Content warning: this article about Jesy Nelson discusses a suicide attempt. If you or anyone you know needs help, please call Lifeline: 13 11 14.
Jesy Nelson has opened up in a new interview about her family’s concern over her mental health while she was a part of Little Mix, saying her mum urged her to quit the girl group.
Jesy explained that her mum, Janice White, begged her to exit the girl group in order to take care of her mental health after she tried to end her own life with an overdose.
The 30-year-old told MailOnline : “Yeah. Well, I just remember obviously the first time, so obviously I’d taken an overdose. I went into hospital and then I had a music video like a week after…
“And obviously my mum found out and she was distraught and she was outright: “This is it, you’re not doing this anymore”. Because my mum’s the kind of mum that’s like, ‘Jes, we couldn’t give a s**t what you do as long as you’re happy that’s all I care about’,” she continued.
“So she was like, ‘No. This isn’t happening anymore. I’m like not putting my foot down and you’re coming out of this.’ And obviously, I didn’t know what to do at the time because it was very early stages of Little Mix as well.”
It comes after Jesy opened up about her reasons for leaving Little Mix, saying that she spent a decade being “very unhappy”.
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During an appearance on the Reign with Josh Smith podcast, the singer revealed that she’s now enjoying her time as a solo artist as she’s no longer bound by the band’s rigorous routines or is compared to her bandmates Perrie Edwards, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, and Jade Thirlwall.
“I don’t think people realise how hard it is to be in a girl band,” she said.
“When it came to little things, like if we had to do a video and everyone had to wear bikinis and I didn’t want to wear a bikini because I felt like s**t, I couldn’t not. Because then if I was to wear, I don’t know, trousers and a top, people would be like, ‘Why is Jesy wearing trousers and a top?’ And then I would get loads of s**t for it.
She continued: “It’s just the little things like that, that would make me feel trapped. And I know that can sound quite dramatic, but I feel like unless you’re in it, you won’t ever understand it.
“And it was just the constant comparison every single day that was hard and that eventually, after 10 years, takes a massive toll on your mental health.”
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