Charlotte Hatherley has said that it wasn't really her choice to leave Ash, as you might have thought, given that she was spending time on her solo career just before it happened and all that. Implying that she actually had nothing to do with the decision she told The Independent: "In the end it was the boys' choice. They wanted to go back to being a three-piece. They knew I wasn't happy in the band any more so they assumed that I'd be fine with the decision. I did find it was a bit weird. I left the conversation thinking: 'What just happened there? Did I leave or was I fired?' But it was all very nice and there were no hard feelings".
She also spoke, however, about Ash's 2004 album 'Meltdown', and said that she didn't enjoy making it - implying that she might have moved on anyway at some point. Hatherley: "The boys were really in love with American music and with America. After years of touring the States they were listening to a lot of Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana, stuff I've never really been into. I found recording 'Meltdown' really difficult. Basically I couldn't relate to it. Things were getting a bit stale and I think we all needed something to change".