{"id":247877,"date":"2025-10-29T04:34:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T04:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/247877\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T04:34:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T04:34:12","slug":"girlbands-forever-biggest-bombshells-horror-abortion-claim-to-all-eating-controlled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/247877\/","title":{"rendered":"Girlbands Forever biggest bombshells – horror abortion claim to ‘all eating controlled’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Viewers of upcoming two-part documentary Girlbands Forever on BBC Two will be left slack-jawed at some of the confessions from the 90s’ biggest female popstars, from Melanie Blatt to Kerry Katona<\/p>\n

19:35, 28 Oct 2025Updated 00:59, 29 Oct 2025<\/p>\n

\"MelanieAll Saints star Melanie made some shocking claims on the show(Image: Jed Cullen\/Dave Benett\/Getty Ima)<\/p>\n

A jaw-dropping two-part BBC Two documentary coming to the small screen delves into the dizzy highs and dark lows of some of the biggest girlbands of the 90s. laying bare shocking revelations – from cruel fat-shaming to aborted babies.<\/p>\n

Girlbands Forever <\/a>explores not only the hordes of adoring fans, swanky hotels and sold-out stadiums, but a very different era in which record companies had barely heard of the term \u2018duty of care\u2019, and seemed to care little for stars\u2019 mental health.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Primark’s ‘perfect’ \u00a326 boots look ‘just like’ \u00a31,690 designer pair<\/a>\"AllMelanie claims she and bandmate Nicola were asked to ‘have abortions'(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Featuring powerful insights from members of Sugababes, Atomic Kitten, Eternal, Mis-teeq and Little Mix<\/a>, it pulls back the veil on exactly what it meant to be in a successful girlband in the Nineties and early Noughties.<\/p>\n

Created by veteran broadcaster Louis Theroux and following last year\u2019s equally eye-opening three part-documentary about boybands, one of its most incredible testimonies comes from All Saints singer, Melanie Blatt.<\/p>\n

Melanie, 50, claims that she was pressured into getting an abortion<\/a> at the height of the band\u2019s fame – alongside her bandmate, Nicole. The Never Ever singer, who was expecting a baby with Jamiroquai bassist Stuart Zender at the time, maintains she was told that having a baby would \u2018ruin\u2019 the band.<\/p>\n

She said: \u2018I hadn\u2019t been with my partner for very long, it was definitely a surprise. It wasn\u2019t people congratulating us. It was more like this look of dread and worry and the realisation that things are going to change.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"EternalKelle Bryan says at the height of Eternal’s fame the band’s weight was always scrutinised(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

After landing in Los Angeles at one point, where the band were also enjoying fame, she added, \u2018At the airport LAX our manager, he was behind us, was telling us to abort our babies.\u2019<\/p>\n

Melanie went on to have her daughter, Lilyella on November 20, 1998, the same month All Saints bagged the MTV Europe Music Award for best breakthrough artist. Nicole, however, chose to terminate her pregnancy<\/a>, a bombshell revealed in 2002 autobiography Under The Bridge, penned with bandmate and sister, Natalie.<\/p>\n

Dating Robbie Wiliams at the time, the former Take That<\/a> star\u2019s biopic Better Man even shows the former couple decorating the nursery together – before Nicole\u2019s management stepped in.<\/p>\n

In the 2002 book, she revealed: \u2018Robbie put his hand on my belly and told me \u201cThis baby is saving my life\u201d, adding, \u201cAfter having my abortion, I was in shock. I couldn\u2019t believe what I had done. I wanted to kill myself.\u2019<\/p>\n

She added: \u2018Afterwards, everyone pretended it hadn\u2019t happened. I was too scared for confrontation. I am only now starting to get my confidence back. But writing about it made me confront it all. I\u2019m so glad I did it.<\/p>\n

\"KelleKelle claims ‘everything we ate was controlled'(Image: Wiktor Szymanowicz\/Future Publis)<\/p>\n

But Melanie\u2019s isn\u2019t the only shocking story to come out of those heady days of Cool Britannia – where the world<\/a> was gripped by girl power, particularly in the form of Baby, Sporty, Scary, Ginger and Posh, aka, the Spice Girls.<\/p>\n

Eternal legend and occasional Loose Woman K\u00e9ll\u00e9 Bryan, s just 15 when she signed her first record deal recalls how, behind the scenes, she was encouraged to lose weight<\/a> during the peak of the band\u2019s fame – admitting \u2018Everything we ate was controlled.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n

As she told the Mirror<\/a>, “Stylists would come along and say ‘this doesn’t fit you’,…. They sent us away to this place in the countryside where they were controlling what we ate. When I look back on it, you think that was crazy, but it\u2019s what they did.”<\/p>\n

Atomic Kitten\u2019s Natasha Hamilton also paints a bleak picture<\/a> of just how much pressure she and her bandmates were under – from feeling like she\u2019d got the best job in the world, she found herself dealing with punishing tours, frayed friendships and, like Kelle, worries about her figure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping with this documentary that people will realise it was all smoke and mirrors,\u201d the Liverpudlian mum-of-five told the Mirror.<\/p>\n

\"NatashaAtomic Kitten’s Natasha Hamilton worked throughout her pregnancy, which she initially kept secret(Image: Redferns via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we were doing a video shoot there\u2019d be certain fat-burning supplements that we would take to try and get like a six-pack,\u201d says Natasha. \u201cNo one forced us to do that, but obviously body image was very skewed back then. We got six-packs in three days. I would never do that now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Natasha also fell pregnant at 19 with first child Josh, but initially kept her pregnancy secret from her manager. Having worked through her pregnancy, Natasha was given six weeks off to recover when Josh was born by C-section.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am basically a child having a child,\u201d Mirror. \u201cI don\u2019t know anything about pre- and post-pregnancy. I was on tour the whole of my pregnancy. So when I\u2019m told, \u2018OK, you can have six weeks off and then come back and do a show,\u2019 I\u2019m just like, \u2018OK.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Another former Atomic Kitten singer, OK! columnist Kerry Katona<\/a> also contributes to the show. Admitting it wasn\u2019t just about pop stardom for her, but a means of escape from a tough upbringing and a way to finally feel loved\u2019 – she confesses that her time in the bubble of 90s girl pop was traumatic, in parts.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018I still get PTSD from it. Back then I had so many skeletons in my closet, with the glamour modelling, the foster homes, the refuges, the drug abuse. You were made to feel like your career would be ruined, that you’ve f***ed everything up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Girlbands Forever is on BBC Two on Saturday 1 November at 9.20pm<\/p>\n

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