The Sporty Spice opens up about the bullying she experienced during her time as a girl group member.
- Nov 17, 2016
AceShowbiz - Is this the real reason Melanie C turned down upcoming Spice Girls reunion? The Sporty Spice opens up about the bullying she experienced as a girl group member. While she refuses to name names, it appears that she was bullied by more than one bandmate.
In an interview with Attitude magazine's December issue, Mel C discusses how her new album, "Version of Me", deals with the negative side to Spice Girls' success. " 'Version of Me' is about being bullied," she explains, "About being in a situation as a young adult where I felt bullied and how that has affected me, and molded me in a way. Unfortunately, being bullied can really damage people and even when you are stronger and over it, it can still be in the background - undermining you. I hope people will identify with that track."
When asked if the bullying occurred during her time as a Spice Girls member, Mel C says, "Yes. I'm not going to name names. But yes. It's been addressed, they were aware of what they'd done. They apologized."
"Now I'm older," the "Asia's Got Talent" judge continues, "I'm a lot more confident and I will not be shat upon. But when I was younger I let people s**t on me. What's done is done but I'd have liked to have been a bit stronger. When we were kids we were so hard on each other and so determined to succeed that if anybody fell out of line they were quickly brought back in. That was quite a lot of pressure to live under."
Previously, Mel C explained her decision to decline a proposed reunion with Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown and Victoria Adams in an essay penned for Love Magazine U.K. She said she had no bad blood with her fellow bandmates.
"Truth be told, earlier this year after several face-to-face meetings with the girls I made the difficult decision not to be part of a proposed reunion with Emma, Geri and Melanie," she explained, "Victoria had already bowed out understandably with the demands of her fashion label and her rather large family. The hardest part for me was letting people down, the girls, the fans, civilization?! Unfortunately something didn't feel quite right and I had to follow my gut."
She added, "We're constantly reminded of our famous line from 'Wannabe' - friendship never ends. There will always be hurdles with friendship. I love the girls dearly. We have a very unique bond that will never be broken and I will continue to support them all as much as I can. Also, I am under no illusion that my solo work will ever come close to a fraction of the impact that we make as the Spice Girls. I love the band I am beyond proud of my past and will always embrace and celebrate being a Spice Girl. It's what I am."
