Getting RealEvery Time the Fifth Harmony Girls Spoke About Their Experience in the Group: Ally, Dinah and More

Living a ‘Double Life’

“I would go on tour with the girls, and I really felt like I was living a double life,” Dinah Jane told Teen Vogue in June 2023. “It was real because I’m over here like, ‘Oh gosh, everything is luxurious.’ Then I’d go back home and I’m sharing a room with my sisters.”

Reflecting on Her Time in the Group

“It’s funny because I didn’t really get to enjoy it as much as I wanted. It was really a shame,” Ally shared on a March 2022 episode of “The Art of Kindness” podcast. “There’s so many parts of that and moments I got to be in that I love and that’ll last … traveling the world and even the award shows at that time were just stellar. Being able to see and meet people that I wouldn’t have. … That was the best part.”

Always a Sisterhood

“I think that we went through too much life s–t together for to just be a coworker-ship. I think that there’s a sisterhood. There’s just this constant love no matter what. But I think we all took our time to heal,” Lauren told The Zach Sang Show in December 2021. “And I think that’s the path that we’re on right now. Because a lot of what happened to us wasn’t even us. It was all of the pieces around us.”

What She’s Learned

“Fifth Harmony was a huge part of my life and story. It definitely navigated those really formative years of my life. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 you know what I’m saying?” Lauren said on Audacy’s CHANNEL Q in November 2021. “If you think back to that time in your life, I’m sure you consider those years like, really formative years of figuring out who you are. So, I had to do that in the context of five people. In the context of a pop girl group. In the context of (the) public eye and all of the bulls–t that came with that. It was definitely a lot to process … I grew from them, and I healed them.”

Her Time In the Group

“I didn’t get to really sing in the group. I felt like I was overlooked,” Normani explained to Allure in August 2021. “That idea has been projected on me. Like, this is your place.”

Feeling Low

“I wish I would’ve spoken up a little bit more back then for several different things. But, you know what, everything happens for a reason and I’m so proud of our work. And we were able to create songs that are gonna last forever. And it did get better in the end. So, it’s just a learning experience on many different levels,” Ally also told Entertainment Tonight in October 2020. “Not being heard, and just people taking advantage of me. All that did get to a place where I was like, should I walk away? I definitely had moments of calling my parents and crying my eyes out and saying, ‘Mom and Dad, I don’t know if I can do one more day.’ But I chose to stay, you know, and the group meant that much to me.”

Dealing With Rumors

Fans of the group started a rumor that Camila and Lauren were together romantically throughout their time in the band. Lauren discussed this during an October 2020 appearance on the “En La Sala with Becky G” and said it made her feel “uncomfortable” because they were just “very good friends.”

“I was queer but she was not, and it made me feel like a predator,” the singer explained. “It made me feel like a predator because in the types of clips people would put together and the types of stories that people would write and the type of stuff, I was always the aggressor and I was always the one turning her. I was always the one who was the ‘masculine’ energy in the scenario, and it made me very uncomfortable because that is not how I identify.”

Positive Memories

Dinah told People in April 2020 that being in Fifth Harmony is “something I would never hide in the dark.”

“The group kind of took up a huge chunk of my youth, so I can’t hide the fact that I was in it,” she added. “I am so proud of everything that we’ve done and have accomplished.”

Her True Self

“I don’t feel like while I was in the group anyone saw the truest version of me,” Normani told Fader during a December 2019 interview. “I wasn’t allowed the opportunity to showcase that. I’m not able to go in the way that I want to [because] of what the group was … We would be like, ‘Yo, we want to write it, we want to contribute, we have perspective. We’re not just girls that you put in a girl group.’”

Trying to Hide

“I remember always being asked, ‘Why do you wanna be in a girl group? So you can hide?’” Normani told Cosmo in November 2019. “And that’s exactly what I was trying to do. I’m not sure what that turning point was, but I was like, Normani is enough. You can be on stage and perform and you can be enough.”

Looking Back

“I kind of snapped into a place where I was like, ‘Be alive. Try to absorb what’s going on,'” Lauren told Billboard in November 2019 of her experience in the group. “Even then, a lot of the stuff happens so quickly you don’t have time to absorb it. You don’t have time to process it. You’re on to the next, and if you’re not on to the next you’re a flop. They don’t give you time to breathe or enjoy what you’re doing, or to even allow it to grow into something anymore. If it didn’t chart within the first five minutes of it being released, like, it’s a flop.”

Moving On

“When [Fifth Harmony] ended, I was like, ‘Wow, I’m free.’ And that kind of set off this whole inspiration in me that hadn’t been there before to write,” Lauren explained to People in October 2018. “I wasn’t inspired. And I’m personally so connected to myself emotionally, if I feel blocked or stifled or I’m not being myself or I can’t be myself, then I can’t create. I actually thought that I couldn’t create anymore, which is the craziest part. That’s how off I was, you feel me?”

Finding True Potential

“Fifth Harmony wasn’t the maximum expression of me individually,” Camila explained during a February 2017 interview with Seventeen. “My fans are really going to know me from the music I’m writing. My goal is to be brave and open up my soul.”