Javine Hylton Exclusive
She's been attacked for stealing the Strictly star's husband but here singer Javine reveals.. 'WHY I'M BACKING ALESHA'
Alesha Dixon will have an unlikely supporter when she takes to the floor in the Strictly Come Dancing final on Saturday - Javine Hylton, the woman she lost her husband to.
Last November, Javine, 25, was exposed for having an affair with Alesha's husband, MC Harvey, and the now-pregnant singer was immediately cast as a villain. She was branded a marriage-wrecker, singer Jamelia called her "a slag" and her outraged ex-boyfriend raged that Harvey had traded in "a Bentley for a Skoda".
But Javine is now offering an olive branch to her love rival and says she'd like to see Alesha scoop the Strictly crown.
"Alesha is doing brilliantly and good on her," she says. "It might sound strange for me to say this but I genuinely want her to be happy and I really hope she wins."
But reflecting on the past year, Javine, who is now seven months pregnant with Harvey's child, says she wouldn't change a thing.
"I'd do it all again," insists the singer, who first shot to fame on Popstars: The Rivals. "The only regret I have is the hurt I caused. But Harvey and I wouldn't be together without hurting people."
On paper, Javine is a cold, heartless, home wrecker but, in the flesh, she is surprisingly warm.
"I'd probably be the first to say 'bitch' right now, if I hadn't been through it," she admits. "But it crept up on us. The feeling, it was a whirlwind. Neither of us have ever felt like that. Our love was like a force and people could feel it wherever we went.
"I've heard people say they've been immediately convinced a guy is going to be the father of their child. I thought stuff like that was strange, until it happened to me.
"Love overruled everything - our reputations, where we'd get our next job from... it was hard but I was willing to give things up. When you know, you know. Harvey's definitely The One."
Javine met Harvey while rehearsing for the West End show Daddy Cool, which they both starred in. She says their bond was forged from friendship and they were as close as "brother and sister".
"We were in denial for ages," Javine recalls. "We rehearsed for about eight months and just struck up a friendship. We never flirted. He was like my older brother. I was a bit wild and he was a good mentor. Friends said they saw it happening but I was oblivious.
"We kept saying the four of us should go out to dinner - my boyfriend, his wife - but I think subconsciously we were trying to hold back."
Javine is too coy to reveal the details of the first "moment" between them but admits they were smitten. "The emotional side happened quickly - we kind of fell in love instantly," she says.
In turmoil, Javine went home to her music producer boyfriend Karl Gordon and ended the relationship. "We were fighting all the time," she says. "I just thought what am I going to do? Do I forget both of them and just be on my own? Let him save his marriage?
"I couldn't go back to my boyfriend when my heart was elsewhere. I was petrified. I made the decision to forget it and carry on as normal. But our feelings were too strong."
In the days before their affair was uncovered, Javine and 28-year-old Harvey spent hours discussing what to do. "I knew what I'd be doing to my life and my career but everything changed," Javine reveals. "I knew what I was risking and that I would hurt people. Harvey knew what he had with Alesha. We were planning to come clean but then we got caught out."
There are various versions of how the couple were rumbled by Karl, and Javine rolls her eyes in response. "We were not caught in bed, romping," she states. "We weren't swinging from chandeliers. My boyfriend didn't walk in and see us naked on top of each other.
"One morning, Karl decided to come to the house. He walked in, saw Harvey, who had been staying in the spare room, and that was it. There was no fighting, no confrontation. Then Karl called Alesha and told her."
Although Javine was relieved their feelings were now out in the open, she faced an unnerving two days as Harvey sorted things with Alesha - his wife of 12 months and girlfriend of five years. "I told Harvey that he didn't have to leave Alesha," she insists. "As much as I loved him I had no right to ask him to leave his wife.
"He came back to me and said: 'My home doesn't feel like my home any more. I want to be with you.' And I thought: 'Wow, this is moving to the next level.'"
Does she feel guilty about stealing someone else's husband? "You can't steal someone," she says. "It was his decision. I did feel bad. I felt worse for Alesha than my ex. Then there were reports that Alesha and I were best friends, when we hardly knew each other. It made me a calculating bitch.
"I fell in love and I'm sorry that doing so hurt her. But there's nothing I can really say, is there?
"The word 'sorry' isn't going to make a lot of difference. But until you've been through it - that whole forbidden love - it's mindblowing, it's so powerful. It made me realise that I've never truly been in love before.
"We're not horrible people, we just couldn't control our feelings. Should we have ignored it and then him be unhappy at home? If he were my husband I would rather he told me the truth."
Javine reveals she has seen Alesha once in the past year but says that their meeting was remarkably civilised.
"It was awkward but we are two women who aren't going to be seen fighting in public," she says. "I'm sure she wanted to give me a few slaps around the head. But we conducted ourselves really well."
Now the furore of the affair has blown over, Javine is looking forward to being a mum. It hasn't been an easy pregnancy - she suffered from terrible morning sickness and has had acupuncture after pulling a muscle in her chest from a persistent bad cough. However, her skin is glowing with health.
"I can't wait to be a mum," she smiles. "I'm looking forward to meeting this little person and sharing all the information I know. I'm having a water birth, no epidurals, just water, gas and air. I'm not too posh to push!"
She and Harvey don't know their child's sex yet but are already bickering over baby names.
"Harvey loves all these names like India and China," she scoffs. "I like Reece and Bailey. I'll have carried this child for nine months, so I think I should get to choose.
"We both like Rica for a boy and Sahara for a girl. We also have two other names but I'm not going to say..."
So is Harvey excited about being a dad? "He can't wait!" Javine says, her eyes shining.
"He's going to be amazing - the best dad in the world.
"I can't wait to see them together. It's going to be mindblowing."
Strictly Come Dancing Final, Saturday, 5.50pm and 9.25pm on BBC1.
Mirror
