Music

Jesy Nelson and Little Mix Are No Longer On Speaking Terms

Jesy Nelson was a member of the hit girl group Little Mix for nearly a decade. But now that she's a solo artist, she hasn't spoken to her former groupmates at all

by Chris Malone

Published on October 12, 2021

2 min read

Jesy Nelson got her start with Little Mix

Little Mix, like other girl groups including Fifth Harmony, came together on The X Factor. Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Perrie Edwards, Jesy Nelson, and Jade Thirlwall ended up winning the competition, becoming the first group to do so on the UK show.

Little Mix, went on to become one of the UK’s best-selling girl groups, with some even likening them to a modern-day Spice Girls. Their 2012 debut album DNA is the highest-charting debut album by a British girl group on the Billboard 200 chart.

They went on to release four more albums throughout the 2010s. Their fourth album, 2016’s Glory Days, spent five weeks at number one — the most weeks at number one by a girl group album since the Spice Girls’ debut album Spice. It even scored the highest first-week UK album sales for a girl group since Spiceworld.

In 2020, the group released Confetti, their sixth album and the last with Nelson as a part of the group.

(L-R) Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Perrie Edwards, Jesy Nelson and Jade Thirlwall of Little Mix pose during a photo shoot in Sydney, New South Wales

(L-R) Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Perrie Edwards, Jesy Nelson and Jade Thirlwall of Little Mix | Justin Lloyd / Newspix / Getty Images

Jesy Nelson and Little Mix no longer speak

In a 2021 interview with Glamour UK, Nelson opened up about her relationship with her former groupmates. “I haven’t spoken to the girls,” she admitted. “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… Nothing.”

She added that she’s reached out herself but hasn’t gotten a response from groupmates Leigh-Anne and Perrie. “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… at some point in the future we can all come back together.”

“I love them,” she concluded. “They are my sisters in so many ways, but for the time being we just don’t talk.”

Jesy Nelson launched her solo career in 2021

In October 2021, Nelson made her solo debut with the single “Boyz.” The song featured superstar rapper Nicki Minaj on the track, and sampled Diddy’s hit song “Bad Boys for Life.” (Diddy even made an appearance in the music video.)

After the release of the video, Nelson came under fire for allegations of blackfishing as well as lyrics that painted Black men as stereotypical gangsters that are taboo to date. Nelson cleared the air on an Instagram Live with Minaj. She claimed she had been in Antigua for three weeks prior to the video shoot and tans easily, and that the song was an homage to ’90s hip-hop and R&B, which she considered her favorite era of music.