What Happened to Carmit Bachar? Her First Solo EP in 2026

If you were anywhere near a radio in 2005, you know “Don’t Cha.” And if you watched the videos closely, you know the redhead — the one with the gymnast’s lines and the ribbon work, the only woman on that stage who had been a Pussycat Doll since the group was a burlesque troupe playing 1960s covers in a Los Angeles club. Carmit Bachar left in 2008. When the Dolls came roaring back in March 2026, she found out from the internet, same as you. Here’s where she actually is.

01Profile

Full name

Carmit Maile Bachar

Born

September 4, 1974 (51 years old)

Birthplace

Los Angeles, California, USA

Raised in

Encino, California

Occupation

Singer, dancer, choreographer, advocate

Best known for

The Pussycat Dolls — "Don't Cha" (2005), "Buttons" (2006)

Notable

Rhythmic gymnast on the U.S. National Team; placed 5th at the 1992 Olympic trials

Family

Married Kevin Whitaker in 2008; one daughter, born 2011

Both her parents were dancers, which explains a lot. So does the gymnastics — ten years of international competition is not a hobby, it is a job, and the discipline shows up in every piece of choreography she has ever been part of.

02From Olympic Hopeful to Original Doll

The troupe before the pop group

Here is the part most casual fans miss. The Pussycat Dolls did not start as a chart act. In 1995, choreographer Robin Antin built them as a burlesque dance troupe — pin-up costumes, a repertoire of 1950s and ’60s standards, a residency vibe in Los Angeles. Bachar was there from the start. For roughly eight years, that was the whole thing: a live show, not a record deal.

Around 2003, producers Jimmy Iovine and Ron Fair got involved and the troupe was rebuilt as a pop group. Members were auditioned, added, and cut. When the final recording lineup was locked — Nicole Scherzinger, Bachar, Melody Thornton, Ashley Roberts, Kimberly Wyatt, and Jessica Sutta — Bachar was the longest-tenured of the group, having joined the burlesque troupe back in 1995. Roberts, Wyatt and Sutta had come up through the troupe as well; Scherzinger and Thornton were recruited as singers for the pop incarnation.

The years when they owned pop radio

“Don’t Cha” landed in 2005 and did what very few debut singles do: it became inescapable. “Buttons,” “Stickwitu,” and “Beep” followed. The debut album went multi-platinum, the group earned a Grammy nomination, and for about three years the Pussycat Dolls were one of the biggest pop acts on the planet.

A résumé most dancers would kill for

Bachar’s career was already substantial before any of that. She danced on tours for Beyoncé, Janet Jackson, Ricky Martin, and No Doubt. She appeared in music videos for Michael Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, the Black Eyed Peas, and Aaliyah, and performed in Janet Jackson’s 2004 Super Bowl halftime show. She turns up as a dancer in films including “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” (2003) and “13 Going on 30” (2004).

03Walking Away in 2008

On March 8, 2008, it was officially announced on the group’s website that Bachar was leaving. The reasons, as widely reported at the time, came down to a structural problem inside the group: the promotional and creative emphasis had shifted heavily toward Scherzinger, and the other members were increasingly positioned as backing.

Bachar has since disputed the idea that she simply walked away. Posting on X in March 2026, she wrote that the departure “wasn’t my decision,” describing an ultimatum from the label that forced her to choose between the PCD tour and The Zodiac Show, a project she had spent years co-creating. Either way, she was the first to go. She was not the last — the group fractured entirely not long after.

• 1995Joins Robin Antin's newly formed Pussycat Dolls burlesque troupe.
• 2003The troupe is reworked into a pop group; Bachar, the longest-serving member, makes the final lineup.
• 2005"Don't Cha" becomes a global hit; the debut album goes multi-platinum.
• 2007Travels to Bolivia on an Operation Smile international medical mission as an ambassador.
• 2008Announces her departure from the Pussycat Dolls on March 8. Marries Kevin Whitaker the same year.
• 2009Records a solo album, "Formerly Of...", but does not secure a record deal. It stays in the vault.
• 2011–2016Forms the electropop duo LadyStation with DJ Sammy J, releasing singles including "Body in Motion."
• 2019–2021Rejoins a Pussycat Dolls reunion; the group releases "React" in February 2020, then disbands amid COVID-19 disruption and internal disputes.
• 2026The Pussycat Dolls announce a reunion tour as a trio, without her.

The 2009 solo album is the quiet heartbreak in that list. She made the record. It never found a label, and it never came out. That is a very ordinary music-industry story and it happens to people far more famous than the fifth-billed member of a girl group.

04The 2026 Reunion She Was Not Part Of

March 12: the announcement

On March 12, 2026, the Pussycat Dolls announced their return — a new single, “Club Song,” and a 53-date reunion tour across the U.K., Europe, and North America beginning in June. The lineup was three people: Scherzinger, Wyatt, and Roberts. Bachar, Thornton, and Sutta were not included.

Her response

Five days later, on March 17, Bachar posted a statement to Instagram. Billboard, Just Jared, Exclaim!, and PinkNews all covered it. The line that traveled furthest was direct and unadorned.

I was not contacted regarding the group’s decision to move forward, and I learned of these plans at the same time as the public. — Carmit Bachar, Instagram statement, March 17, 2026, as reported by Billboard

She said that given her history with the brand she would have appreciated direct communication, and called the situation disappointing on a personal level. But the statement was notably not a broadside. She wrote that the chapter would always hold profound meaning for her, thanked the fans — singling out the LGBTQ+ community, saying Pride performances were among the most meaningful moments of her career — and said she remained proud of the role she played in shaping what the Pussycat Dolls became. Her stated intention, she wrote, was not to create division but to honor the truth and the fans.

What the trio said back

Asked about the exclusion in an interview published by TODAY, and reported by Billboard on March 20, the three current members did not offer a specific explanation. Wyatt framed it as continuity: the lineup has always changed, and this is what it looks like in 2026. She added that the group had ruptured in the past and was, in her words, repairing — and that they had to protect their peace. Scherzinger closed with a conciliatory note about love and respect for every woman who has been part of the PCD legacy.

Reasonable people read that exchange differently, and fans have. What is not in dispute is the sequence: Bachar was in the room for the founding, and was not called before the announcement.

05What She Is Doing Now

The EP that finally came out

Here is the genuinely satisfying part. On May 22, 2026 — ten weeks after the reunion news — Bachar released her first solo EP. It is called “Carmit.” And it is, in large part, the vault: remastered tracks she recorded in the 2000s, including material from the shelved “Formerly Of…” album, alongside cuts like “Fierce” and “Me.” Music she made seventeen years ago, finally released, on her own terms, because fans asked for it.

She has framed the release as a gift to longtime supporters, and pointed to a changed music industry — one where an independent artist no longer needs a label’s permission — as the reason it was possible at all.

I feel like everything is in alignment and connected again for me. It feels like I’m on the right path. — Carmit Bachar, interview published May 8, 2026

The memoir, a decade in

Bachar has been working on a memoir for years. In interviews around the EP release she confirmed it is still in progress and said, plainly, that it is absolutely in the works. She also suggested the events of early 2026 gave her a kind of closure that made the book easier to finish — a vantage point from which to assess, as she put it, 27 years of her life and her identity as a Pussycat Doll. No publisher or release date has been announced.

The advocacy that predates all of it

Bachar was born with a cleft lip and cleft palate and went through multiple surgeries as a child. She has spoken publicly about being ridiculed for it. Long before the reunion drama, this was the throughline of her public life: she has served as an ambassador for Operation Smile, the children’s medical charity, and traveled to Bolivia on one of its international missions in November 2007. She has also worked on a nonprofit effort under the name Smile With Me, aimed at people born with cleft conditions. Her 2012 song “Keep On Smiling,” which she has revisited in a newly produced acoustic arrangement, comes straight out of that.

She is also still a working performer and choreographer, and appeared on screen as recently as the series “Palm Royale” in 2024.

06Summary

Carmit Bachar’s 2026 is a strange split-screen. In one frame, a group she helped build from nothing is playing 53 arenas without her. In the other, she released her first solo record at 51, unlocked seventeen years of shelved music, and got the closure to finish a book she had been circling for a decade.

There is a version of this story that is only about a snub, and that version is boring. The more interesting one is that a woman who spent 27 years being one-sixth, then one-fifth, then none of somebody else’s brand finally put out a record with her own name on the cover. It took the industry collapsing into a state where she did not need permission anymore. She took it.