Savage Garden topped the charts in the '90s. A 'major betrayal' broke them up for good.

Savage Garden was a major Australian band in the 1990s, regularly topping the charts with songs like 'I Want You', 'To The Moon & Back', and 'Truly, Madly, Deeply'.

However, at the very height of their fame, the duo separated in 2001.

Now, one half of the pop duo, Darren Hayes, has opened up about what went down between the band.

Ahead of the release of his book Unlovable: A Memoir from the Voice of Savage Garden, Hayes spoke to Stellar about how he felt like he was blamed for the demise of the pop group when it was Daniel Johns who left the band.

"I get asked the question so much: would you ever get back together? Well, if you read the book, you'll know why not" he told Stellar.

"When people [say] 'Please get Savage Garden back together', they're really saying 'I miss my childhood.' And I get that. My answer is that I never left. I still sing those songs."

Watch Darren Hayes sing Delta Goodrem's 'Lost Without You' at the ARIAs. Post continues after video.

Hayes previously opened up about the split on The Kyle and Jackie O Show, as he admitted that the decision to break up the band lay with his former bandmate, Daniel Jones.

"Hang on, let me clarify that: Daniel left Savage Garden," Hayes told Jackie 'O' Henderson after she stated he was the one to leave the band.

"I loved it... I would have been in that band forever," he added.

Hayes paused briefly when Henderson asked if the pair were supportive of each other throughout the Savage Garden experience.

"No, I was really supportive of him and loved the band, and he absolutely hated the experience of being famous," he responded.

"[He] decided before the release of that second album that he didn’t want that life, which is totally his right," he continued.

"A week before the Affirmation record came out, we had the number one single around the world with 'I Knew I Loved You', and Daniel had a life crisis and decided he didn’t want to do that anymore.

Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones at the height of their fame. Image: Getty.

"We had to convince him, 'Could you just maybe tour the album, and let’s work this out later on?'

"His leaving was a huge rug pulled out from under me, and for contractual reasons we couldn’t really talk about it.

"He held that press conference where he said, 'Oh, this is the first I’ve heard of it,' which was such a stupid thing to say, because people thought I'd left the band."

Hayes also shared that the pair are yet to make up after the surprising split.

"I have so much forgiveness for him now. I don’t like the way he went about it, but I’ve forgiven him," Hayes began, before adding that they no longer speak.

"Oh, no. When someone does that to you and doesn’t apologise. That’s a pretty major betrayal," he said.

"It affected my career and my life. [Going solo] wasn’t a planned thing," he added.

While Jones mostly stepped away from the industry following the disbanding, he gave a rare interview in 2015 where he remained tight-lipped about any major issues between himself and Hayes.

"The truth behind it all is that Darren and I had and still have an amazing amount of respect for each other as people, as human beings," Jones said.

"We don’t really have a relationship anymore, because of the distance and he’s moved on and I’ve moved on, but we still have a great respect for one another.

"I still hear him speaking highly of me and it’s reciprocated. The one thing I never wanted Darren to think is that it was personal against him.

"My decision to walk away from the limelight wasn’t directed to anyone but myself and my own happiness. Years later I can tell you I don’t miss that lifestyle."

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Meanwhile, Hayes has continued a solo career, but struggled in the industry as he came to terms with his sexuality

"The US record label hated my solo career; they didn’t promote it at all. I went from singing with Pavarotti, performing at the Olympic Games, to being someone where they said, 'We can’t put him on television, because when he moves he looks too gay,'" he told Kyle and Jackie O.

In 2022, Hayes released the album Homosexual, his first in 11 years.

"In my time away, I realised that in the most successful and famous period of my career, I was never really celebrated for who I was," he said of his new album.

"I really wanted to rid myself of that shame."

Feature Image: Getty.

This article was originally published on September 2, 2022 and has since been updated with new information.

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