THEIR sisterhood inspired a resurgence of girl power not seen since the Spice Girls, but Jesy Nelson’s unexpected exit from Little Mix marked the end of their once solid friendship.
Now for the first time ever, there’s hope of reconciliation for Jesy and former bandmates Perrie Edwards, Jade Thirlwall and Leigh-Anne Pinnock following a six-year feud – and it’s all thanks to her twin daughters who were recently diagnosed with a life-threatening condition.
“They have healed a part of me which I never thought was possible,” Jesy told The Sun.
The Woman Like Me singer admits the door is open to a possible reunion after “finding her purpose” through motherhood, which helped her let go of “irrelevant and ridiculous” worries – and she’s even made up with music mogul Simon Cowell.
While she won’t directly answer whether she has spoken to the Little Mix girls in recent months, Jesy said: “Most of us are mums now and I can’t speak on behalf of them, but I’d like to think that we probably see things a lot differently now.
“I think you do, just as you get older anyway, but you know, never say never. I have so much love for them and always will.
“So never say never [to a reconciliation].”
Little Mix was the first group to win The X Factor in its history back in 2011, before going on to break UK singles chart history with five No. 1s and selling more than 75million records worldwide.
Jesy quit the band after nine years, blaming battles with her mental health and struggles with the pressures of fame as her reasons for leaving.
It’s believed Jade, Leigh-Anne and Perrie found out through their lawyers and haven’t followed each other on social media since.
Now in a new docuseries on Prime Video, Jesy will speak for the first time about how their once united quartet imploded.
Speaking to The Sun ahead of the release of Life After Little Mix on February 13, Jesy said: “It’s always been tough when people have asked me questions about Little Mix, but one thing I loved when I made this series was reflecting back on the most incredible times that I had in the group.
“It was so lovely to sit and watch all the footage and stuff that people have never even seen of archive footage of me and Little Mix and it was really nice to be reminded of all the beautiful times that I had with them.
“Not that I’d forgotten about them, but when you’ve been out of it for so long, you do sometimes forget how amazing it was.
“I’ve obviously been through lots with the girls, but the majority of my time in Little Mix was incredible.
“I’ve never spoken horrendously about Little Mix.
“Even though I’ve had crappy times in terms of my mental health and what being in the band did to me, our sisterhood, my relationship that I had with them and the years I did spend with them were amazing.
“That’s the reason why Little Mix were so successful because we genuinely were like sisters at one point, we were genuinely best friends.
“It was really lovely to reminisce and talk so positively about my time in the band because I think for quite a while now it’s always felt negative, and so it was nice to really talk about my experience in a positive way with them and reflect back on everything.”
Even though I’ve had crappy times in terms of my mental health and what being in the band did to me, our sisterhood, my relationship that I had with them and the years I did spend with them were amazing.
Jesy Nelson
Despite the band being created on Simon Cowell’s ITV show, they quit his record label Syco in 2018.
It came just days before the release of their fifth album, following clashes over the new record – sparking rumours of a feud between Simon and Little Mix.
Years later, Jade’s debut solo track Angel Of My Dreams was a pointed dig at Simon and the music industry, with a line about having “sold my soul to a psycho”.
However, Jesy has revealed her friendship with Simon has been mended following the diagnosis of her twins having Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 1 — the most severe form of a rare disease affecting muscle strength and movement.
She even tuned into her old boss’s Netflix show, Simon Cowell: The Next Act, which followed him forming a new boyband December 10.
“I actually spoke to Simon recently because he reached out,” Jesy reveals.
“He called me, he reached out to me when I had the girls’ diagnosis.
“We had a good long old chat and we actually spoke about his new Netflix show. I did watch it and I actually really enjoyed it.
“The part I really enjoyed was when he got all the parents in the room and he said to them, ‘you know, I just want to be completely honest with you, like this is what this entails and do you really want your children to go through this?’
“Because, you know, no one did that for us when we got into the band. And so I really loved that, I loved that he did that and I respected that.”
For Jesy, motherhood was never on the cards.
She didn’t dream about having children, unlike her bandmates Perrie and Leigh-Anne, who went on to have kids soon after Little Mix went on hiatus.
In fact, Jesy admits her pregnancy was unplanned with her partner, Zion Foster, who she has since sadly split up from.
An intimate insight into Jesy’s high-risk pregnancy journey after the twins were diagnosed with twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), a rare condition affecting identical tots who share a placenta, will play out in the six-part docuseries.
I actually spoke to Simon recently because he reached out. He called me, he reached out to me when I had the girls’ diagnosis.
Jesy Nelson
“It’s wild”, laughs Jesy.
“It’s as if the universe thought, ‘you don’t want kids? Alright well I’ll give you two’.
“I never had one maternal bone in my body and then I got pregnant which was not planned. But as soon as I found out I was pregnant I had this overwhelming feeling of happiness.
“Since becoming a mum, my daughters have made me the person I’ve always wanted to be.
“I felt for such a long time I was lost and searching for my purpose.
“Then suddenly they came along and they’re just everything to me now and it felt like I didn’t matter, they were my whole heart and soul.
“For me, all that stuff I used to worry and care about felt so irrelevant and ridiculous to me with everything that was going on.
“You have to become superhuman.”
It is unlikely that Jesy’s daughters Ocean Jade and Story Monroe, will ever walk, and may face serious breathing and swallowing difficulties.
They are under the care of Great Ormond Street Hospital in central London and have received treatment, including a one-off gene-therapy infusion approved by the NHS.
Since splitting from her former fiance Zion, who features heavily in the docuseries, the exes are navigating co-parenting.
“Me and Zion are still friends,” Jesy says.
“We’re still united in bringing our children up and co-parenting together. That’s our main focus.
“Our girls are our main focus and we just want to give them the best life and give them positive energy and that’s what we are focusing on right now and I think we’re doing a really good job at it.”
Zion moved out of Jesy’s £3million mansion in Essex.
Jesy explained: “He lives an hour and a bit away from me.
“We’re still navigating it but, like I said, we’re still united in being the best co-parents that we can be and I think that’s all we can do right now.
“The girls are our whole priority.”
‘NEVER SMOOTH SAILING’
Zion wrote a touching poem to his “two little warrior girls who already know how to fight” as he used lyrics to express his feelings.
However, for Jesy – who briefly embarked on a solo career – it’s pushed her further away from her passion for music.
“I’m not sure I was ever made for this industry,” she admits.
“It’s never smooth sailing, you never know what’s going to happen.
“With everything that’s going on right now and with my girls, I can’t even look that far ahead, but I’ll always love music.
“I’ve learnt so much and I’m so grateful for everything that I’ve been through because it’s made me who I am. I wouldn’t be where I am now without all the stuff that I’ve been through.
“I’m also just very grateful that I’m now able to give my girls the best life possible.
“I never ever have any regrets about anything that’s happened in my life because I truly believe that everything leads you to where you’re meant to be in your life.”
For now, Jesy is working tirelessly to raise awareness of SMA and campaigning for the condition to be added to the NHS newborn heel-prick test, which currently screens for ten other conditions.
The Brit Award-winner hopes her petition will force the Government to enforce a non- invasive £4 blood test at birth.
It could help avoid 33 babies a year left needing a wheelchair for life.
“It’s been really, really tough, but I’m just so grateful for them because they’ve changed my whole life.
“Yes it’s hard and there’s definitely things that I wish were different, but at the same time I’ve got them and they’re still here and they’ve been through so much. I’m in awe of them every single day. They’re the ultimate survivors.”
If untreated, the life expectancy of a baby with SMA Type 1 is two years.
Early intervention is considered critical in limiting long-term impacts.
Spinal Muscular Atrophy: Signs and symptoms
Spinal muscular atrophy is a disease which takes away a person’s strength and it causes problems by disrupting the motor nerve cells in the spinal cord.
This causes an individual to lose the ability to walk, eat and breathe.
There are four types of SMA – which are based on age.
- Type 1 is diagnosed within the first six months of life and is usually fatal.
- Type 2 is diagnosed after six months of age.
- Type 3 is diagnosed after 18 months of age and may require the individual to use a wheelchair.
- Type 4 is the rarest form of SMA and usually only surfaces in adulthood.
What are the symptoms?
The symptoms of SMA will depend on which type of condition you have.
But the following are the most common symptoms:
• Floppy or weak arms and legs
• Movement problems – such as difficulty sitting up, crawling or walking
• Twitching or shaking muscles
• Bone and joint problems – such as an unusually curved spine
• Swallowing problems
• Breathing difficulties
However, SMA does not affect a person’s intelligence and it does not cause learning disabilities.
How common is it?
The majority of the time a child can only be born with the condition if both of their parents have a faulty gene which causes SMA.
Usually, the parent would not have the condition themselves – they would only act as a carrier.
Statistics show around 1 in every 40 to 60 people is a carrier of the gene which can cause SMA.
If two parents carry the faulty gene there is a 1 in 4 (25 per cent) chance their child will get spinal muscular atrophy.
It affects around 1 in 11,000 babies.
If the twins had been tested and treated in time, there is a chance they would have avoided disability.
It is now unlikely Ocean and Story will regain their neck strength after the disease caused nerve cells to die, leading to progressive muscle weakness.
“I’ve definitely had my days when I’ve screamed and shouted,” Jesy admits.
“It’s so hard, but I feel like if I keep doing that then I’ll never move forward.
“My main focus right now is to move forward and to make change and raise awareness about this so that no other family ever has to go through this heartbreak.
“For years, the whole SMA community has been shouting about this and no one’s taken it seriously.
“I believe this was the path I was meant to be on.
“This is what was meant to happen to me. Regardless of their diagnosis, the girls have just made my life.
“They give me so much purpose and for so many years of my life I’ve felt so lost and now I don’t feel that. They’re the reason I get up every day now.
“With all the s*** they’ve had to go through, it just puts everything into perspective and the s*** that I used to worry about and care about is just so irrelevant to me now too.
“They have healed that part of me, which I never thought was possible.
“I’m so lucky to just have those girls because they are just… I don’t have enough words to explain how much I love them.”
- Jesy Nelson: Life After Little Mix will be aired on Prime Video from February 13.
