Rachel Trashed by Dad

Rachel Stevens came under extraordinary fire yesterday – from her own dad. Michael Stevens predicted the singer’s marriage next month to Holby City actor Jeremy Edwards would not last. And he said shockingly: “She’s a total a******e and I don’t care if I never see her again. She’s a stunningly beautiful girl – that’s about all she is. She’s so selfish. She’s ‘I want, I want.’ ”

Dad: Michael Stevens

Stevens, 56, has been estranged from 25-year-old Rachel for a year and has not been invited to her wedding in Scotland. In his astonishing outburst after S Club announced it was to split, he claimed Rachel and Jeremy were incompatible. “I hope they don’t get married,” he said.

“She’s not really for him. They’re not suited – when I knew them they were always rowing and bickering and God knows what else.” Furious Stevens then launched into a tirade on how Rachel couldn’t be bothered to open a ladies’ clothing boutique he runs in Edgware, North London. “Posh Spice did it for her sister,” he said.

It is not the first time that Stevens has embarrassed his chart-topping daughter. Three years ago she fell out with him after he published a guide to London’s best prostitutes and set up a lapdance-in-a-limousine service.

Stevens added: “I got rid of my limousine business for her because she asked me to. But I’ve had enough.” He last saw his daughter at a concert last year. He said: “She broke down in tears. I know she loves me but I am very stubborn. “I could say she’s wonderful and fantastic but she’s not.”

Stevens and Rachel’s mother Linda divorced when she was 17 and both have since remarried.

Aides close to Rachel chose not to break the news of her father’s onslaught before she went on stage last night as part of the S Club United tour.

Her publicist Jo Milloy said: “We have no comment to make.”

Rachel is now being tipped for a solo career. Dad, it seems certain, won’t be involved.