Jesy Nelson has revealed she felt as though she ‘didn’t have time to breathe’ while a part of the band Little Mix.
The 31-year-old singer confirmed her departure from the girl group in December 2020, saying at the time that the pressure took a toll on her mental health.
Jesy first formed the band with Perrie Edwards, Jade Thirlwall and Leigh-Anne Pinnock on The X Factor in 2011, being put together by the judges after auditioning as individuals.
When Jesy announced her exit, she said: ‘The truth is recently being in the band has really token a toll on my mental health. I find the constant pressure of being in a girl group and living up to expectations very hard.
‘There comes a time in life when we need to reinvest in taking care of ourselves rather than focusing on making other people happy, and I feel like now is the time to begin that process.’
In a recent interview, she revealed how she felt as like she couldn’t ‘breathe’ as a member of the band.
Jesy said she didn’t ‘like’ being in front of the ‘camera’ when she appeared on Wednesday’s This Morning with Rochelle Humes and Phillip Schofield filling in for Holly Willoughby.
The pop artist said, ‘I believe it’s just a continual rollercoaster, when you’re in a band, you never have time to breathe. My new hit, Bad Thing, is raising awareness of domestic abuse.
‘So yeah I was up and down all the time. You don’t get to have a minute to really know how you’re truly feeling.
‘You just have to keep going.’
She added: ‘We were so young, Perri was 16! Now we’re all women, we’ve all grown-up, you learn a lot.’
This comes after Jesy, fighting back tears, criticised the media for publishing stories about a “non-existent” dispute with her former bandmates in a social media video.
Jesy candidly spoke to her followers and explained that she was keen to ‘speak [her] truth on this one’.
She said: ‘Hey guys, so I honestly don’t normally comment on these things because so much sh*t gets written about me 24/7 that after a while I just think whatever because I don’t like adding fuel to the fire and I’m just over it.’
The celebrity went on to say that she was frustrated that she hadn’t been given the chance to speak about the domestic violence message of her song’s music video, Bag Thing.
‘Women just get pitted up against each other 24/7 in music, and I hate it, I think it’s disgusting,’ she said.
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1.
