My other half is a commercial pilot and from what I hear, I'm not sure I'd want to go through ATC training and validation, and then go through groundschool and ATPL! Personally, I think the characteristics of ATCOs and pilots sometimes differ, so being good at one might not mean good at the other - I may have just opened a can of worms there...
Although I've gone about it back to front and already have the ATPL exams and CPL, but I always wanted to do ATC. I've got to the stage with the flying where I want to keep my hobby for fun and be able to do "proper" grass-roots flying (i.e. light aircraft, aerobatics, instructing) on a part-time basis rather than flying the airlines. Many ATCOs do this (but usually become ATCOs first!), so the two are definitely not mutually exclusive! Finishing the ATPLs last year (and getting good results) while working full time at a job in the city has proved to myself that I will be more than capable of studying full time on the TATC course.