Mel C: I was nearly sacked over a spat with Victoria
SPORTY Spice Mel C has told how she was almost thrown out of the band after getting into a fight with Victoria Beckham.
The star, whose full name is
Melanie Chisholm, told Desert Island Discs the pair were involved in a drunken spat and she was reprimanded by their management.
However, she added that the fear of losing her lifelong dream may have led to later problems.
The 46-year-old said: “I was so hurt and embarrassed about this situation that I only started talking about it recently but it is really funny really.
“We were at the Brits, so we all had a few bevvies and we were on our way out when there was a little scuffle between myself andvictoria.
“We can’t say this on air but I asked her to... go away. And, yeah, I was told if that behaviour ever happened again I would be out.
“What made it so devastating is how important it was to me to be part of the band and to achieve the things that we wanted to achieve, that I wanted to achieve from being a kid.
“And to think that I could have messed that up and lost it all, I began to be really, really hard on myself.
“And I think that is the start of where 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.”
The Spice Girls lasted from 1995 to 2000, with Geri Halliwell leaving controversially in 1998, something Mel said devastated the band and was the beginning of the end.
The band were on such bad terms they recorded in separate rooms.
In that time Mel also developed anorexia, followed by a binge eating disorder. She said: “I tried to make myself perfect, whatever I deemed perfect to be. And I ended up making myself really ill.
“I was anorexic for a few years, I was exercising obsessively and I ended up being incredibly depressed.
“I was in denial. And I also didn’t want anyone to help me, I just had to hide it, I was ashamed and embarrassed.”
She decided to go to the doctor, was diagnosed with depression and felt a weight had been lifted from her shoulders as she could be helped.
“So that was kind of the beginning of my road to recovery, which took a really long time.”
Mel chose Boys And Girls by Blur, Iwish by Stevie Wonder and Gerry and the Pacemakers’ You’ll Never Walk Alone.
She also chose a Dusty Springfield biography and a guitar. ● Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4 today,
11.15am.