In the first episode of Amazon Prime\u2019s six-part series, Jesy Nelson: Life After Little Mix, we witness startlingly candid scenes involving the 34-year-old pop star as she navigates a series of devastating revelations about her pregnancy. At the same time, she is unpacking her experiences as a member of one of the biggest girl groups the UK has ever seen \u2013 with much teasing of an upcoming reveal surrounding the \u201creal reason\u201d she quit the band back in 2020. <\/p>\n
Nelson was born in Romford, east London, the second youngest of four children to parents who separated when she was five. From a young age, she knew she wanted to entertain people \u2013 whether through singing, dancing or acting, she wasn\u2019t sure. She just knew she wanted to make people smile. She got off to a rocky start, scarred first by a croaky debut performance at stage school and later by a fateful audition for The X Factor in 2011, aged 20. Take That\u2019s Gary Barlow<\/a> was unimpressed; \u201cgeneric\u201d and \u201clacking individuality\u201d was how he described her performance of \u201cBust Your Windows\u201d by Jazmine Sullivan. <\/p>\n As Nelson points out herself, perhaps her distressed reaction to Barlow\u2019s criticism showed early warning signs that she might not be cut out for life in the spotlight. Instead of listening to the warm encouragement from Barlow\u2019s fellow judges Louis Walsh, Tulisa Contostavlos and Kelly Rowland, she fled backstage, crying, while the TV crew shoved cameras in her face. She visibly crumpled further when Rowland said she thought Nelson would be better-suited in a band. Ultimately, she made it through but was knocked out in the next round\u2026 only to be summoned back by the judges along with Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Perrie Edwards and Jade Thirlwall, who had also auditioned as solo singers. Little Mix were formed right there onstage, given mere moments to make what turned out to be a life-changing decision. <\/p>\n \u201cI was so carefree and happy,\u201d Nelson says, fighting back tears as she recalls the Missy Elliott-obsessed kid she once was. \u201cThe version of me before X Factor\u2026 I\u2019ll never get that back. And I loved that version of me. That was probably the realest, most authentic version of Jesy that there ever was.\u201d<\/p>\n Nelson has already been the subject of a BBC documentary about the bullying she suffered while in Little Mix. Despite the hit singles and the sold-out arenas, she became \u201cobsessed\u201d instead with reading negative comments about herself, googling searches like \u201cJesy fat\u201d or \u201cJesy ugly\u201d and seeing what would come up. \u201cEveryone told me to ignore it,\u201d she says, \u201cbut it was like an addiction.\u201d The tabloids hounded her, publishing unflattering photos along with stories about her estranged father\u2019s criminal record. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Little Mix at the 2012 Brit Awards, L-R: Perrie Edwards, Jade Thirlwall, Jesy Nelson and Leigh-Anne Pinnock (Getty Images)<\/p>\n The first episode of Life After Little Mix retreads some of this familiar ground, but it does more to show the warm, funny young woman Nelson has become now that she\u2019s seemingly escaped the online toxicity. There are genuine laugh-out-loud moments as she fusses over her grey hairs (\u201cI started getting them when I was 25!\u201d), wonders if her pregnancy bump is showing (it is), and beams at her (now ex) fiance and father of her children, the sweet-natured musician Zion Foster<\/a>. At the episode one premiere, which Nelson attended, the audience howled with glee at the scene in which her mum remarks on the size of the singer\u2019s pregnancy knickers. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Nelson taking part in a pregnancy shoot at home (Amazon Prime)<\/p>\n Undoubtedly, though, even the episode\u2019s brightest moments are darkened by what she\u2019s going through in real time. There are endless scenes of Nelson in a grey doctor\u2019s office having yet another scan, with Foster and her supportive mum, Janice, by her side. In these moments, Nelson is truly remarkable \u2013 there\u2019s no facade, no attempt to mask her feelings of helplessness. What\u2019s clear is her pragmatic attitude, an outlook that fuels her need for a solution, a fix \u2013 and what makes it all the more devastating when she realises she can\u2019t find one. <\/p>\n We don\u2019t yet learn \u201cthe real reason\u201d Nelson left Little Mix, although the episode certainly hints that this bombshell will be dropped in one of the other five episodes. When she quit in December 2020 (Little Mix continued as a trio until going on an indefinite hiatus after their 2022 tour), Nelson said it was due to the impact that being in the group had on her mental health. \u201cI\u2019m ready now, to tell my side of the story,\u201d she announces in a teaser. It\u2019s certainly titillating \u2013 a classic TV cliffhanger \u2013 but you have to wonder if dredging up past grievances will undo this moving character portrayal we\u2019re given in episode one. So far, though, Life After Little Mix is a commendably frank documentary from a woman who is using her own distressing situation to raise awareness for others.<\/p>\n \u2018Jesy Nelson: Life After Little Mix\u2019 is on Amazon Prime from Friday 13 February<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":{"0":"post-454218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Little](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Little-Mix.jpeg\")
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