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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Neil Shaw

Internet trolls broke Jesy Nelson, say Little Mix bandmates

Jesy Nelson's Little Mix bandmates have revealed the toll internet bullies took on the singer.

Nelson shocked fans after telling how she attempted suicide following her rise to fame on the X Factor in 2011.

The pop star said she became almost "obsessed" with reading negative comments about herself and at her lowest point in 2013 tried to take her own life.

Nelson and Little Mix singers Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Perrie Edwards and Jade Thirlwall will appear in the BBC documentary Jesy Nelson: Odd One Out later this week.

According to The Sun, they will discuss how Nelson changed due to the online abuse, saying she turned into a "broken doll".

Thirlwall is reported as saying: "The three of us didn't know what to do.

"We just had to watch this amazing, funny girl become a bit like a broken doll. It was horrible.

"I remember feeling really angry. I wanted to just find every single person that had ever said anything horrible to her, look them in the eye and say, 'Look what you've done to this girl'.

"Every single person that said something should have been held accountable for making her feel like that."

Nelson became fixated with trawling social media, searching for phrases such as "Jesy fat" and "Jesy ugly". The 28-year-old described the habit as "like an addiction".

While Nelson's mental health has gradually improved since she deleted Twitter from her phone, Pinnock said there had been a lasting impact.

She said: "She is a little bit of a nightmare when it comes to video shoots and photoshoots. It has been a bit hard within the group.

"People don't realise what bullying and trolling can do to someone. The trolls took away her love for it and her passion. But how does she get that back?

"How does she go back to feeling confident and feeling amazing from all that shit that happened to her?"

Nelson announced earlier this year that she was making a documentary exploring body image and mental health because she wanted to "make a change and a difference to other people's lives".

People can contact Samaritans by phone, free of charge, on 116123, via email at jo@samaritans.org or can visit www.samaritans.org to find details of their local branch.

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