Jesy Nelson Explains Why She Left Little Mix

Jesy Nelson took Little Mix fans aback when she announced she was leaving the group in December 2020 citing mental health reasons. A few months later, she’s opening up about her decision, admitting she’s been feeling much freer and happier since. 

In a new interview with Cosmopolitan UK, Jesy got candid about leaving the group, revealing that she felt “miserable” while being part of the quartet. “I constantly compared myself to the others. Of course, a lot of that was in my head, but a lot of it was past trauma,” Jesy admitted. “Even recently, I was still getting compared to them. It’s 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.”

“I didn’t know that I could be this happy,” Jesy also said. “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.”

Jesy also recounted she realized she had to leave the group while filming the music video for “Sweet Melody.” “[That] was the breaking point. We’d been in lockdown, and [that had been] the first time I could have a break and be at home around people that I love. It was the happiest I’d ever felt, and I didn’t realize that until I went back to work. I immediately became a different person. I had anxiety. Whenever we had a music video, I put an enormous amount of pressure on myself to try and lose weight. 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,” Jesy recounted. “On the day of the ‘Sweet Melody’ video, I had a panic attack on set because I didn’t look how I wanted to look and I found it so hard to just be happy and enjoy myself. I looked at the other three and they were having the time of their life. For me, that was the pinnacle point. I was like, ‘I need to start taking care of myself now because this isn’t healthy.’ It wasn’t nice for the other three to be around someone who didn’t want to be there. So I took a break. I went through a really dark time after the music video.”

When news of her exit broke, Jesy and the remaining three members – Perrie Edwards, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, and Jade Thirlwall – parted ways on good terms. “This is an incredibly sad time for all of us but we are fully supportive of Jesy. We love her very much and agree that it is so important that she does what is right for her mental health and well-being,” the trio wrote back then. Since then they have put out “Confetti” featuring rapper Saweetie and made some personal announcements of their own. Earlier this week, Leigh-Anne announced she was pregnant with her first child via Instagram with a grandiose photoshoot that was met with love and support from her fellow members as celebs like Millie Bobby Brown and Victoria Monet. 

As noted by The Guardian earlier this month, Leigh-Anne reportedly sought Jesy’s advice when she opened up about her experience with racism online. “I spoke to her about how it was for her,” Leigh-Anne told the magazine. “Being open and being vulnerable is such a hard thing to do.”

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