Mel C says her daughter and career come before love.

The Spice Girls star has been single since splitting from Thomas Starr in 2012 after 10 years together, but she insists dating just isn't on her radar at the moment because it's not important to her.

Mel - who has four-year-old Scarlet with Thomas - said: ''Dating isn't on the agenda at the moment. I've got my little girl, who is my priority, and my career. if a nice chap comes along then wonderful, but I don't know whether I want to put myself through the pain of dating. There are so many of us in our 30s and 40s, single girls, if you're ambitious then your career comes first and the man goes on the backburner.''

if she was looking for a guy, Mel wouldn't date a famous man because she has always avoided romances with guys in the same industry as her.

The 39-year-old singer - who stars in the spectacular stage musical 'Jesus Christ Superstar' - knows people who have tried newspaper dating services but she doesn't think they would work for her.

When asked in the new UK issue of OK! magazine if it is hard dating famous guys, she replied: ''I wouldn't know, I've never dated anyone in the industry ... I've got friends who do The Guardian's Soulmates (newspaper dating) but I can't do something like that, can I? Can you imagine?''