Life Uncut - How Sporty Spice Fell In Love With An Aussie! Uncut with Melanie Chisholm

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

Today’s guest is someone who defined an entire generation.As one-fifth of the most iconic girl group in history, the Spice Girls, she helped shape pop culture, redefine girl power, and influence how millions of young women saw themselves. Melanie C or Sporty Spice as many of us first knew her is a dancer, singer, songwriter, author, and performer whose career spans nearly three decades. Today we wanted to chat with Melanie about what that journey was really like behind the scenes, how she carved out her own path with her solo career, the various things she is doing now and what it meant to her to have such an impact on our culture.We chat: Mel being recognised during a medical appointment Recording her 9th studio album here in Australia Why Melanie feels connected to the Australian culture How Mel met her Aussie boyfriend  How the Spice Girls started  The brutality of the UK media and all of their phones being hacked How being so young in the public eye affected Mel and contributed to her having an eating disorder How the Spice Girls didn’t choose their own nicknames They love like sisters and bicker like sisters How Geri choosing to leave affected them all differently The Spice Girl that Melanie is now closest to Starting her solo career Whether they could all live off of royalties now and if they ‘choose’ to work You can find everything from Melanie including her new song ‘Sweat’ at her website  You can follow Melanie on Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode was recorded on Camaragal land. Hi guys, and welcome back to another episode of Life Uncut. I'm Brittany. I'm Keisha, and this is not just any episode of Life Uncut. This is a conversation with someone who defined an entire generation. Sorry, but if you told baby Brittany that one day she would grow up and speak to a real life Spice Girl, I would be absolutely beside myself. But I am so thrilled to introduce one-fifth of the Spice Girls. You might know her as Melanie Chisholm, Mel C, Sporty Spice. What else did you go by, Mel? Welcome to the podcast, firstly. Thank you so much. So am I your first Spice Girl?

Yeah, you are. You are our Spice Virginity, Spicy V. Yeah, I'll be gentle with you. Maybe that could have been a name. Is that a missed opportunity like the Virgin Spice Girl? Oh, dear God. I mean, we'd have to do some casting for that. I'm genuinely absolutely thrilled to chat to you today. And, I mean, we can only hope that one day we tick off the boxes

and we get the whole entire group. But I just think back to my childhood, and I must have been about 10, I would say, and I think that that's that really crucial age. I think I got so deeply sucked in, and I do want to say that i was sporty spice just so you know like i i'm not just saying that as a flex i'm not trying to warm you up i was sporty and we are we're going to get into so much about who you are who you were before the spice girls and who you are now after but before we do we do want to throw you under the bus with your most embarrassing story we do it with everybody oh my goodness yeah there's probably

been a few i was i was talking to my daughter about this actually and she's my daughter's only 16 she's got some good ones but yeah for me I mean there's been many mishaps on stage split pants that was that was a fun one um yeah before doing who do you think you are where we started wiggling our bums to the audience so that wasn't wasn't my best day but the one that just you know when it just like makes you shudder to the core and lots of women I'm sure will identify with this I was at the gynecologist and um at the time I had yeah and at the time I had a male gynae and it was time for the well woman check and I'm there and you know what it's like you know getting undressed from the waist down and having a dude I had a female chaperone in the

room um who was very lovely and they're all you know very very gentle and professional and went through the whole um examination and everything's fine and then just as um he leaves the room and i'm just about to get dressed knickers aren't back on yet and um the chaperone is very excited to meet a spice girl wait till i got my pants on do you know what i mean and i'm like oh my god that's really nice you've just been looking at my vagina yeah but you just made his day so yeah so that was yeah i mean because for all women that's you know i've had a baby i've had all kinds you know i've had i've had hands up there do you know what i mean if there's any time that you don't want to meet a fan it's when they've just seen literally the inside of

your pelvis yes yeah absolutely so yeah so that was yeah that yeah so does he double down and ask for an autograph while you've got your pants off is he like signing that's so funny there you go we've all got him well half of us right yeah about half of us have had that experience i think the thing that is always so strange to me at the gynecologist or if you are seeing your gp here to get that checkup is that they like they give you the modesty towel and they leave the room so that you can take and i'm like you're about to be a lot this feels like it feels like you're redundant you know what's weird for me it's not the gyno because i only go once in a blue moon it's the spray tan oh yeah you know when you get a spray tan and they the same thing right they're

like hey i'll just duck out and let you get changed but there's an awkward amount of time where you're standing there stark is and you're cold and you're like is someone gonna come back in and then you don't know what to do when they come in like do you play it cool like you're like i'm just hanging out you're like pay me like one of your french cups i've got another one for you what about like hair removal whether it's laser or waxing because we get all up in there now don't we ain't the 70s anymore yes also it's so much more common here in australia you've been spending a lot of time here but mel we've had this discussion on the podcast before what i can't understand is why there is not a uniform way to do the back like you know the bit that i'm talking

about you know like lift a leg someone you on the side someone you want your tummy to spread apart I'm like they're just we all need to agree every laser therapist in the country needs to come together and agree on the best way to go forward we're not talking about the back we're talking about the butthole right I went the other day and I got my butthole lasered along with a lot other stuff and it was a new technique I hadn't had I've had it all right this the spread the roll on your tummy the leg up whatever this one was new it was like she was swiping an amex she got that laser and just swiped it down the middle of the cracks and I was like I was like are you paying for something? What are you doing? Anyway, she's like, you're done. I was like,

I don't think I am, but I'll choose to leave. Mel, I have so many Spice Girl questions I want to ask you, but I would prefer to start from the right here on the right now. You are, I mean, I can't believe we haven't run into you. You have been spending all of your time in Bondi. I'm in Bondi and that's the end of the interview. Are we best friends? I don't know. But you're dating someone in Sydney. You've been living in Bondi and you have recorded your ninth studio album there called sweat which is coming out in may and that's a big reason about why we wanted to speak to you today can you talk to us about i mean why you decided to record it here and what was the inspiration behind this album oh well this i've been working on this album for i think just over

two years so i did a lot of work when i was in sydney filming the voice and i've worked in la and london as well so um yeah it's i would say bondi has been super inspirational for me because being sporty spice I have have found my spiritual home you know to like to get up at like 5am and like Bondi Beach is busier at 5am than it is at 5pm do you know what I mean this is it's very un-British but if you saw the weather outside because it is quite early here yeah we're getting into the depths of our like deep autumn winter's coming yeah so to be in Bondi for me being sporty it's like yeah it's the dream and you know this album is such a reflection of what's been going on for me in the past few years I've been DJing a whole lot more traveling the world doing that

I've been loving working in Oz on The Voice my lovely boyfriend has been a big inspiration on this album and I'm just having a great time and it was time for me to make a record that was really fun you know to inject a bit of fun into my work there's light and shade you know because life's not all one thing is it so I did on this album want to try and do something that I hadn't done before I think when is my ninth studio album so it's like oh you know what do we talk about now but life continues to throw stuff at us so yeah I just had loads of fun bringing the kind of sport element into it you know really embracing that being sporty space being a DJ so it's really dancey and you know lyrically I've just yeah had a bit of fun is it more of a DJ based album

it's still a pop record that's that's the one thing I really wanted to make this album bring my what I play as a DJ and who I am as an artist I wanted to bring that closer together but when I'm in the studio I can't avoid my past and who I am as a singer you know what I mean And so it's like, I learned how to write songs, make records with the Spice Girls. So I'm never going to steer too far away from it being pop music. But I think what's happened so brilliantly in the last 20 years is genres aren't a part anymore. You know, there's so much crossover. And what I've loved as a DJ is I used to go raving like when I was like 19, 20.

and to see a lot of those sounds those 90s and naughty sounds come back into music and just be really mainstream as well you know because it was it was quite underground when it started but now it's like it's right out there and so it's been loads of fun playing with different sounds you know having a different attitude to my work trying to bring a bit more attitude into it as well you know so uh yeah i'm excited do you know what i thought of when i first heard the song Sweat that you have released so the first song that is from the album is out I actually imagined it being played so around Mardi Gras time here in Australia we tend to have these massive concerts on Bondi Beach and in my head I was like oh this is just going to be an anthem and I pictured you

performing and look I have no idea if maybe if the people who organize those concerts are listening by any chance I don't think they need to listen I think I think Sporty Spice can call up and be like yo it's Mel C I just know I just mean like I feel like that would be such a beautiful crossover and collaboration and in the music I feel as though I can hear the Australian inspiration of just like the fun the outdoors lifestyle and how was that for you you spent a lot of time with us did you kind of feel as though you were maybe less recognizable here in Australia and you could almost be a little bit more normal or did you feel as though you were Sporty Spice living in Bondi well do you know what it kind of it ebbs and flows this whole life experience that I have

and I think it's funny because me getting to know Bondi um it's its own little scene isn't it you know so I think it was funny kind of when I ventured into like the the CBD I was so much more recognized and on Bondi everyone's kind of doing their own thing so that was really lovely i was going to talk about mardi gras yeah so i i will be in australia when it is mardi gras so you know i i really hope i have the opportunity to perform sweat because oh you you've seen my spice boys right so the spice boys in the sweat video oh in the video yes yes so my creative director a guy called graham cruz was with me in australia we were shooting the voice we were both living in Bondi and um he went onto the beach on a daily basis to procure the young gentleman

to come and be my spice voice so yeah it's it's very Australian influence this this whole kind of even the kind of aesthetic of everything it was such a dream being there to to work on this creative because it was like we just kept getting handed these gifts you know there are so many beautiful people down at bondi so like finding these my little i know right it is it is it's a lot of pressure but no it was really fun and yeah it was perfect even the space we shot at carriage works and which is just a gorgeous because i know you have the fashion week over there don't you and it oh my goodness what an incredible location to work in so yeah australia has been yeah a very special place for this record while we're sitting here you just said Sydney is a really special

been a special part and a lot of inspiration and your partner has been a big inspiration how did you meet him I would love to know and what do you think about dating an Aussie because I mean I went and married a European because I just couldn't find an Aussie but a lot of people struggle dating Australians they think that they're like not romantic and not chivalrous and obviously you're having a good experience I think I've got a good one um if that's other people's experiences so this is right okay little exclusive for you nobody knows this but we actually met on Raya I met her husband I got married from Raya yeah yeah it can work people it can work it can work so I uh I don't know how much how much to divulge I was in a relationship previously

and you know sometimes you get to the end of a relationship and you're like well first of all you're like I never want to meet anyone ever again right that's it it's just me it's me and my girl that's it it's us against the world which it still is but then you get to this point and it's usually on a drunken night out with female friends right and it's like you gotta get back out there you've got to start dating so that's when the raya uh thingy was set up right the profile was set up so we're on this thing which is really good fun as well especially again with your mates down the pub it's quite fun so we used to call it boy bingo so we'd go through and you know see if there was any hotties on there see what celebrities you could spot which is always

fun see britain i used to play a game of bingo when it came to dating apps but it was if we matched with the same person yeah we're like gotcha that was our version oh my gosh oh yeah luckily I haven't had any of that all the other Spice Girls have spoken for so that that could have been awkward so yeah so I'm on the app and in my head I'm like you know what I'm I'm done I'm done with this dude I want someone who is all the things that he wasn't and the complete opposite and I don't want somebody under my feet you know so I'm in London and I like I match up with this guy in Sydney and I'm like well he's absolutely not under my feet um but I did have a DJ tour planned and I thought he's he's really cute this is this is worth pursuing so even if

it's just dinner he could buy me dinner right so I came over it was November 23 and we went out for dinner and this is this is a flex right I landed at seven o'clock that morning I stayed awake I kept busy all day and I went on our first date that night I mean that's that's impressive that's commitment it's it's that yeah it's commitment or desperation no it's how you it's how you look at it it's how we phrase it it's how we frame it yeah so I was like okay because he booked this restaurant it was hard to get into so I was I don't want to let the dude down right I'm going to rock up and we've been together ever since so that's the story which I've never actually told so what qualities does he have that you were looking for like what was different about him

he's just a real gentle soul he's one of those people that just it doesn't get all up in your business you know he's he's quietly in the sidelines being uber supportive yeah yeah and he's wonderful and I think you know for me I've said this a few times spending more time in Australia I've realized that there's a real kinship between Australians and people from the north of England I think we've got a lot of you know similar sense of humor you know just the the way we approach life and you know yeah finding that in someone's been lovely I used to live in Newcastle like I was a Geordie Shore girl and um I didn't see a lot of similarities over there they were a bit wild when I was there I do feel like listening to your story then was exactly

I just feel like you just channeled my story I was the same thing I was like I'm never fucking dating again didn't date for a year woke up one day and thought I need to get back on the horse went on to Raya found my husband there and I was like I don't exactly what you said I said I don't want anyone under my feet I don't want anyone here I want someone so far away that knows nothing about me met up with him thinking that I was just gonna like clean up with this hot guy for a night and like have my first one night stand and then I married him but he still I've married the guy so I still haven't had a one night stand like we were together ever since too and the best part is he still lives in Italy I shouldn't say the best part we don't even live together but it's like

similarities everything that you just said I was just like wow you're you're me am I a sporty spice we love to hear that we love to hear that you're happy we won't delve too much deeper but let's like rewind to I guess the Spice Girls how that came to be and just I guess who you were before you found that and whilst many people might know how you became a part of that band I do think it's fascinating I think there's a lot of people that don't know so if you can take us back to how the Spice Girls came to be yeah so well I went to performing arts college when I was 16 so I grew up just outside Liverpool and I danced from about the age of eight and I think you know I did a lot of sport as well like when I was at school and I just got to this point where

I realized being a performer was the thing that made me happiest and I was you know really really focused on on that being a career so I'd left home at 16 which is my god my daughter's 16 so that like kind of freaks me out now how young that is and I moved to London so you know for people who don't know the geography of the UK that much which again is very different to Australia okay in the UK like 200 miles is a long way yes I know in Australia it's just for us that's next door what's that expression of yours it's over whoop whoop I mean it's it's far so yeah so I moved down to London and I studied for three years but I always wanted to work in music but you know it's like how do you it you know it was different then I think there are so many avenues

that can you can release your own music you know we have social media now you can kind of get your a little fan base built up but back in the early 90s it was very different and I was out auditioning and got a flyer for a girl band and I was like oh my gosh that's it that's exactly what I want to do so I went along to this audition and there was lots of kind of changes and things I didn't make the original band I didn't make it back to the second audition I was sick and then there was a girl called Michelle who was in the band and then she wasn't in the band anymore and then Emma arrived and it was the five that you all know we left the original management we went out there on our own we'd made contacts in the industry we kind of did our own thing for about a year and

then met Simon Fuller who went on to manage us and we got signed to Virgin Records and so yeah so that's how it all began it's funny because I don't think people know the story you know there was lots of kind of ups and downs and changes before we became the Spice Girls I think that's really interesting Mel because by all accounts you would think okay this person or this company that has developed this band and shot you into stardom do you think that you would feel some kind of loyalty to them or you owe them but you guys actually just packed up and left was there something that went down that we don't know about that made you do that do you know what I think because when Emma joined the band it just felt like we this like final jigsaw piece had been put

into place and it was you know there's this thing with the Spice Girls I mean obviously now because everything that happened happened but from day one before we'd ever released anything the five of us together the dynamic is so electric that and I think that was the thing that catapulted us out into the world you know everywhere we went every label we went to every management we went to see people just they couldn't help like they were just what is this like whirlwind you know we were like a Tasmanian devil we just came in and we just disrupted everything and that was just that's what it's like now you know we we get together in a room and it's not often that the five of us are together we get together in like there might be a three and a two and a whatever

but when the five of us get together it's just wild whatever this thing is whatever this chemistry is between us it's so sparky and we felt that but our management were very reluctant to move things forward and we were young and we were ambitious and we were impatient and we just wanted to be out there so I think because they were dragging their heels we were like screw this lot let's come do it on our own you know we were so young but I think we had so much belief because we could feel this energy you know and also just having each other to bounce off each other to support each other we were like we are going to conquer the world and the minute we all went we're going to do this we never look back you know and I think that's such a huge part of the Spice Girls

success. I also think that what you're describing it's kind of like when you meet a partner that you just connect with you can't necessarily identify what one thing it is but there's just a different energy when you're together you know there's just something that whether you can identify it or not it's there and it's like that chemistry and that magic that can be created but you guys you didn't know each other beforehand and then you seemingly became the best of friends you ended up living in a house together like how quick did that friendship evolve and what was that like at the time do you know what it came really quickly and I think that being because we all shared this vision you know so it was and we we never stopped it's it's interesting now because

you know obviously there are a lot of tv shows that have you know I think a lot of things post Spice Girls was quite Spice Girls inspired so you know tv shows that put bands together and this whole like training thing but we we were doing a similar thing but behind the scenes you know and we were all very self-motivated so yeah we'd we'd be in that house it was just crazy we'd be like doing I mean oh god like it's so funny thinking back it's like must have been so annoying but um to our neighbors especially we were always singing and dancing and doing dance routines and you know anywhere we went we'd get up and we'd do a song and you know and it's cute because we were you know we were so young but we just had this self-belief like we go and I mean

you know jerry's such a huge part of this jerry and melanie being like the more outspoken members of the band like we go to clubs before we'd made a record before we'd released anything before anyone knew or gave a fuck who we were right we go straight to the front of the queue and go we're a girl band you gotta let us in oh no you didn't do you know who we are not yet but you will did they let you it worked it worked you know that conviction like about having each other to go go on egging each other on brit is so about this she is the type of person who she's always like you have to manifest what you want you've got to talk about yeah that you've already got it you know you've got to believe in yourself even when other people fake it so you make it oh you've never i am

the ultimate manifester like that you can put that on my grave if you want i'll die somehow i'm manifesting something you can put on my grave but what was it like i guess you guys went from zero to 100 so quickly i cannot think of another band in the world literally that in such a short time dominated the world but then i guess for want of a better word ended so quickly as well because we know ginger spice left what 22 months into into your band and created but what was it like to go from zero to 100 when you're so young you have not only the world looking in on you but you have the uk media and the tabloids who we know are some of the most vicious in the world what was that experience like for you yeah that was yeah it was a baptism of fire for sure

yeah it's crazy you know we made two albums and a movie all untoward we're all within like under two years um yeah it's it's nuts so we got together in 1994 so it was it was two years before we released anything and then yeah less than two years and I think the thing that blows my mind is you know obviously that we we made great music made the movie but it was like that cultural impact and it's something like now I did it is wild I don't think I can watch like a like some like box set or whatever it is some tv show some movie without there being a reference to the Spice Girls you know it's crazy you know whether it's actually the Spice Girls or Girl Power or one of the one of the band members it's it seems to be like a daily thing for us and it has been since

the 90s which you know is crazy but it was it was tough you know and I think nothing can prepare you for it and the 90s and the noughties were brutal like the tabloid media here were horrendous you know things have improved um you know they got a big old shake up when all the like illegal like phone hacking and stuff went down and that happened to you didn't it yeah yeah it happened to everyone everyone in the public eye had this experience it was horrendous because you know you were reading stories about yourself and you were like how do they have this information and we you know even within the band it was so detrimental to us because we started to question each other you know each other's like loyalty if we could trust each other our families our friends you

know it was yeah it was really detrimental to relationships i can't imagine like how you would feel you're in this tight-knit group there are five of you that know a pivotal crucial piece of information then it's like it's like the wag at the christy right like you guys started the wag at the christy thing where you're like one one of you is telling my secrets who is it there is no part of you that would think somebody the press is hacking your phone because that is like cia level stuff this is yeah well you know what's wild right what is wild is we were warned we were warned and I don't know whether it was it was kind of a way of controlling us but we were warned that anything we ever did would get found out right which is imagine living like

that because we were like late 20s sorry late teens early 20s so you're going out you know you're experimenting you're meeting people you're having fun you're figuring out who you are but all of this is like under a microscope and you were getting told anything you do any mistake you make it will get found out and it will be publicized was there someone like like the most famous person that you might have hooked up with that never made it out like did you guys sneak in some relationships that you were like that that you were like wow i can't believe the press didn't here like we made out I don't believe I think there might be one person that was like a question mark over um but there was like did they didn't they but I think all if I think about all the

girls and anyone else in the public eye we might have hooked up with I think that oh it's all out there wow yeah did that change how you lived life like did it make you be smaller in your experiences because you were just terrified that you'd have to have everyone find out yeah it really did and i mean not only in how you went about life but how you internalized things you know and i think the hardest thing for a young person in the public eye i personally found was the narrative that's built up for you you know and and i i experienced this when i i released an autobiography a few years back and at the same time I was um I was gathering all the evidence for my phone hacking case because I did do a case have a claim and it was dark because I had to go

back through everything from the 90s everything that was ever written about me in the tabloids and being I mean it was quite cathartic in a sense because you know I've had issues you know after I um was working with the Spice Girls in the late 90s early noughties you know I really struggled I had an eating disorder I had depression I was you know struggling with anxiety and there was lots of things I had to address and when I went back to look I'm getting upset thinking about it and when I went back and saw the narrative that was presented of me I thought about how young I was at that time I actually forgave myself because I felt so guilty for so long that I'd become a victim of those issues you know and I you know it's like so many performers I'm a perfectionist

you know I'm very hard on myself and and I got very sick and I blamed myself and I was you know and I was weak and I when I looked at that all of that press coverage I I forgave myself I was like I had no chance young people under that scrutiny and it's evil you know they they took our personal information they took medical information about me they published it they didn't only publish it they bullied us with it you know I mean they used it as a weapon they did they totally did and so like I say in a sense it was cathartic but it makes me angry and it makes me really sad because I feel like they stole something from me I mean they stole my my freedom as a young person to live my life and I make mistakes and you know so it was yeah it's luckily it's not the same

you know I mean it's not as bad now they kind of it's a little bit more read between the lines in the UK media I would say I think you're giving them a lot of grace it's still pretty bad like it's still pretty horrific they're still crossing a lot of lines but nothing comparable to the time that you you were experiencing it but I remember I've read it about you but posh also I shouldn't say posh Victoria Beckham um in her documentary that's okay we don't mind I know do you know it's such a it just defaulted to it my I should yeah I should call her Victoria Beckham that is her name but Victoria recently spoke about in her documentary the fact that you guys on live radio and live TV were being weighed and compared for your body weight

and how much weight you'd put on and like what – sorry, you were 18. What chance did you have? And I think as a society we forget that happened. Like we just forget. Until I re-saw that and her speaking about it on the documentary, I'm like imagine if somebody went onto TV now and they were like weighed and compared you against the rest of you. Like of course you didn't stand a chance.

I know you would not blame the media but is there a part of you that attributes your eating disorder to the things that were written and said in those times yeah I you know what I think whatever happens to us in life there's lots of factors around that isn't there you know what was difficult for me personally you know I'd grown up in an environment being a dancer you know as a dancer went to college, 16 to 19. And I knew people, you know, who were suffering. And so I'd been exposed to people with eating disorders, but I'd never succumbed to that. And it was that scrutiny that kind of just pushed me over the edge. Yeah. Like you say, you can't blame people, but there's catalysts, you know, a comment, a comment about the size of your legs or,

you know, a mean headline or something. And it does, it feeds into that insecurity and it definitely makes these problems worse. Mel, please only share what you're comfortable with, but are you at a point now of resolution with that eating disorder or is it something that has, you know, kind of always lives in the back of your mind even now at 51? Like does that still, does it still exist for you in your mind, the diet culture of the 90s and kind of the pressure

that you were put under at the time? Do you know what? It was a really long journey back to full health and I feel like yeah diet culture look I look at the 80s like my mum was always on a diet I mean my mum's in incredible shape but I just think as women in our society there has always been so much pressure the thing that I love now I mean nothing's ever perfect is the aesthetic has changed you know there is so much more body positivity I'm muscular that's not for everyone you know what i mean it's like i know i get criticized sometimes because oh she's too

masculine whatever screw you this is my choice thank you so much this is how i choose to look do you mean i work hard i love working out i eat good i look after my body i'm 51 years old i still work like i'm 25 do you mean nana gets tired i'm not gonna i'm not gonna lie but that 3 p.m nap hits different yeah yeah so you know life is different but i want to continue to work at this pace until i drop dead you know and that's what it's going to take to do it i'm taking my collagen i'm doing my weighted walks i'm doing all the things right that's what i choose to do but in the 90s it was very much heroin chic you know it was skinny was the only way especially if you're in the public eye we had all those lovely magazines they'd circle the cellulite

they do all that stuff I mean thank god that you know my daughter isn't growing up in that culture she she wants a big bum you know sure I mean I want a big bum now too I'm like yeah right bring the squats on girl so yeah so thankfully the aesthetics changed and um you know of course we still are under a lot of pressure but I think those things there's like from childhood from being a young person it never goes away but to answer your question yeah I've had a lot of therapy and yeah I think time wisdom becoming a mum you know meeting a fantastic partner all of those things that it's a lot of it's confidence isn't it it's like figuring out I'm okay you know what I mean I'm okay no matter what and just actually giving yourself a bit of a break being kind to

yourself in every way I don't train like a lunatic anymore I mean I train hard because I love it but I ain't on that treadmill for an hour you know it's not that so um yeah it's it's been a journey yeah million dollar question did you guys get to pick your names like did you you get to say I want to be sporty or did someone put that on you we were named by a magazine so you know you must know top of the pops it's iconic yes tv music show in the uk well it was sadly no longer with us and they had a magazine and it was the editor and we had lunch with him and he was like you guys you need a nickname so they just like published the magazine one week and give us these silly names and they just stuck and actually in the us they don't know our names they know they kind of know

them now but like back in the day it was just all nicknames that's i did not know that so you when the Spice Girls took off you didn't have the names yet that was given to you after the fact yeah and it was like like I say it was never meant to be a thing it just caught on was anyone dirty dirty with the names like was Ginger like fuck why am I Ginger like yeah yeah no we totally like played up to it and we became caricatures of it and the funny thing is now because you know obviously Ginger the color of her hair right but you know she was fiery and she was outspoken and she was loud and we you know we kind of become these characters of these nicknames and we haven't changed you know we get together now and we're still you know victoria was always a bit posher

than the rest of us she'd be the first to admit she ain't posh well she kind of is now well she wasn't then but yeah melby's scary i mean i don't know if you've met melby she would be the one that i wouldn't have wanted to cross for sure like absolutely that's what she gave but you know what she is right so Mel B is she's one of those characters where you wouldn't want to cross her but if she's got your back it's all good you know what I mean yeah yeah okay so you're given these names do you think that that actually impacted the way that you interacted with each other that you like lent more into the characters that you were given within the dynamic or did it just naturally kind of fit like what came first the

yeah yeah yeah yeah well I think it's funny because you've actually you've sparked a little memory because people often ask you know about the nicknames and the way that we all dress differently and when when we were with our first management I can remember the day it was you know we were trying to figure out who we were who we wanted to be as a band and our management were you know saying oh you know dress like this dress like that you know coordinate sing these songs and we were all like nothing quite felt quite right and one day we're in a rehearsal and we used to rehearse in like this dance studio with mirrors and I was in a trackie and Emma was in a little baby doll dress and Jerry was in something from like a I don't know what you guys call it

we call it like a charity shop but you know she was like all like a little eclectic crazy little get ups and I'm not sure if Mel B had the leopard print by now but she had her big you know bushy hair all out was victoria in a little gucci dress she was it wasn't gucci then couldn't afford the gucci yeah no she was definitely in something a bit more sophisticated so we you know i remember jerry like looking in the mirror and going why don't we just dress the way we dress you know why don't we do that and it wasn't like a big thought and you know a master plan it was like well you're comfortable in a tracksuit you know you're comfortable in your dress and so that's how we presented ourselves out to the world and that's you know a lot of the you know obviously

my nicknames very much on how I dressed and like my physicality and stuff but yeah that was something that came quite early and I think we just like these nicknames did evolve into our characters but it's like it is who we are we I think we played up to it for the cameras but our personalities really haven't changed i remember we were in rehearsal for our tour we toured at the uk in 2019 we did stadiums oh my god the shows honestly the show was amazing if you do it again can you send us a ticket because i missed out well it would be nice to do it in australia right you know we've we've neglected you guys for way too long you have but we we were in rehearsals and melby had leopard print on i had a tracky on and and we just like i think emma was probably like

baby blue and had some little bunches in it we were like we're ridiculous like we we just literally are these people we have never changed yeah I think that's really beautiful and it's quite obvious to the rest of the world I think that now we can probably see a little bit more through the cracks but I think it's really obvious that you guys had such genuine love for each other and loyalty towards each other and support for each other has that continued on for you know with these lifelong friendships are these people that you will you know you will go to the end of your days just loving so thoroughly absolutely but you know what it's beyond friendship it's family because we grew up together we had our like our siblings it's funny because four of us have

siblings the same age so you know they experience because you know when these things happen to people it's not just the Spice Girls it happened to it was our family you know it was our close friends and we had everyone so close to us so we grew up with each other's parents and now the kids obviously we all have our own kids and you know sometimes we drive each other crazy sometimes we fall out you know and people they love that the media love that don't they oh there's you know there's a rift in the spice girls yeah of course there is because we're like sisters yeah you know sometimes someone's really acting up and we're really angry with them and then but if anybody said anything negative about them we would be on him and that's that's

the nature of the relationship and that's never going to change it's also so yeah it's like because that was going to be a question but i love that you just own it and claim it and you're like yeah we had a fight get over it like that's it yeah tell me a relationship in the world that doesn't that is smooth sailing but isn't it so funny that you could say that like i could say something about brit but no one else but if anybody else said something like that they can fuck right off what was the the deal with um if you can with jerry when she left because i think that that was a really big I mean it shocked the world I'll remember I never forget reading the headline I was like what do you mean the Spice Girls are over like that was that ripped hearts out all over

the world was there a falling out there over something or was it just a not for me anymore do you know what it's it was a difficult time I mean it was a difficult time for all of us because it came as quite a shock um I think Jerry had been struggling um just personally within the band and and I think gosh you know at that point we were all at burnout we were on tour we hadn't stopped for like almost a couple of years and and I think it just got to that part of being a Spice Girl you know we all have a part of being a Spice Girl that we love you know Jerry is very creative myself and Jerry spent a lot of time in the studio we'd we'd often like work extra hours on choreo you know because she wasn't a trained dancer you know she's she openly admits that

so we'd hang out and we'd work a bit more on that and she'd be so creative like in the studio with lyrics and song ideas but when it came to the live it doesn't give her the same fulfillment as it does someone like me or Mel and Emma and I think for her at that point we were all so exhausted and you know and there was tensions between us there was we talked about the media situation and I think she just got to the point where she's like I can't carry on I can't do this anymore and at the time we were really hurt we were really upset and we didn't believe it we were like we thought she'd come back there's like there's this footage of me because we come back to the UK to do a show we just released Viva Forever and I had to fib and say she wasn't well and I'm

the worst liar in the world but we did honestly believe she was going to come back I think we were leaving her like voice notes like come on you silly cow come back now you know we get it we're sorry yeah we hear you kind of thing and then she just didn't she just didn't she just who would you say that you are closest to now after all this time I think myself and Emma we've always remained closer we don't live that far from each other actually we socialize probably more than i do with the other girls um but you know what's interesting i think within the band we all have and you know this is like friends isn't it we have different relationships with each other you know everyone's relationship is quite unique yeah and then i mean i could sit

on the spice girls forever but you were so much more than that you did go out on your own once the spice girls dissolved what was that like to try and start fresh and find a new identity because all of a sudden you're not a you are a spice girl but you're not you're you're melanie see and you were trying to say, Hey, like, look who I am on my own. I imagine that you sort of get stuck with, because I don't want to say stuck with, but here we are now still talking about the Spice Girls, you know, 20, 30 years on. How did you redefine who you were and did you find it a real struggle? Yeah, it was super hard. I think initially I was desperate to do that. You know, I was, and I wasn't ready to stop because I think I'd already developed, you know,

some of the issues that I was dealing with and I was I think I was too scared to stop because I'd have to face things so we toured in 1998 and on the American leg of the tour both Melanie and Victoria fell pregnant I love that fell pregnant oh whoopsie it's such a such a stupid way to say it I fell on the penis whoopsie oh my god I fell on the sperm yeah it's so funny yeah how should I phrase that they they got knocked up basically and so of course that meant there'd be a natural break in what we were doing but for me it was like right I can't stop I won't stop and I went to LA and I started working on my first solo record and that was probably a tricky time in the sense that I absolutely loved expressing myself as an individual

and just you know being part of the band is incredible but it's quite overwhelming and I think being one of the quieter members of the band to be able to have my own voice and not have to compromise in any way I was like I really like this you know so that first record was I mean it was such a magical time to be able to express myself in that way but also it made me really determined to prove that I was more than just Sporty Spice so I feel like I kind of parked Sporty Spice for a few years and I was trying to redefine who I was and you know it's all there on the internet you can see there's there's hairstyle you can see me figuring my shit out there were definitely lots of different hairstyles yeah so although creatively you know making music that

was all going well officially I wasn't quite sure um so that took a little bit of time to figure out but it's funny because I was so like I'm more than a Spice Girl you know I'm an individual which is kind of redundant because the Spice Girls is this enormous entity and something I'm so proud of that coming back to it and embracing it and realizing I am an individual as well as being part of this incredible thing it serves me so much better you know can you you don't have to answer this but do you guys still get royalties from the Spice Girls yeah absolutely so could you just live off the royalties now like hypothetically you don't want to lift a finger again is it enough to like are you killing it it's all relative isn't it it's relative to the

lifestyle you want right this is true and I only say this I'll just say it I don't want to come it's a rude question for sure we have a friend in the industry that did very well with music and unfortunately they had signed their life away a little bit to a record label to a label and we were shocked to hear just how little they get from that so i guess my question was more seeded around that as well i think people would probably be shocked that it's not a crazy amount of money that the spice girls still make but we we co-wrote everything we did so obviously there's there's five of us and and we we had 50 of all the songs split between the five of us like 10 percent each so obviously those songs are still loved and played so we do get publishing royalties

from that yeah I suppose and recording royalties as well so there there are ways there is revenue streams still out there yeah but you know what for me is like I love what I do I could probably live I'd have a very different life but I love making music I love you know speaking to people I love traveling I love performing so so why would I stop you know I was going to ask you like you've got your ninth studio album coming out do you still get that same buzz performing like does it still kind of oh my gosh oh my god absolutely it's like more so because I think yeah I think you just become more appreciative the older you get you know like back in the day like with the girls when we did 2019 those those last shows it was great because we were present we really

appreciated it you know we were we could really take it all in in the 90s we were in survival mode yeah we were knackered you know we were just just yeah days living day to day yeah to get through the amount of work we were doing so it is beautiful to revisit something and really appreciate it what was it like performing in front of your daughter was that like kind of strange for you guys to have them realize you know who their moms were yeah you know it's funny because people say oh you know when did you introduce your daughter to the Spice Girls and it's like she's just grown up with it you know she's met the other girls she's been along to my shows and she's watched the videos and all the things but it blew her mind to see like in real time mum

in a stadium face on a screen like 90,000 people screaming you know singing along I think all of the kids because they were like such lovely ages when we did those shows they obviously we weren't able to see them but their reactions they were all a bit gobsmacked so for like two weeks I was the coolest mum ever I was about to say you probably you were sold out Wembley Stadium so you probably went from mum you're embarrassing me to like that's my mum that's my mum yeah yeah totally totally but then after two weeks we were still on the road it was like yeah just back to normal cringe how funny because it's like she I mean it's one thing to grow up knowing that your parents do something cool or like or you know I was in a band once but it's another thing just to

see the reach and the love and the excitement that you had because there are not many people that are selling out Wembley Stadium you know especially like 20 years after the fact yeah should we do some quick fire yes we've got some uh spice it up with Mel C questions for you Mel so these are just like fast back and forth uh can we start with your favorite tour memory and it can be from any tour that you've ever done okay this is gonna make me sound a little bit strange so when we did those shows in 2019 one of my favorite shows we were in Manchester and every single show we played on that tour was incredible we played Bristol and it absolutely pissed down we were soaking we had to like re redo the show so we didn't go out and

like just get soaked and so that was insane but still an amazing night in manchester we used to come up through the stage like for the opening for spice up your life and oh every night i was like singing in my head yeah honestly thinking about it it's so exciting but we'd be on this like a lift under the stage and we'd all be holding hands and we'd pop up and that the wave of love that would come at you from the audience it was just incredible and this one night in Manchester I don't know what this says about me but I could I could see I could see crackles of like you like electricity I could I could I had this visual there was so much energy honestly it was wild and I and I swear down it happened I saw this thing and so that for me is like it's

otherworldly were you in a lightning storm yeah yeah right I know it was this crackle of energy I saw it from the audience and that is it's so hard to describe to people the feeling when you're on stage in that environment and it's like so I think back to Croke Park as well as another one it was a crook park in Dublin it was our the first night of the tour and you're shitting yourself right we're not ready can I remember everything and we're gonna make a fool of ourselves can I get through all these things that go through your head so we were shaking your knees are going and we were all like gripping each other's hands and the moment we popped up onto the stage there was this like wave this like physical wave of love that hit you and from that moment

everything was okay you know and you just you this shared experience you have with this you know crowd 90 000 strong it's it's almost indescribable but that's how I like try to try to express it to people so they can get an idea of what it feels like I mean yeah we we perform to 5 000 people and I get that energy so um I can only imagine what it feels like for you Which Spice Girl causes the most trouble? Mel B. That was dumb. That's easy.

Okay, that was a real quickfire one. I know. I remember they're quickfire and I just talked for ages about it. No, it's actually better not quickfire. Have any of you been to jail? Some of us should have been. Okay, so none arrested. Not yet.

Not yet. Okay, well, they're still young. Okay, a song you'll never get tired of performing. oh my gosh all of them all of them i love it i used to be a real ballad girl i used to be like viva forever to become one too much they're my faves and then when we did the olympics 2012 in london it was a little medley of wannabe and spice up your life and i was like these songs bring people so much joy that they have become yeah absolute favorites as well can i just tell you well that before we started recording i was talking with our video editor ness who absolutely

loves you and I was joking about this meme that went around my friendship group like a couple of years ago and it said despite the contradictory advice that circulated in the 90s if you want to be my lover please do not get with my friends yeah it just hits different now doesn't it yeah yeah yeah back to that bingo thing where we would match with the same people what is your biggest ick oh my goodness my biggest ick oh do you know what I hate i hate people who go i tell it like it is oh fuck off you're just oh that really annoys me that's so funny oh it just annoys me it's like you tell it like it is yeah you're just mean or i think that's for other people to say what you are not you do you know what i mean it's also

like it's on par with people that say hey no offense you fucking old i think it's more like when you're dating and the person that like this only happened for me with guys where they'd be like I'm a really nice guy and I remember getting to the point where I was like do you know what actually that's for me to determine that's actually not for you to self-identify as you won't need to tell me yeah that self-awareness do you know I mean it's like don't patronize me I can decide how I view you who's the spice girl that you would trust the most to take your daughter on a holiday that's a good question it's funny actually because melby she's i love you mel he's getting

a bad drop in this thing i'm like the one my daughter would probably like to go on holiday the most with but the one i'm like and i'm not meant because that's the same holiday they're most likely to get arrested yeah exactly exactly well we have we have this joke like me and mel because my daughter's really sassy and even when she was little we'd be like shouldn't she be your daughter you know what I mean she's a little bit like you I would trust all of the girls with my child to be honest with you I think she was who would she yeah she'd enjoy going on holiday with Melanie the most probably but then Victoria probably I'm sure that would be a pretty nice holiday yeah I don't know if I was a teenager I think I'd be going with Victoria

last question who's the most famous person you've kissed um oh my god it's such old It's old news, isn't it? I suppose it would be Robbie, would it? That's not a secret, is it? I love him. Yeah. He's so much fun. You know, I was security at his first concert.

You know, I was a security guard there. Is that not the funniest thing? Really? I was like, I would have blown away in the wind. I wasn't stopping anyone. But my only way to see him was to work it. And so I got a job on the security team and I was like stopping people from getting in and that was how I experienced it.

Mel I am so grateful that you've taken the time to speak with us you are just I hope this comes across in the way that I mean for it too you're so normal like you're just such a normal lovely person to have a conversation with and you just tell it how it is it's like you just tell it how it is it's just who you are you're just a nice person so down to earth you actually are very down to earth though and I think I will speak for both of us when I say that we so hope that we run into you on bondi beach at the playground that's what we call the i'm taking you to toddy's hit me up next time you're back oh my god i love toddy's how good's the bread just before i left sydney that was like where do you want to go and i was like yeah that's where i want to go after i shot

the video i was like i want to go to toddy's and order all the potatoes all of the bread yeah all the bread all the potatoes ah yeah we're thrilled i feel like australia has adopted you in the way you you've been coming here for so long and you're on our tv screens you're dating one of us like we were good enough to make it into your world which we are thrilled about and i i'm i'm genuinely absolutely thrilled that we got to this chance to speak to you because you've been such a huge part of my childhood but so many people's childhood and just to hear that you're such a nice normal person as well is wonderful but i cannot wait to hear the rest of the album for everyone that wants to hear it it's may 1 may 1st sweat will be dropping like it's hot

And I can only hope you spend some time here playing and doing some shows because you know that it'll be a sellout. Well, you know that's in my plan. Single's out right now and, yeah, video's out there and I'll be back really, really soon. We love it. There'll be links to all of that plus and all social media in our show notes for anyone to click through.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Oh, I've really enjoyed it. So I hope all your viewers and listeners enjoyed too. And, yeah, I'll see you soon. and yeah if we we're not just going to bump into each other we're gonna we're gonna plan it we're gonna see each other when i'm back