Singing for your supper is a tough business

JESY NELSON is leaving Little Mix, the pop group which won X Factor in 2011.

‘The truth is, recently being in the band has really taken a toll on my mental health. I find the constant pressure of being in a girl group and living up to expectations very hard,’ she said in a statement.

I’m sure it is — but who ever said that fame, fortune and being in a pop group were going to be easy?

Yes, it is particularly difficult for stars today, who must deal with the online onslaught as well as with the more traditional pressures of fame. Yet with great rewards come great hardships — that is always the way it has been.

After selling more than 85 million records, Shania Twain went into early retirement because she just couldn’t cope with the business any more. Karen Carpenter and Janis Joplin had their own demons which made their lives very difficult. And male celebrities suffer, too. This is not an easy path to choose, for either sex.

Staying at the top, being under constant scrutiny? Not everyone can shoulder the burden. Jesy also said this week: ‘I need to spend some time with the people I love, doing things that make me happy.’

I wish her all the best. But the Little Mix star has had a terrific nine-year run in showbusiness, which is longer than most pop careers.

And there is a distinct strain of victimhood running through everything she has said and done recently.

Fair enough that she feels bad, but it makes me feel uncomfortable because it encourages young women to think of themselves as the victims, rather than the heroines, of their own lives.