Spice Girls member Melanie “Mel C” Chisholm spoke out for the first time about being sexually assaulted the night before her first live performance with the group. Chisholm, who was known as Sporty Spice, wrote the incident in her memoir, Who I Am, released on Thursday in the U.K. During a stop on Elizabeth Day’s How to Fail podcast, Chisholm said she “buried it” for 25 years until she recalled the incident in a dream.
In the book, Chisholm, 48, wrote that a massage therapist at a spa sexually assaulted her in 1997, reports PEOPLE. The group was staying at a hotel suite in Istanbul, Turkey at the time. They called the reception desk to explain what happened, but the man had already left. Chisholm shared more details about the assault in her interview with Day.
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“We’d never done a full-length concert before, so obviously we’d rehearsed for weeks ahead, costume fittings, make-up, hair, everything was leading to the pinnacle of everything I ever wanted to do, and ever wanted to be,” the former Dancing With the Stars contestant recalled feeling before the incident. She decided to treat herself to a massage the night before the first Spice Girls concert. She said she “buried” the assault because there “were other things to focus on” at the time. “I didn’t want to make a fuss but also I didn’t have time to deal with it,” she said.
When Chisholm started writing her memoir, she decided it was finally time to talk about the assault publicly. It “came to me in a dream,” she told Day, adding that she did not consider writing about it before the dream woke her up. “Then, of course, I had to think, ‘Well, do I want to reveal this?’ And I just thought, actually, it’s really important for me to say it, and to finally deal with it and process it,” the singer said.
Chisholm described what she experienced as a “mild version” of sexual assault, but she felt “violated” by the massage therapist. “I felt very vulnerable. I felt embarrassed,” she told Day.
She also felt unsure of herself and wondered if what she experienced was an assault. “I was in an environment where you take your clothes off with this professional person,” she recalled. “So there were so many thoughts and feelings, and I just felt, you know what, I do want to talk about it because it has affected me. But I’d buried it, and I’m sure lots of men and women do.”
Chisholm also opened up about the impact the Spice Girls‘ superstardom had on her mental and physical health. In her book, she wrote about being diagnosed with clinical depression, anorexia, a binge-eating disorder, anxiety, and agoraphobia, reports The Daily Mail. She was also prescribed antidepressants. After the Spice Girls, Chisholm went on to have a successful solo career. She released her latest album, Melanie C, in 2020 and it included the lead single “Who I Am.”
“All around me, I see women overcoming and achieving incredible things. And I just feel like we don’t give ourselves enough credit,” she told The Daily Mail. “We are f—ing warriors, you know? Sometimes when I think of what I have done and what I now deal with every day; with work, with being a mum, with family stuff. And I’m like, ‘F—, I’m still standing.’”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
