Jesy Nelson Reveals Breaking Point that Led to Little Mix Departure

English singer Jesy Nelson quit the girl band "Little Mix" last year after constant pressure had taken a toll on her mental health.

Nelson gave on Tuesday her first interview since leaving Little Mix in the June 2021 cover story for CosmopolitanUK, in which she detailed her "breaking point" in the band.

Nelson rates her confidence level at a "solid 8.5" out of 10 post-Little Mix in the interview compared to the 0 it was at when she was in the group.

The pop singer stated that she didn’t know that she could be this happy, noting: "I thought when I was in the group that it was just normal to feel that way. And because I’d felt like that for 10 years, I just thought, 'This is life.' Since I’ve left, I feel free. I don’t wake up with anxiety, thinking, 'I’ve got to do a music video today, I need to starve myself.' Or, "I need to go on an extreme diet so I can look like the other three.' That was consuming me."

She added that despite no longer being in the band, she still gets compared to former band members Jade Thirlwall, Perrie Edwards, and Leigh-Anne Pinnock.

"Even recently, I was still getting compared to them. It is horrible when you already don’t like something about yourself to then have thousands of people point it out. Now I feel like me. When I look back at my time in the band, I genuinely wasn’t me. I can’t believe how miserable I was," Nelson added.

The singer added that the cyberbullying about her weight caused her to reach the end of her rope last fall when Little Mix filmed what would be their last music video as a foursome for "Sweet Melody".

Nelson noted that she was bigger than the other three, and there is never really been that in a girl group, stating "I was classed as the obese, fat one,".

She revealed that "Sweet Melody" was the breaking point’, noting while in lockdown she had the first time to have a break and be at home around people that I love. It was the happiest she had ever felt, which she didn’t realize until she went back to work.

Nelson highlighted that she immediately became a different person. I had anxiety. Whenever the band had a music video, she put an enormous amount of pressure on herself to try and lose weight, revealing: "I have a fear of looking back on the camera. If I don’t like what I see, I find it so hard to be in front of the camera and feel amazing and perform."

Upon receiving a call about filming a music video in a couple of weeks, Nelson remembered panicking and going on an extreme diet "with bloody shakes". On the day of the shoot, her anxiety escalated.

The pop singer noted that on the day of the "Sweet Melody" video she had a panic attack on set because she didn’t look how she wanted to look and found it so hard to just be happy and enjoy herself.

Nelson stated that she looked at the other members and they were having the time of their life, adding that she was not featured in one of the scenes because she had been sobbing in the dressing room.

The pop singer shared that she got so jealous because she wanted to feel like that and enjoy it because music is her passion, noting: "To have this dream and not be enjoying it because of what I look like, I knew wasn’t normal".

Nelson added that her mother witnessed her entering a really dark time after the music video before advising her to put an end to her suffering. Now, she is back to the recording studio and returning to her passion, which she notes is "good for my mental health."