Melanie “Mel C” Chisholm, also known as Sporty Spice, revealed that she was sexually abused the night before her Spice Girls debut performance.
In her new autobiography, “Who I Am: My Story,” the singer claims that she was assaulted at a hotel in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1997, when she was 23.
Chisholm, now 48, writes in her memoir, according to the Daily Mail:
“It happened the night before the first-ever Spice Girls live performance.”
She revealed that the then-popular girl band was in Istanbul, where they had already performed two shows but had never before performed a full-length concert. As a result, the group was ecstatic, having spent weeks rehearsing, fitting costumes, and applying makeup.
Everything led to the culmination of everything she had ever wanted to do and be.
According to Chisholm, the incident occurred after she chose to get a massage the night before their first performance.
She wrote:
“I was in an environment where you take your clothes off with this professional person. It affected me.”
The “Wannabe” singer got up and left the massage to forget what had just happened.
Chrisholm claims she avoided discussing the incident for years, instead “burying” the memory of what she claims happened.
She recalls in her memoir:
“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 claimed she didn’t address it at the time but later realized she had done so for years and years and years.
She claims the heinous event returned to her in a dream when she started writing her book. She had just awoken with this dark event on her mind, prompting her to consider whether she should finally discuss it in her book.
She must carefully consider whether she must reveal this aspect of her life. She eventually saw the point in writing it down and making it public.
She stated:
“I just thought, ‘I think it’s really important for me to say it and to finally deal with it and process it’ – and for other people.”
She admitted that while it was a “mild” assault, it significantly impacted her.
She added:
“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?'”