Mel C Was Sexually Assaulted the Night Before the Spice Girls’ First Performance
The Spice Girls were the biggest girl group in the world, with tens of millions of albums sold worldwide. In the beginning, singer Mel C was thrilled to be a part of the group. But the night before the Spice Girls’ first big concert, she was sexually assaulted at a hotel.
Mel C was sexually assaulted before the Spice Girls’ first big concert
Melanie Chisholm, better known as Mel C, stopped by the How to Fail podcast in September 2022 to talk about her new memoir, Who I Am. In the memoir, she recounts an experience she had in a hotel in Istanbul, Turkey in 1997, not long after the Spice Girls made their debut.
“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, makeup, hair, everything was leading to towards the pinnacle of everything I ever wanted to do, and ever wanted to be.”
“What drives me is being on stage, 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,” she continued.
She admitted that after the masseuse assaulted her, she tried to forget about it rather than confront it head-on. “What happened to me — I kind of buried, immediately, because there were 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 that “Because I didn’t deal with it at the time, I realize that I allowed that to be buried for years and years and years.”
Mel C only thought to speak up when it was time to write her memoir
It wasn’t until she began writing her memoir that she realized the gravity of what really happened, and that she ought to speak up about her experience.
“It came to me in a dream, or I kind of woke up and it was in my mind. And I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I haven’t even thought about having that in the book.’ Then, of course, I had to think, ‘Well, do I want to reveal this?’ And I just thought, actually, I think it’s really important for me to say it, and to finally deal with it and process it,” she said.
“Terrible things happen all the time and this situation wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been,” she went on. “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.”
“It has affected me,” she said. “But I’d buried it, and I’m sure … lots of people do.”
The Spice Girls went on to become global superstars
1997 was a breakout year for the Spice Girls. They released their smash debut album Spice in September 1996, which contained the hit singles “Wannabe” and “Say You’ll Be There.” They released their hit album Spiceworld in 1997, with the beloved movie of the same name hitting theaters a month later.
The Spice Girls remain the best-selling girl group in music history, with over 100 million records sold worldwide.
How to get help: In the U.S., call the RAINN National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 to connect with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.
