Mel C opens up about sexual assault experience
Mel C has revealed that she was sexually assaulted before her first Spice Girls show.
While appearing on the latest episode of the How To Fail podcast with Elizabeth Day, the 48-year-old pop star star, full name Melanie Chisholm, shared details from her new book, Who I Am: My Story.
Mel, also known as Sporty Spice, joined in the 1990s mega girl group when she was 20.
n the interview she revealed that on the night of her first performance in Istanbul, Turkey, she was sexually assaulted.
“It happened to me on the night before the first-ever Spice Girls live performance,” she recalled. “We were in Istanbul, we did two shows over there, and we’d never done a full-length concert before, so obviously we’d rehearsed for weeks ahead, costume fittings, make-up, hair, everything was leading towards the pinnacle of everything I’d ever wanted to do and ever wanted to be.”
She continued that the assault occurred during a massage at the hotel where she was staying.
“What drives me is being onstage, being a performer, so here we were the eve of the first-ever Spice Girls show, so I treat myself to a massage in the hotel,” Mel said. “And what happened to me I kind of buried immediately because there was other things to focus on. I didn’t want to make a fuss, but also I didn’t have time to deal with it.”
She added: “Because I didn’t deal with it at the time, I realise that I allowed that to be buried for years and years and years.”
Reference: Cover Media: Thursday