits including Carry You and You Got It All.
But they have had a rocky time since then, with George Shelley, 25, quitting in 2016 and his replacement Casey Johnson, 23, also leaving last year.
Josh continued: “The music industry is really difficult. It plays with your emotions, it’s ups and downs and you go through different managers.
“Over the last few years we’ve had different managers and we’ve been promised the world and been let down.
“We’ve got a label now which are great and I respect them lots and have nothing but good words to say about them, but it is difficult when you change members.
“George obviously left, which was hard for us, but everyone has different reasons and has different things going on.
“Now that I’m making this decision myself I understand why George made that decision two years ago.
“At the time you don’t really get it, until you have the same feelings as him, which I now have.”
The singer, who married his girlfriend Chloe Lloyd in August, thanked the band’s fans for their support through the years.
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He added: “We wouldn’t be doing anything without the fans.
“There’s still so many of them that support us and I just hope they continue to support the boys and all of us in what we do because we wouldn’t be there without them.
“I’ve got a lot to thank those guys for. I love the fans to pieces.”
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