Jesy Nelson tried to take own life days before leaving Little Mix
Jesy Nelson has bravely revealed she attempted suicide in the days prior to quitting X Factor girlband Little Mix.
Her gut-wrenching confession was part as part of the star's brand new Prime Video docu-series, Jesy Nelson: Life After Little Mix, which landed earlier today (13 February).
As well as her rise to fame, the programme hones in on Nelson's long-standing battle with mental health, which she claims reached fatal levels prior to her 2020 departure from the band.
This came nine years after she and bandmates Perrie Edwards, Jade Thirlwall and Leigh-Anne Pinnock were grouped together by The X Factor judges Louis Walsh, Gary Barlow, Tulisa Contostavlos and Kelly Rowland.
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The foursome had originally auditioned for the British talent series in 2011 as individual artists, but were subsequently deemed much more likely to achieve success as a girl group. After winning the series, the band was managed by the show's producer, Simon Cowell.
Citing her decision to later leave the group, 34-year-old Nelson claimed it was due to issues with her personal wellbeing, having first attempted to take her own life in 2019 - something she previously discussed in her debut BBC documentary Jesy Nelson: Odd One Out.
She told her fans in a statement at the time: "I find the constant pressure of being in a girl group and living up to expectations very hard."
Reflecting on her departure as part of her latest documentary, the mother-of-two - who welcomed twin daughters in May of last year - claimed she'd repeatedly tried to voice her struggle to Edwards, Thirlwall and Pinnock in the weeks prior, but had felt ignored.
"I sat everyone down to explain how I was feeling and I remember one of the responses being, 'Are you done now? Is that it?'," Nelson recalled.
"She [one of the girls] was like, 'Can I go now?'. That made me feel really alone."
The chart-topper went on to confess: "I felt like there was no point. That no one cared."
In the documentary, Nelson cries as she recalls this spurring her to make an attempt on her life via drug overdose.
"I was so sad," she confessed. "I was so down. I knew after coming out of hospital that I mentally couldn't do it [be in the band] any more."
The 'Boyz' singer had telephoned her mother, Janice, but fell unconscious during the call.
"For a few days before, she had just been really down and not talking much," Janice also explained in the doc. "She wanted to be on her own quite a lot.
"I got a gut feeling that something wasn't right. I kept ringing and ringing, but there was no answer."
She continued: "She eventually answered the phone and the way she was talking was really slurry. I heard the phone drop and didn't hear anything else - I knew she'd done something."
Janice went on to slam her daughter's former bandmates, claiming the group 'wasn't there' in her hour of need.
"I can see why they [the other Little Mix members] did get angry at times," she noted, adding: "It's hard to work with someone who is always down when you are always happy.
"But I personally believe that at Jesy's lowest of low times, the girls were not really there for her and I think that's why she's so sad now."
After recovering from her suicide attempt, Nelson prepared herself to break the news to Edwards, Thirlwall and Pinnock of her plans to leave Little Mix, but claims the group's lawyers beat her to it.
"I think they felt really hurt about that and it should never have played out like that," she explained. I didn't get my opportunity to explain why I couldn't do this anymore. I feel mad that that was taken away from me."
She continued: 'I got myself up mentally and was like, 'Right, I want to have a chat with the girls now, I wanna chat to them and tell them why, I did what I did, like how I've been feeling'.
"Just really explain to them, try to make them understand how I was feeling.
"And then my manager called, and she was like, 'So I've spoke to the girls and they are happy to chat to you, but they don't feel comfortable being in a room with you unless there is a therapist there'."
Nelson went on to admit: "I just remember being like, 'What? I've just come out of hospital, like this is the time I need you the most'. I don't know, I just didn't feel like they were my sisters.
"Eventually there was a phone call. It was really awkward and so weird. It was like talking to strangers."
She recalled: "It was the most uncomfortable phone call of my life. No one knew what to say - and that's the last time I ever spoke to them as a group.
"It's been five years now and every time I think about it, I think, was it them or was it the management? I'll never know."
Asked later in the documentary if she could see herself ever rejoining her former bandmates, she confesses: "I really don't know. I see both sides. I see why they would be sad and hurt."
Nelson added, however: "They reached out to me when I was pregnant, it was lovely because I never thought that would happen.
"It made me really emotional. We're grown women now, we've got kids, and I just think there are so many more important things in life.
"It's just one of those things that need to be put to bed now."
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123 or contact Harmless by visiting their website https://harmless.org.uk.
Topics: Jesy Nelson, Little Mix, Celebrity, UK News, Mental Health, Music
Rhianna Benson