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Melanie Chisholm, 48, better known as Sporty Spice or Mel C, returns to TV screens tonight (June 10) with her little brother Paul O’Neill for Channel 4’s Celebrity Gogglebox. In two years with the Spice Girls, Sporty Spice and their collaborators had two consecutive number one albums, eight number one singles, the best-selling debut single of all time and the best-selling album in music history by a girl group.
Born in Whiston, Lancashire and the only child of her parents, who separated when she was four, Mel has spoken about feeling like a “spare part” growing up with her siblings. Her mother remarried and had more children, including Mel’s racer brother Paul, now 42, who was born when Mel C was six.
Mel C is very private about her family life, and the exact number of siblings Mel has is unknown, but in addition to her maternal brother, Paul, she has two paternal half-brothers named Liam and Declan, and a half-sister, Emma, from her father’s first marriage. She also revealed that she only found out about her estranged half-sister when “a tabloid found out about the story and basically said to my dad, ‘You either tell her or we will.’ So he told me. and I went to meet her. She was 15 then, I was in my 20s.”
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(Image: ITV)
Although the singer was born in Lancashire, she spent most of her childhood in Widnes, Cheshire before moving to London for school. Just before completing her three-year course in Dance, Singing, Drama and Musical Theater, Mel C saw an ad on The Stage about the formation of a new girl group that would later become the Spice Girls.
Mel’s success with the Spice Girls was such that she went from sleeping on a mattress on the floor in a shared flat with Mel B to owning an apartment in Hampstead, where she lives with boyfriend Joe Marshall and daughter Scarlett.
As with her family, Mel doesn’t share pictures of her home, but when she talks to her The Strategist In 2020, Mel opened up about a peleton being one of her must-have items around her house, especially during lockdown. Also, a Vitamix A2300i Ascent Series Blender, Black, which she’s owned for 20 years, and Egyptian cotton sheets, which she says are a must since she went from sleeping on a mattress to sleeping in 5-star hotels during the Spice Girls has ascended .
Despite all her fame, Mel stayed close to her family, especially her brother Paul. She discussed in an interview in the times how much she loved her brother but didn’t want to take care of him when they were younger: “I was upstairs in my bedroom with my buddies and he just burst in and did a massive fart. Looking back, I feel terrible because I used to really beat him up. I would hit him with all my might, but he would just laugh at me. And fart some more.”
In conversation with The times Paul also discussed how Mel’s fame affected his life as he described growing up hating the early Spice Girls songs as he was often so abused for being Sporty Spice’s brother, to the point of which he left college. He said: “I hated wannabe. I was in college and all the people I hung out with started pissing. I wasn’t Paul, I was Sporty Spice’s brother, the one who put on sweatpants and did flying kicks. I pretended to laugh, but it hurt. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I left.”
Their relationship grew stronger when Mel credited Paul with giving great advice despite the siblings having different fathers. Mel C said: “People sometimes refer to Paul as my half brother. No, he’s 100 percent my brother. Even though he used to fart in my face!”
Mel also saved her brother’s life after realizing he was unwell while on vacation in Mauritius to celebrate Mel’s 30th birthday. She later found he had symptoms of type 1 diabetes and took him to the hospital for testing and later treatment. The condition resulted in Paul having his racing license temporarily revoked and learning to manage his symptoms. While his racing license was returned six months later, he retired from racing after three years to pursue coaching and expert work and co-founded a production company called 29 Productions.
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