Spice Girls member Mel C said she was sexually assaulted before the girl group’s first-ever full-length concert.
The incident occurred in Istanbul, Turkey, on the night before the show, the singer said on the latest episode of the “How to Fail” podcast.
“I treat myself to a massage in the hotel, and what happened to me, I kind of buried immediately because there was other things to focus on and I didn’t want to make a fuss, but also I didn’t have time to deal with it,” said Mel C, whose real name is Melanie Chisholm.
“And because I didn’t deal with it at the time, I realized that I allowed that to be buried for years and years and years.”
The United Kingdom-born artist, 48, said she decided to share her story in a new memoir after the memory returned to her while she was sleeping.
“Terrible things happen all the time, and this situation wasn’t as bad as it could have been,” Mel C said. “I suppose in a version of sexual assault, it’s a mild version, but I felt violated. I felt very vulnerable. I felt embarrassed, and then I felt unsure.
“Have I got this right? What’s going on? I was in an environment where you take your clothes off with this professional person, so there were so many thoughts and feelings,” she continued. “I just thought, ‘You know what? I do want to talk about it, because it has affected me.’”
Mel C is best known as one of the five Spice Girls, performing under the name Sporty Spice. The group’s hit songs include “Wannabe” and “If You Wanna Be My Lover.”
———
