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Jesy Nelson reveals she does NOT speak to Little Mix members anymore, but hopes to one day


Slayer

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“I haven’t spoken to the girls,” she says and falls silent before continuing. “It is weird because for so many years we were as close as sisters, together every hour of the day for weeks, sharing beds, laughing, crying just 24/7 the four of us together and then…” her voice trails off. “Nothing.”

She hasn’t seen Perrie and Leigh-Anne’s babies, I ask? She shakes her head. “No. I’ve sent a few texts, but that’s it. I can’t explain it, it’s like there has to be this distance. We were so close so you can’t do in-between, there has to be space and hopefully…” she pauses. “Hopefully at some point in the future we can all come back together. I love them. They are my sisters in so many ways, but for the time being we just don’t talk.”

It’s clearly a tough subject. Jesy has always been at pains to explain that her problems were never caused by her relationship with the girls. It was about the pressure of being in a girlband, which meant looking a certain way, singing a certain type of song (Little Mix were very much dance pop whereas Jesy’s heart lies firmly in R&B and hip-hop) and inevitably falling victim to the media and social media’s endless game of comparisons. Being the ‘odd one out’ for Jesy meant never being good enough.

She takes a deep breath. “In so many ways,” she says. “Doing a Little Mix shoot was always a terrifying experience for me. I would dread shoots, I couldn’t sleep the night before because I’d be so anxious about what clothes I had to wear, how I would look compared to the other girls, what people were then going to say.

“I look back and I think how crazy it got. I’d starve myself for days and I’d wear these corsets every single day, pulled so tight I could barely breathe. I used to wear corsets every single day to make my waist smaller, which is mental but I so badly just wanted to look like Jade, Leigh and Perrie.

“I couldn’t breathe half the time I was working and then my body would be covered in bruises from the corsets. But that’s how it was. My first nightmare moment was our very first shoot when the stylist had all my clothes in a size 8 and I’m a 12. They didn’t fit. I felt awful, I felt fat and that was how I always felt.”

She pauses and then explains that on the Boyz video she wore a crop top. “A crop top,” she exclaims. “Me!” I am puzzled because I think of the all revealing clothes she wore from her Little Mix days. “No. I was the one covered up as much as possible. When I danced in that crop top I saw my belly rolls in the mirror and it didn’t bother me, in Little Mix if I’d seen any belly rolls I’d have been crying and screaming for a big T-shirt. So I was laughing to myself because I didn’t care. It sounds like a little thing but that was a big moment for me.”

“I started using makeup and hair to mask who I genuinely was because I got slated for my face and my weight and how I looked. I did everything I could to not be myself. I tried ridiculous diets to lose weight. I changed my hair all the time. I got lip fillers. I did everything I could to be this girl people would accept.”

She sees being able to go bare-faced as one of the ultimate signs of self-confidence and self-acceptance. “I’m not there yet, but I’m getting there. I don’t wear corsets, I stopped the lip fillers. I’m still wearing makeup, but nowhere near as much as I used to. 

But for Jesy, fame and riches as part of being in a ‘hot’ girlband was the price she paid for having her confidence, self-esteem and sense of self obliterated. Relentlessly trolled on social media with thousands of vile insults too repulsive to repeat, she dreaded being constantly compared to “these three naturally gorgeous, super teeny-tiny girls” (her words on her band mates) and lost herself to depression, eating disorders and one suicide attempt in 2013. A cruel comment about her weight on Twitter from self-appointed Queen of Mean, Katie Hopkins, propelled her into taking an overdose and being hospitalised. (“No, Katie Hopkins has never apologised,” she answers when I ask her. “No-one has ever said sorry to me at all.”)

Speaking of that darkest moment, she says now, “In 2013, I genuinely thought I am never going to feel happy again,” she says. “Every day I would wake up and think ‘this is me now, this is how I feel and there’s nothing I can do to pull myself out of this. You honestly feel like you’re never going to move past that and that’s what gets you into that state of thinking ‘well why am I even here? What is the point?’”

This incident, along with her spiralling mental health and depression was kept under wraps. On previous occasions when I have interviewed Jesy she was always polite, but emotionally closed off. Those huge eyes were guarded and any jollity always felt forced and fake. At times, she was, even by her own admission, difficult to be around.

“I was a nightmare,” she says. “A lot of people who worked with me would have thought I was a pain in the arse and a real diva. The reality was I was a young girl going through trauma of people (on social media) 24/7 slating me physically.

“I didn’t speak to anyone, I tried to keep it all in my head and we worked so hard, non-stop, travelling all over the world, touring all the time… but I wouldn’t really let anyone in. I’d shut things down.”

BOYZ is out on Friday!

Full interview with Glamour Magazine UK:

https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/jesy-nelson-digital-cover-star-october-2021-interview

FBAjZj6UcAQH8pE?format=jpg&name=4096x409

GLAMOUR-Jesy_Nelson2.jpg

 

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3 minutes ago, gapeach704 said:

This is giving very much Camila Cabello vibes...and not in a good way.  Love Jesy and love little mix.

On the contrary they still seem to have mad respect for each other. She leaves the band so they had to create a distance. She has to be Jesy Nelson and no more Jesy from Little Mix. 

When people will stop asking LM and JN questions about each other, I think it'll be the right time

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I'm sad reading this... She really struggled with her image and self-confidence, while I always found her so beautiful, fierce, s*xy, and soooo not fat at all! That's crazy how we can be so hard on ourselves...

Also I am disappointed the girls are not as close as they were (as if they were my friends lol). I first thought Jesy made this distance with them when she left the group, but apparently things are not always what they seem. I really hope they will get in touch again.

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I can TOTALLY understand them not talking to each other if they separate after being 24/7 in a famous band, I'm pretty sure that was the case for ALL members of past bands which separated or dissolved. It actually makes absolute sense, and it even sounds healthy to me. BUT... Two of them just had babies. That's major. You surely need to make a bigger and more meaningful connection other than a few texts?? That is weird and wrong. I think there's more to it than what we (or even they) know.

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“I was a nightmare,” she says. “A lot of people who worked with me would have thought I was a pain in the arse and a real diva. The reality was I was a young girl going through trauma of people (on social media) 24/7 slating me physically.

Now that's problematic to me. It's not healthy to think that THE WORLD is against you and that you have nothing to do with it, or no responsibility whatsoever, or no way to deal with it (say it however you can, to SOMEBODY in all those years... I'm pretty sure at least her mother was aware of it from what I learned from her documentary, and weren't the other girls true friends with her?). It's so toxic to blame others for your problems. And even if others are being mean or unjust with you, you still have responsibility to the way you react.

I'm not being harsh on her, but I don't think she quite gets it and that kinda gets on my nerves. She's a grown woman and has all the resources to get help and get well. She's starting a solo career with the Demi Lovato discourse: an eternal victim of the world.

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5 minutes ago, bitbitboi said:

She's starting a solo career with the Demi Lovato discourse: an eternal victim of the world.

No, just no at the Demi reference.

This whole campaign has been about how happy she is now, with herself, her body and that she has good people around her. She’ll have to discuss why she left as she’ll be asked it loads and tbh she was (and still is) viciously attacked online. She’s not asking for anyone’s pity, which you’ll hear in all of her recent interviews. All she keeps saying is how happy she is now, or poor her.

We all view things differently but it’s pretty clear to me Jesy’s just explaining herself and is pretty insistent she’s happier now, not victim mentality like Demi.

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Ehh just looking at her face, she still has fillers. I get the distance thing because Jesy needed to get away from the LM machine, but it's like she has animosity toward their looks when they couldn't help it. I get her feeling pressure, being compared and ultimately defeated because of how she tried to look cohesive to them, but that a singular issue. It's not fair to the girls to have to feel pushed out because of Jesy's insecurities. I rewatch old videos of them all the time and now that I know how Jesy felt in the group, I notice how unhappy she is in some BTS footage or she wouldn't even be there; it was just the current three. I remember the videos of them speaking so highly of her to the point that in one Leigh started crying. You can tell Jesy has some remorse for how her issues projected out to others and she's taking accountability. I hope they can be great friends again. They seem to have had a genuine sisterhood that I haven't seen in a group before...anyways, I'm happy she is healing and FU*K Katie Hopkins! I'm sooooo excited for her debut single!!! I hope the video drops the same day as well!

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1 hour ago, MikeHunt said:

Ehh just looking at her face, she still has fillers. 

In regards to this comment, she hasn't. She had this face shape from the beginning but she lost loads of weight.

People have literally commented on her face shape for the past 10 years saying she looks deformed (which she doesn't). 

Jesy has always had different but beautiful features!

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52 minutes ago, Slayer said:

In regards to this comment, she hasn't. She had this face shape from the beginning but she lost loads of weight.

People have literally commented on her face shape for the past 10 years saying she looks deformed (which she doesn't). 

Jesy has always had different but beautiful features!

I was referring to her lips. I have no issue with anyone doing anything to their body but the cover states she no longer has lip filler. It's like they're setting her up for people to hate on her. I think she's gorgeous but I mean we have eyes, she doesn't have the same sized lips as when she was younger. I don't think they should've written that for the cover. Who knows, maybe the photoshoot happened way before the interview?

jesssy-z.jpg

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1 minute ago, MikeHunt said:

I was referring to her lips. I have no issue with anyone doing anything to their body but the cover states she no longer has lip filler. It's like they're setting her up for people to hate on her. I think she's gorgeous but I mean we have eyes, she doesn't have the same sized lips as when she was younger. I don't think they should've written that for the cover. Who knows, maybe the photoshoot happened way before the interview?

jesssy-z.jpg

I assumed you were talking about face filler. I'm not a girl or too familiar with make up but I remember Jesy saying she does lip liner to make it appear her lips are even bigger (lots of girls do this) you literally just draw them bigger and fill it in.

 

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Things change and people fall apart over time, it's normal for them not to talk as much.

I think she really is meant to be a solo artist from what I read.

 

 

Besdies, queens don't reach the top by sharing the spotlight with her sisters :chrissy_xtina_head_tilt_purse_sass:

She really is the Beyonce of Little Mix :overwhelm_beyonce_ashamed_lol_embarrassed_telling_talking:

I'm so proud, Friday won't you get here already :bop_beyonce_dancing_yes_Yas_cheer_party_glasses:

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I wanna be there when you touch fire

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