Mel C has opened up about her past struggle with depression, an eating disorder and obsessive exercising. In a candid interview in the Telegraph's podcast, Bryony Gordon's Mad World, the Spice Girls star confessed she went through a difficult time during her heyday with the girl group in the mid-nineties. The 43-year-old, who shot to fame as Sporty Spice in 1996, said she limited her diet in order to be "perfect". She explained: "I thought I had to be a certain way to be deserving of everything that was happening to me... to be a popstar I had to be perfect, and that was my way of trying to achieve perfection."
© Photo: Getty ImagesMel C was diagnosed with depression in 2000
STORY: Mel C reveals how she developed a 'healthy attitude' towards food
She added: "I'd never starved myself, but I wasn't eating properly and I was exercising obsessively and all of my time with the Spice Girls I think I was probably living on adrenaline, God only knows how I got through it and I think my body just got to the point where it was like - enough." The singer has previously been outspoken about her struggle with eating disorders. She went on to reveal that she was diagnosed with depression in 2000 after a family holiday.
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During a chat with Top Santé magazine in March, Mel admitted her determination to be a good role model to her daughter Scarlet, eight, meant she refused to discuss diets with her. "I don't want anybody talking about losing weight in front of her," the mother-of-one shared, before revealing that becoming a mother was a big factor in her developing a "healthy attitude" to food. Her weight dropped to less than eight stone in her late teens, which she said was due to training for up to 12 hours a day when she joined a performing arts college and "knowing nothing" about nutrition. Mel went on to explain how she is now "finally happy" with her figure, after developing a healthier approach to food. "Becoming a mum was a big part of that, because when I was pregnant I had to feed myself and the baby," she said.
