Mel C has said that an argument she had with Victoria Beckham at the start of her career in the Spice Girls proceeded a number of mental health problems.
The 46-year-old singer laid bare her mental health pains from over the years during a candid conversation on Radio 4’s Desert Island Disks.
Recalling the start of her career in the Spice Girls, Mel says she told 45-year-old Victoria to “f***off” behind-the-scenes of the 1996 Brit Awards – leading her band’s management to threaten to sack her over the incident.
As a consequence, Mel began to become “really hard on myself” – with the pressure she put on herself leading her to depression and eating disorders.
“I was so hurt and embarrassed,” the singer said on the radio show.
“We’d all had a few bevvies and on the way out there was a little scuffle between myself and Victoria. We can’t say this on air but I asked her to go away. I was told if that behaviour ever happened again, then I would be out,” she recalls.
“To think I could have messed that up and lost it all… I began to be really, really hard on myself,” she said.
“I think that is where the start of some of my problems came because I had to be very, very strict with myself. I couldn’t allow myself to relax because if I did I might mess it all up,” she explained.
Mel said that being branded Sporty Spice and being regarded as the ‘boyish’ one also took a toll on her.
“I think I was described as the plain one at the back that doesn’t really do much or doesn’t really say much,” she said.
“That is really hurtful when you are a young aspiring pop star. I tried to make myself perfect, whatever I deemed perfect to be,” she added.
Melanie goes on to say she felt “relief” when a doctor finally diagnosed her with depression.
“I went from being anorexic to having a binge eating disorder. That’s when I went to my GP and I was diagnosed with depression,” she recalls.
“It was such a weight lifted off my shoulders. It was such a relief because I thought, ‘Oh my God, there’s a name for it and I can be helped’,” she added.
The full interview with Mel airs on Desert Island Discs on Radio 4 today at 11:15am.