Leigh-Anne Pinnock has revealed that she reached out to her former Little Mix bandmate Jesy Nelson while working on her eye-opening documentary about race.
The singer says she's felt "invisible" during her time in the band, who won X Factor in 2011, and that she often struggled to find her place, although she didn't know why.
As she prepares to release a powerful documentary about her experiences with racism, the 29-year-old says she sought advice from Jesy, who starred in her own harrowing documentary Odd One Out about her battles with mental health.
Jesy, who has since quit the band and began working on solo music, opened up about the effect trolling had on her and how she tried to take her own life.
She announced last year that she was leaving Little Mix for the sake of her mental health, but of course remains good friends with her former bandmates Leigh-Anne, Perrie Edwards and Jade Thirlwall.
Ahead of her BBC Three film Race, Pop & Power, Leigh-Anne spoke to Jesy about her experiences making her own film.
She told the Guardian : "I spoke to her about how it was for her. Being open and being vulnerable is such a hard thing to do."
Leigh-Anne filmed her documentary throughout 2020, a year when conversations about race became more and more prominent following the death of George Floyd during his arrest.
The singer, who is engaged to footballer Andre Gray, will be seen in the film attending a Black Lives Matter protest in London and speaking to young activists about how she should be using the platform Little Mix gave her to support the cause, calling out her fiancé over some tweets he posted before they met and speaking to her parents, who both grew up with a black father and white mother.
Leigh-Anne also speaks about the comfort she found in bandmate and best pal Jade, who has Egyptian and Yemeni heritage on her mother's side, when dealing with race issues.
She said: "It has definitely helped – having someone close to me, who I’m with 24/7 – who just gets it and understands."
