Melanie Chisholm, also known as Sporty Spice or Mel C, revealed Tuesday that her Spice Girl days were “joyless” due to an eating disorder.
The 48-year-old singer revealed that there was an “element of guilt” to her fame and that her eating disorder began after a comment from one of the group’s financial backers, according to “The Diary of a CEO” podcast.
“He’d commented on the size of my thighs which was something that really shook me,” the singer said.
“I went to a performing arts college which was predominantly a dance college and the body image was an issue there. There were girls with eating disorders. I’d been witness to that in my life, but it never affected me personally.”
According to Chisholm, after college, she did put on weight, but it never really bothered her.
“It was just, ‘Yeah I’ll cut back a little bit, lose a few pounds,’ ” said Chisholm.
“But somebody actually commenting on the way I looked when I was going into a career where so much of it is about how you look really affected me.”
According to Melanie Chisholm (second from left), the comment which sparked the disorder came from one of the group’s financial backers. Achim Scheidemann/picture alliance via Getty Images
“He’d commented on the size of my thighs which was something that really shook me,” said the singer and memoirist.Romy Arroyo Fernandez/NurPhoto via Getty Images“I thought, ‘Well if I’m gonna do this I have to fit the mold,’ and so then that was it. It was just a gradual thing, but it was the eating and the exercising and that’s when it began from a comment like that,” the “So Tell Me What You Want” singer added.
The Post reached out to Chisholm for comment.
Despite harboring this secret from her fans, Chisholm said her time as a Spice Girl was “incredible” but also the hardest.
“It was the most incredible time of my life and the hardest,” said Chisholm
According to Melanie C, a lot of girls in her college had disorders but she never thought it would bother her. Jo Hale/RedfernsEarlier this month, Chisholm revealed in her new book that she had been sexually assaulted the night before her first ever Spice Girls gig in Turkey.
“I didn’t want to make a fuss, but also I didn’t have time to deal with it,” she said. “Because I didn’t deal with it at the time, I realized that I allowed that to be buried for years and years and years, and then when I was writing the book, it came to me in a dream. I woke up and it was in my mind.”
“And as much as I enjoyed it, it was joyless because I had a secret and I was dealing with what I had to deal with and living my dream at the same time.”
If you or someone you love is struggling with an eating disorder, you can get help. Call the National Eating Disorder Association helpline at (800) 931-2237 or visit nationaleatingdisorders.org.
