The Spice Girls might have given us our first taste of girl power back in in the Nineties - but being in the band came at a cost for many of the members, who have since spoken out about issues with depression and eating disorders.
Geri Horner (nee Halliwell, sorry, still can’t get over that name change) has been open about her struggle with bulimia - as has Sporty Spice, AKA Melanie Chisholm.
Mel spoke to Event magazine - and explained that even £2million couldn’t tempt her back to one of the biggest girl bands of all time.
The girls have recently reformed - sans Posh and Sporty - and Mel’s cited her past depression and eating disorder as reasons for not rejoining.
She told Event: ’’Depression, eating disorders, obsessive over-exercising. I went through all of it. Yet I didn’t even admit it to myself. When your life is that crazy, travelling everywhere, performing all over the place, constantly on the move, you don’t have to acknowledge what is going on in your life."'
Mel was offered a whacking £2million - but even as a single mother, she decided to put her own sanity first.
‘It was a really difficult decision,’ she explains. ‘I didn’t take it lightly. I did go quite far down the route with the girls. I went to a lot of meetings but I just didn’t feel it was right in my gut. When I finally said no I just felt relief.
‘Part of me will be Sporty Spice until I die. We had one reunion [in 2007] and I didn’t want to do that. But I was talked round and it was the right thing to do, we had a great time and then we played at the closing ceremony for the Olympics in 2012. That to me was where [the Spice Girls] should have been laid to rest. Sometimes you just have to say no.’
We can’t say that we’re not gutted that the Spice Girls reunion won’t star Mel - but it sounds like she’s made a sound decision for her body and mind, and that’s something that has to be deeply admired.
You go girl.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.