Mel C has admitted that she struggled with the furore surrounding her Spice Girls bandmate Geri Halliwell’s infamous Margaret Thatcher comment, in which she claimed the former prime minister was “the first Spice Girl”.
Halliwell made her remarks in an interview with The Spectator in 1996, stating: “We Spice Girls are true Thatcherites. Thatcher was the first Spice Girl, the pioneer of our ideology – Girl Power.”
Interviewed on the Louis Theroux Podcast, Mel C – born Melanie Chisholm – said Halliwell’s remarks were “very difficult for me” as she did not share the same views.
“Geri applauded [Thatcher being the first female prime minister] and the girl power references were there for that reason,” she told Theroux. “I grew up in the northwest of England, my whole family are from Liverpool, my dad’s side of the family… the men worked on the docks, or they did for generations.
“Obviously, that was very difficult for me because that was not my opinion,” she continued. “I think that was one of the things that was hard about the Spice Girls, is that we could get tarred with the same brush. If somebody had a political opinion, everyone thought that that was what [we all] thought and felt, and it wasn’t the case.
“People know that now, but being a young girl and going back to Liverpool after… it’s just like, s***. I didn’t say it, I don’t think it!”
Chisholm previously addressed Halliwell’s remarks in a 2022 interview with The Independent: “People knowing me, from the things I do, are quite aware of what kind of person I am. I don’t think people think I’m a raging Tory!”
She added that it was “slightly misguided” and “inappropriate” for the Spice Girls to be speaking to The Spectator in the first place, but said it was another instance of them being pushed in different directions by their team: “There have been a couple of times in my career when I’ve been nervous about going home. And that was one of them.”
The former members of the Spice Girls remain close, often getting together to celebrate one another’s birthdays or other special occasions.
Earlier this year, Chisholm claimed that the group were closer to a reunion than they had been in “a very long time”, adding: “I’m always keeping my fingers crossed.”
She released her latest solo album, Sweat, in May.
