Begin Again with Davina McCall - Begin Again Moments: Melanie C's Love Story!

Episode Date: July 19, 2026

In this uplifting episode of Begin Again Moments, Melanie C shares the love story she never expected to find. After ending a long-term relationship, the Spice Girl turned solo artist found herself navigating dating apps for the very first time. She opens up about meeting her partner, Chris, the calm and safety he brought into her life, and how finding love in her 50s has transformed the way she lives. From being a self-confessed workaholic to discovering joy beyond her career, Melanie reflects on why she's happier, more confident and more creative than ever before. She also shares why it's never too late to start something new, embracing new challenges, finding love later in life, and redefining what happiness looks like. To hear the full conversation, watch the complete episode on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify.

the past two and a half years, I have ended a relationship, I have met somebody new, can't wait to talk about, I'm so excited. Yes, yes. And I have new management and a lot has changed. So it's just been this kind of voyage of discovery. Yeah. And I am having, and also my new partner, what he has done for me is he's made me live. I've always had I'm such a workaholic

but I've always gone work life and then I realised it's like work life so and I love my work and you know of course I'm a mum as well on top of everything so what I've realised is

no no no no no work life all together that felt like a little moment from like a Bensdilla movie then but that is that is absolutely right. Isn't it? Because I love my work and but before I didn't really have much of a life.

Yeah. You know, I've been quite isolated and I've been quite lonely. But now it's like, no, I'm living. I'm living every day. And I'm just, I'm the happiest I've ever been and the most creative I've ever been, the most confident I've ever been. And yeah. Isn't it funny? Because in your 20s, you would have been going, I will not be saying that in my 50s. Oh, no. Oh my gosh. Like I think. It's so funny when you see things. Yeah. I think there's even like interviews are going, oh God, like when you're in your 30s, you're like, oh, if only. But not if only, because would you go back? Hell no. And it's changing. You know, here I am making music.

I'm in my 50s. There are so many incredible women who are, you know, we are still being taken seriously in areas that in the past, maybe not. So, yeah, we're still changing things. I'm very interested in women with power. And I'm not just talking about money really. I'm just talking about a sense of self or confidence and how hard that is sometimes for a man to navigate and how hard it is sometimes for women who are like that

to meet men and for men not to... for men to know what to do with them. Because I don't want to... Slag off men, we love men. We want to, we want to live side by side, be partners, equals, like, but we know that it's quite difficult sometimes because we've gone off and gone careers, got all empowered. Yeah, and left them a little bit confused.

Yeah, but we need to kind of help them find themselves too, you know, so we can all come together. Absolutely. And I feel like it's really difficult for guys to go out with women who are, how hard is it for you, Melanie C, when you find, when you found yourself at times single? Because who do you trust? Yeah.

How do you meet a guy? Like, what do you do? Yeah, yeah. It's been interesting. So, yeah, I was with my daughter's dad for 10 years. And then I met somebody else. We were together for quite a while. And then I found myself single for the first time

when it was all about the apps. And that is like a whole new world. But just your Melanie C, you can't go on an app. Like, imagine swiping. Well, there's the one, isn't there? There's the one all the celebrities go on. Yeah, there's that one. So, can I just ask you, so is Raya like, is it chock a block of celebrities?

Do you have to kind of get, like, green lit to go on it? I love that. It's actually really good fun. Not that I ever want to be on it again. Did you have a... There was quite a... I read some of it. there was really funny nickname that you and your friends had.

It was... Oh, boy bingo. But it's such a good thing. Don't you find, right? So, excuse me. When you... If you find yourself single, right, you were like, never wanted a relationship, ever again.

No. I'm off men. Forget it. And I think women actually can do that. I think men can't as much as well. I would have been happy to be a spinster. Yeah. Alone.

Yeah. I'd just have a lot of cats. But isn't it usually a girl's night? Yeah. When you like, you need to get back on the horse and then the apps, their profile set up. Which is like euphemism. You need to get back on the horse.

Except anything less. So yeah, so that was really interesting and fun. Yeah, Ray it is. There's a lot of celebrities. There's a lot of people who isn't. It's all creative industries. But it is quite fun going, ooh, I guess we're saw today. And how long were you on there for before you found Chris?

That's her funny. You know his name. An Aussie. Yeah. Right? Like, I'm an honorary Aussie. Like my part of family. Yeah.

Oh my gosh. I love it. Australia. Yeah. Great. Great people. Great people as well. Gosh, I don't know.

Maybe about six months. Right. And then we met. And it was so funny because... How long were you talking? Did you talk much before you met? Yeah. So we started talking in, I think it was like August time.

And I had a DJ tour arranged for the November of that year, 2023, I think it was. And, uh, Yeah, so it was like, he's so hot, this is definitely worth dinner, you know? And we've been together ever since, our first dinner date. And what was it? So you were talking? Because I know that there is a running theme through your life of needing to feel safe.

And for me, I think that's like a relationship is somewhere, that it's quite hard to really, really feel safe. What was it about Chris that made him safe enough to go up for dinner with? It's not just that he's hot. You must have seen something in it. What did you see? Yeah. He has it's very strange talking about him

publicly. He has a very calm quality. Right. And it's something that I've not experienced in a partner before. He's, yeah, he just, he feels safe. He is yeah he's just beautiful he never gets involved where he you know he he just reads situations

really well so he's emotionally intelligent yeah he's really intelligent he's very creative he's very kind and yeah he just yeah he makes me feel safe that's a very good way of putting it he um also i think as somebody that works in a creative industry and um um um You get to do some very exciting things. I know sometimes that people, if they don't feel confident in their partner, that their partner's kind of proud of them or they'll downplay things that are happening to them.

But he's a cheerleader, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely. That's what's so nice. He's been to a lot of my work engagements and, you know, sometimes if I'm DJing and if I just catch sight of him, it's just like, it's, yeah, It's like your little support network.

It's really nice. Now, I love being Michael's plus one. So I love going to things where I go as he's the one that's been invited. Yeah. And I'm his plus one. Do you get that? Well, it's been a bit tricky for us to really be able to do that. Because we've been in Europe a lot.

Right. And a lot of his world is still like his friends and his family and everybody is still in Australia. But we go back New Year and I look forward to being kids plus one. It's nice being someone's plus one. It's less pressure, isn't it? It's so good. Yeah. And also you get to see them in their place of excellence.

And you can be like, look at them. They're so good at what they do. Like, oh, so nice, absolutely. It's, you know, Australia, England, I know this because half my family is there. It's a long way away. It's a long way away. The law is, it's very kind, actually, obviously, being Commonwealth. He can spend a lot of time here, but he can't stay here permanently.

Yeah. Yeah, you need to look at these. So you just have to look at kind of towing and throwing a bit. Add up our days. I can think of worse places. Yes, I know. But what's wonderful as well is I'm back in Australia for it like I'm doing the voice. I don't know.

This would probably be, yeah, announced by then. Yeah. doing the voice again. Yes. Amazing. And how nice is that fun being a coach? It's not my most natural place to be. I love working with the singers.

Yes. I love like, you know, sharing my experience with them. But the whole judging thing I find tricky. Yes. Yeah. Oh, your intention. Yeah. Good.

Yeah. So judging. Very, very good. It's hard. Oh, I love you. You know, you've got a lot going on. And this is something that, again, for our audience, you know, you are in your 50s and it's so inspiring to see someone.

You know, you did your DJing. You've talked about the humility of starting from scratch and not being able to even get on a set of decks in a club until you were ace. You know, the work that went into that. Yeah. The time. And the jeopardy.

But the jeopardy, but this is really important for everybody to see. Yeah. If you want to do something, it's just do it. It's never too late. Yeah, it's never too late. That's what I thought. Because when, you know Glyn Fustle. Yeah.

Yeah. So it was Glim that encouraged me to have a lesson. And I was just like, am I too old to learn a new skill? And oh my goodness, absolutely never. I'm so pleased that I did it. Honestly, it has brought so much into my life. It's changed everything. And everybody else is.

you know, the church and the altar of the DJ. So this podcast, I'm not sure if you knew this, but I started it around the time when I had my brain tumour and I knew, but nobody else really knew. Oh, wow. But when it was like, what would you like it to be about? Lots of people thought maybe it would be around the menopause and sort of perimenopause, but I wanted it to be around living a lot of.

life that you've loved so that when you do look at dying and your own mortality and it becomes quite a possibility that you feel ready to leave. Yeah. Because you've had a really good go. You've done all the things that you wanted to. Even if they didn't succeed, you've had a go. And isn't that the thing that people often will say, you don't regret the things you did. You the things you didn't do. Yeah. Yeah. So let's just talk about, is it 30 years next year?

Yeah. I know. I know. I know. 30 years. Yeah. Of Spice Girls next year. And the release of sweat.

Yes. It's a big year. It's a big year coming. I am really excited. I am so excited. I am coming to see you DJ a lot. I'm going to now start like following you around the world. I will let you know.

Let me know. Everywhere. And also. I'm getting on a plane. I'm coming. And I'm playing Brixton. It's not until October next year. That's my birthday.

Okay, so you understand the premise of this podcast now. Yes. 30 years next year. Yeah. Sweat. Everything's happening for you. Like, it's so exciting. What would you like your legacy to be?

I could die happy because I know the legacy that the Spice Girls have left. is I don't think you could top it. I am so proud, we are all proud, we talk about it. What we, you know, people approach me all the time. I get people coming up talking about whether it's a song, an album, The Spice Girls, the whole thing, and people say how it changed their life,

how it made them feel like they belonged. You know, some people say it saved their life, you know, for people to say that to you. And I don't take that personally, I'm like, hey, I did this, but I was part of something that has made a real cultural impact on the world. How many people get the chance to say that? It's amazing. And also how you share.

This has been an amazing chat. And there's been so much that you've said that I know will have an enormous impact on people watching and listening. Yeah. And I'm so grateful to you for your honesty and being so candid. Well, you know, I learned. When I first started talking openly about depression, it was at a time when it wasn't spoken about very much. And I didn't feel like I was really ready to talk about it because I was still actually really suffering at the time. But the moment I realized that was helping other people, that felt really good.

Hey, y'all's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what-if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home.