Mel C says Margaret Thatcher was ‘absolutely not the first Spice Girl’
Sporty Spice Melanie C says Margaret Thatcher was ‘absolutely not the first Spice Girl’. (Getty Images)
Mel C has slammed Margaret Thatcher in an interview two decades after Spice Girls bandmate Geri Halliwell infamously said the former prime minister had “girl power”.
In an interview with The Independent ahead of the release of her memoir Who I Am, Melanie C explained that Halliwell’s views on politics did not align with her own, proudly stating “I’m from Liverpool”.
In the infamous interview with The Spectator in 1996, Halliwell called the Spice Girls “Thatcherites”, and said Thatcher was “the first Spice Girl”.
“We Spice Girls are true Thatcherites. She was the first Spice Girl, the pioneer of our ideology – Girl Power,” she said.
Melanie C opened up to The Independent about being branded a “raging Tory” since that interview, saying Thatcher is “absolutely not” the “first Spice Girl” in her eyes.
“Geri, in the past, was very vocal about her support for Margaret Thatcher. I’m from Liverpool. It was a name that was not celebrated in that region,” she said.
“They were never the thoughts or feelings that I shared. People knowing me, from the things I do, are quite aware of what kind of person I am. I don’t think people think I’m a raging Tory!”
She added that her upbringing made her “very aware” of the level of fame and success the Spice Girls gave her.
“Money was tight when I was a kid. There was no extra,” she said.
Mel C added that many family and friends “still work really, really hard to make ends meet, so I’m still very much aware of that side”.
The star also opened up about more difficult experiences in the interview, from being sexually assaulted the night before the first ever Spice Girls show, to being questioned about her sexuality on live TV, to feeling “burnt out” towards the end of the Spice Girls’ 1998 tour.
Comparing the experience to the pressure Judy Garland experienced before her tragic death, she said: “You become a commodity. You are making other people money. So they have to keep you in this place where you’re able to do that. And I don’t think that is done with your human interest at heart.”
She added: “My time with the Spice Girls was incredible and exciting, literally my wildest dreams coming true. But also… it broke me, you know. Physically, mentally, emotionally. It was really, really hard.”
Mel C explained that “there’s nothing in the pipeline, or arranged or confirmed” after the band reportedly split up for good in February this year.
