Sporty Spice spills the beans: ‘I NEVER FELT GOOD ENOUGH'

It took years of therapy and self-love to get the singer back up on stage

The first thing you notice about Melanie Chisholm, aka Mel C, is her absolute confidence. Staring down the barrel of a camera lens with total assurance, this is a world away from any memory of the shy, awkward Sporty Spice once cuttingly described as “the plain one at the back”.

Groomed, toned and self-possessed, she looks (and feels!) better in her 40s than she ever did in her 20s, but she had to turn her back on the celebrity circus to become the woman she is today.

“It’s not a fast process,” she says. “It’s taken me a long time to get to where I am. Most people think you’re at your most confident when you’re young and famous, but that’s not the case. When I left the girls, I did everything I could to get away from Sporty Spice. I cut my hair. I went out on tour at rock festivals. I had this push to not be Sporty Spice, proving I was something more.”

Of all the Spice Girls, Melanie, now 46, was always the most introspective, the outsider. When she, along with Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Victoria Adams (now Beckham) and Geri Halliwell (now Horner), first came to public attention in 1996, they each had their own styles and personalities, which became amplified by almost-instant global superstardom.