Little Mix fans were left devastated when former bandmate Jesy Nelson announced her decision to quit the band back in 2020, and since then, the singer has made headlines over her strained friendship with Perrie Edwards, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirwell.
In 2021, the remaining trio were caught up in a huge online feud when Jesy joined American rapper Nicki Minaj in a scathing Instagram live attack on Leigh-Anne, just weeks after she welcomed twins with husband Andre Gray.
© GettySpeaking about the fall-out for the first time, the 31-year-old told British Vogue: "I found myself in this massive drama on Twitter, maybe a month after giving birth, and one of the babies smiled at me for the first time.
"I was just like, 'Well, this puts everything into perspective, doesn't it?' All I had to do was put the phone down and it went away, because it's not real."
READ MORE: Why Jesy Nelson and Little Mix are no longer on speaking terms
The difficulties appeared to arise following the release of Jesy's debut single Boyz in October 2021, which received some criticism from viewers for 'blackfishing', a form of cultural appropriation.
© GettySpeaking about the accusations, Jesy released a statement at the time which read: "I personally want to say that my intention was never, ever to offend people of colour with this video and my song because like I said, growing up as a young girl, this is the music that I listened to.
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"These are the videos that I watched and thought were the best. For me personally, ’90s/2000 hip hop, R&B music was the best era of music. I just wanted to celebrate that. I just wanted to celebrate that era of music because it is what I love."
The band previously confirmed they had spoken to Jesy about how she presented herself before she quit the band, with Jade telling Stella magazine: "We don't want to talk about the video, or be critical, but one thing we will clarify regarding the blackfishing situation is that Jesy was approached by the group in a very friendly, educational manner."
Leigh-Anne added: "Capitalising on aspects of blackness without having to endure the daily realities of the black experience is problematic and harmful to people of colour. We think it's absolutely not OK to use harmful stereotypes. There's so much to say on that subject that it's hard to sum up in a sound bite."
After her departure from the group, Jesy spoke about their relationship on The Graham Norton Show: "We're not talking any more," she said. "It is sad but honestly there is no bad blood from my side, and I still love them to pieces and genuinely wish them all the best.
"I loved my time with them, and we've got the most incredible memories together but it's just one of those things which needs to take time, so who knows. To me they are still the ‘sickest’ girl band in the world."
