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Mel C reveals she was sexually assaulted before first Spice Girls concert

Mel C has revealed she was sexually assaulted before her first-ever live performance as a Spice Girl.

In an interview on Elizabeth Day’s How to Fail podcast, the 48-year-old claimed she was assaulted by a massage therapist at a spa in a hotel in Istanbul in 1997.

The singer was staying in the hotel the night before the group was set to hit the stage for the first time.

Credit: Chris Connor / WENN

She told the podcast host: “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 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.”

“And 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.”

 

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Mel C explained that because she “didn’t deal with it at the time,” she has since realised that that night was “buried” in her mind “for years and years and years”.

She said she didn’t think about the incident until writing about it for her memoir, telling Elizabeth Day: “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.”

WENN

The mum-of-one added: “Terrible things happen all the time and this situation wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been.”

The Spice Girls star said that while it was a “mild version” of sexual assault, she felt “violated” and “very vulnerable” afterwards.

She continued: “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. But I’d buried it, and I’m sure…lots of people do.”

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