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Jesy Nelson has revealed the bandmates dismissing her mental health crisis before her suicide attempt
Jesy Nelson talked about the difficult times before she left the group Little Mix and how her desperation went unnoticed by the bandmates Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Perrie Edwards, and Jade Thirlwall. The singer shared that she was so devastated during a deep mental health crisis that she even tried to take her own life due to the feeling of being unsupported.
Jesy was rescued by her mother, Jan who got worried when Jesy suddenly became unresponsive during their phone conversation. It was the first time that Jan spoke out about the incident and she said, “I just got a wrong feeling from the place. When she finally picked up the phone, her voice was very muffled. I heard the phone being dropped and there was no sound after that— I figured she had done something.”
This was the second time Jesy had tried to end her life as she had previously overdosed in 2013 which she revealed in her award-winning documentary Odd One Out. She said that the constant online attacks on her looks had made the agony so “unbearable” that she eventually decided to quit the group.
Jesy Nelson Recalls Being Told to ‘Pull It Together’ After Suicide Attempt
Jesy Nelson has spoken about the terrible consequences of her 2013 suicide attempt when her then-boyfriend Jordan Banjo had to call an ambulance, and she ended up in a hospital. Only a week later, her manager instructed her to ‘pull it together’ to shoot a video for Little Mix’s single Salute.
Speaking about her mood at the time, Jesy, 34, said, “I was truly down. I really was very low. My manager was like, ‘Come on Jesy, it’s time you pull yourself together.’ So that way it just got ignored and everything turned back to normal.”
Jesy recounted her second suicide attempt seven years later, just days before her departure from Little Mix. She was taken to the hospital by ambulance and she missed the final of the group’s BBC talent show The Search. The show’s presenter Chris Ramsey informed the fans that Jesy had been taken ill.
Jesy revealed, “I came to a realization after being discharged that mentally I just couldn’t continue [with the band].” This incident occurred after Jesy had become depressed deeply when the band resumed work after the pandemic break in 2020.
Jesy Nelson Reveals Isolation and Painful Breakdown Within Little Mix Prior to Overdose
Jesy Nelson revealed how her friendship with the Little Mix members broke down so badly that there were only a few days left before her suicide attempt. Jesy said, “I had everyone sit down so I can tell them how I felt and I remember the reply I got first was, ‘Are you finished now? Is that all?’” One of them even went further to say, “Can I leave now?”
Jesy, holding back tears, said, “That really made me feel abandoned. I felt like no point. That nobody cared.”
Jesy’s mom Jan was aware of the friction in the group and said, “I understand why [the other Little Mix members] at times got angry with Jesy. It’s tough to work with someone who is always down when you are always up. But I personally feel that during Jesy’s worst moments, the girls really weren’t there for her and that’s why she’s so upset now.”
In her new docuseries Jesy Nelson: Life After Little Mix, which premieres on Prime Video, Jesy also dropped a huge revelation, she said that a year prior to her dramatic departure another band member had contemplated leaving the group.
Jesy Nelson Talks About Difficult Exit from Little Mix and How She Felt Betrayed by Management
Jesy Nelson’s mother, Jan, after her daughter’s second suicide attempt, told her to put her mental health first, “You have to stop doing what makes you unhappy.” Jesy was so uncertain about the right way to go that she eventually decided to leave the group while still in the hospital. Only that there was no drama at all. But then, the situation got more dramatic when her lawyer, unilaterally, without Jesy’s consent, informed the other three members of Little Mix that Jesy was leaving the band!
“I believe they were really upset about it and it shouldn’t have been played out this way at all,” Jesy conceded.
“They wrote to me and I wasn’t given a chance to say why I didn’t want to work anymore,” Jesy shared. “And I’m quite upset that it was taken away from me.”
Jesy wanted to meet up with Leigh-Anne, Perrie, and Jade and she was told by her manager that the girls would only meet up if a therapist were present. Jesy nostalgically recalling the break in the relationship, said, “I didn’t think that they were my sisters [anymore]. I had just been in the hospital. This is the time I absolutely need you.”
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Jesy Nelson recalls last awkward phone call with Little Mix girls
Jesy Nelson didn’t quite meet back with her Little Mix bandmates after she left the group despite the pressure of mental health issues she was dealing with. Later Leigh-Anne Pinnock told that the members left were so “traumatized” by the departure that they even went for therapy.
Jesy remembered that there was a last phone call with the group that was very tense, “Eventually there was a phone call. It was really awkward and so weird. It was like talking to strangers. It was the most uncomfortable phone call of my life. No one knew what to say.”
Jesy never heard of the band again as one group after that call. She has gone over the matter once more five years later, and she still doesn’t know what exactly caused the break. “Every time I think about it, I think, was it them or was it the management? I’ll never know,” she said.
Jesy Nelson Reveals Little Mix’s Planned Split and Emotional Impact of Bandmate’s Decision to Leave
Jesy Nelson has opened up about the fact that Little Mix’s final is only one band member’s decision to quit that the end of their journey was planned a year before she left. “I thought everyone was in a really good place, but I was wrong,” she said.
Jesy recalled a tense meeting where she had the strong feeling that something was going wrong.
“One of the girls had decided they didn’t want to be in the band any more. I remember feeling like my entire world had collapsed. It was a very sad day – Jade and I really cried. I was crushed,” she said.
Jesy was unwilling to reveal the name of the member who wanted to quit in early 2020 and instead explained, “I don’t think it’s for me to say because they still haven’t said. It has been so difficult for me to keep quiet about this. I thought we were going to be together forever. Leaving first wasn’t my decision at all.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the group’s last tour was postponed for two years, and Jesy claims that this situation made the matter even more difficult. “That’s when everything got messy. I knew the band was coming to an end because one of the girls had made the decision to leave and I felt like I was being fake. I had a sudden realization that I was unhappy,” she said.
Jesy Nelson Opens Up About Insecurities and Reaching a “Boiling Point” Before Leaving Little Mix
Jesy Nelson confessed that coming back to the spotlight after the COVID-19 lockdown, she was “swarmed with insecurities” and struggling with her mental health. Her anxiety showed as a performance phobia, and she even had panic attacks that led her to skip some big gigs such as a BBC Radio One Live Lounge session and judging The Search.
Jesy admitted that she was “mentally checked out” at that time and that her voice was hardly on Little Mix’s last album. “It felt like my body was telling me, ‘Stop now.’ That was the moment I thought, I can’t do this anymore. I just remember thinking, I cannot last another two years,” Jesy said.
Jesy pointed out that as her distress was getting out of control, her bandmates and she were drifting apart. “There would be times I would cry and just be a miserable b*tch. All those little things build up and build up and they do get to a boiling point,” she told.
Jesy is looking to heal from the rumors about her departure by speaking out now. “I really f***ing hate that there were nine and a bit really beautiful years that I had with the girls and I really didn’t want for us to be known for that one sh**y part,” she shared, wishing to leave a good legacy of the group.
Jesy Nelson Talks Little Mix Legacy and Making Up After Five-Year Feud
Jesy Nelson lamented that the end of her journey with Little Mix has “eclipsed” their run of almost ten years of success. “It overshadowed everything else,” she admitted. “We were really like sisters and I think that is what makes the whole thing so sad. Over time, I have come to understand both sides.”
Little Mix won The X Factor in 2011, becoming the first group ever to achieve this feat, and subsequently they have sold more than 75 million records globally. Jesy had left the group in 2020 and in 2022, the group went on hiatus and for years, the former members stayed alienated. A major change of heart happened, however, last year when Jesy was pregnant with twins.
Jesy’s daughters Ocean and Story, who are only nine months old, have been diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 1, a very severe and rare condition. Becoming a mother has helped Jesy and her former bandmates mend their relationship. “They contacted me during my pregnancy,” Jesy told her docuseries. “It was so nice because I never thought that would happen. I was really moved.”
Jesy has turned her attention away from the drama and towards her family. “We are mature women now. We have children. There are so many more important things in life, you know. It is just one of those things that needs to be put to rest now.”
