Pop
Jesy Nelson reveals suicide attempt right before she quit Little Mix
Jesy Nelson has revealed she nearly overdosed days before quitting Little Mix, and that she didn't feel like her bandmates were there for her at her lowest times.
Jesy Nelson nearly overdosed days before quitting Little Mix.
The former member of the BRIT Award-winning girl group departed the band in 2020 and revealed in her Prime Video docuseries Jesy Nelson: Life After Little Mix this week that the mental toll of being in Little Mix led her to attempt suicide.
She claims her ex-bandmates - Perrie Edwards, Jade Thirlwall and Leigh-Anne Pinnock - didn't realise how low she was and didn't appear concerned.
Jesy said: “I was so sad. I was so down. I knew after coming out of hospital that I mentally couldn't do it [be in the band] anymore."
Recalling a group meeting, she continued: “I sat everyone down to explain how I was feeling, and I remember one of the responses being, ‘Are you done now? Is that it?’
“She was like, ‘Can I go now?’ That made me feel really alone. I felt like there was no point. That no one cared.”
The 34-year-old singer - who has been raising awareness of her twin baby daughters' rare muscle-wasting disease, Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Type 1 - attempted suicide in 2013, and her mother, Janice, says her bandmates were not there for her then while recounting what happened this time around.
She recalled: “For a few days before, she had just been really down and not talking much. She wanted to be on her own quite a lot. I got a gut feeling that something wasn't right.
“She eventually answered the phone, and the way she was talking was really slurry. I heard the phone drop and didn't hear anything else — I knew she'd done something.”
Janice added: “It's hard to work with someone who is always down when you are always happy.
"But I personally believe that at Jesy's lowest of low times, the girls were not really there for her and I think that's why she's so sad now.”
Little Mix at the 2018 MTV EMAs - Famous
Jesy felt bad that her lawyers decided it was best for her representative to inform Perrie, Jade and Leigh-Anne that she would be leaving the group.
She said: “I think they felt really hurt about that and it should never have played out like that. I didn't get my opportunity to explain why I couldn't do this anymore. I feel mad that that was taken away from me.
“I got myself up mentally and was like, right, I want to have a chat with the girls now, I wanna chat to them and tell them why, I did what I did, like how I've been feeling. Just really explain to them, try to make them understand how I was feeling.
“And then my manager called, and she was like, ‘So I've spoken to the girls, and they are happy to chat to you, but they don't feel comfortable being in a room with you unless there is a therapist there.’
“I think they felt really hurt about that, and it should never have played out like that.
“I didn't get my opportunity to explain why I couldn't do this anymore. I feel mad that that was taken away from me.”
She went on: “I just remember being like, ‘What? I've just come out of hospital, like this is the time I need you the most.' I don't know, I just didn't feel like they were my sisters.”
The girls did reach out when she was pregnant. Jesy and her ex, Zion Foster, welcomed Ocean Jade and Story Monroe in May 2025.
She said: “It was lovely because I never thought that would happen. It made me really emotional.
"We're grown women now, we've got kids, and I just think there are so many more important things in life. It's just one of those things that need to be put to bed now.”
Despite everything, Jesy insists she has "no regrets" about her time on The X Factor and her tenure with Little Mix - as it led her to her "two beautiful girls".
Appearing on ITV's This Morning on Friday (13.02.26), she was asked if she is glad she did the ITV reality show - which Little Mix won in 2011- to which she replied: "Of course, I wouldn't be sitting here now. I wouldn't be doing all the things that I am doing for my girls. I am so appreciative. I so truly believe that the universe puts you were meant to be. So I don't regret anything, ever, that has happened in my life, because it has all led me to my beautiful girls and where I am now and where I am meant to be."
