Jesy Nelson came out of The X Factor in 2011 and later joined girl group Little Mix.
Although she formed a sisterly bond with her bandmates, Jesy Nelson has admitted they were not in touch after she abruptly left the band following a secret suicide attempt in 2020.
The singer, 34, who recently split from fiance Zion Foster, revealed the painful decision to leave the group and her final interactions with remaining band members Perrie Edwards, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall in her raw and honest Amazon Prime documentary series. Jesy Nelson: Life After Little Mix.
Before I had a discussion with the girls, I had to think about where I stand legally – how can I even get out of this now?’ she remembered.
‘Unfortunately, the lawyer ended up letting them know I wanted to leave before I could let them know, so I think they felt really hurt by that and it should never have turned out that way.
‘I’m upset that it was taken away from me and I didn’t get a chance to explain why I couldn’t do this anymore.’
She added: ‘Mentally I had prepared myself and I was like, ‘Okay, I want to sit down with the girls now and I want to chat with them and tell them why I did what I did and how I felt and just really explain to them and try to get them to understand how I felt.’
“And then my manager called and she said, ‘So I’ve talked to the girls and they’re happy to chat with you, but they don’t feel comfortable being in a room with you unless there’s a therapist there.’
‘I was like, ‘What? I just got out of the hospital, this is the time I need you the most.’ I didn’t feel like they were my sisters. It’s been five years now; every time I think about it, I think, ‘Was it them or was it management?’ I’ll never know because we never got to have that conversation.
‘And then eventually a phone call came and it was really awkward. It was just so weird because it was like talking to strangers.
‘It was the most uncomfortable phone call I’ve ever had, nobody knew what to say and it was the last time I ever spoke to them as a group.’
Despite the stilted farewell, mum-of-two Nelson says parenthood – both Edwards and Pinnock have also taken in children – helped bring them back together as friends.
