BBCJesy Nelson’s Little Mix bandmates were left in floods of tears over confessions of her heartbreaking suicide attempt in her emotional new documentary, Odd One Out.
The singer revealed how she was desperate to end her life after receiving horrible abuse from online trolls, which included famed-troll Katie Hopkins, after an X-Factor performance in November 2013.
Jesy spoke about starving herself for an entire week in the build-up to the TV appearance in a bid to look skinny, however her depression ‘spiralled out of control’ when she continued to be fat shamed, prompting her to take tablets in an attempt to overdose.
Perrie Edwards, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall all shed tears when they spoke about their bandmate and good friend’s ordeal as Jade describes seeing her turn into a ‘broken doll’, while Leigh-Anne says the trolls ‘took away her passion’ for music.
Recalling the day Jesy attempted to take her own life, Jade said:
I remember feeling really angry at all those people.
I wanted to just find every single person that had ever said anything horrible to her and look them in the eye and say ‘look what you’ve done to this girl’.
Every single person who said something should have been held accountable.
BBCLeigh-Anne added:
It has been a bit hard in the group. I think people down realise the effects of what bullying and trolling can actually do to someone.
The trolls took away her love for it and her passion. How does she get that back? How does she go back to being confident and amazing after all that sh*t that happened to her?
As the documentary aired, Jesy’s boyfriend Chris Hughes hit out at Katie Hopkins, tweeting calling her a ‘b*tch’ with a middle finger emoji, however he later changed his mind and deleted the post.
The message came as Jesy explained how it was Katie’s tweet that sent her over the edge, the night she attempted to take her own life.
After the band’s X-Factor performance, Katie tweeted, ‘Packet Mix have still got a chubber in their ranks. Less Little Mix. More Pick n Mix.’
BBCSpeaking about the tweet, Jesy said:
All I remember feeling at that time is what’s the f*cking point.
I’ve starved myself for a week and I’m still getting called fat. I could be the skinniest girl in the world and this is never going to go away.
That is the pinnacle point for me when I got severely depressed and it just spiralled out of control.
Heartbroken viewers were quick to call out Katie for her vile slurs, which could’ve led to Jesy’s suicide.
One viewer tweeted:
As the mother of two teenage girls myself, @KTHopkins I sincerely hope your daughter NEVER experiences the evil and that you forced upon another beautiful human. Shame on you!
BBCMeanwhile, others praised Chris, who revealed he tells Jesy how beautiful she is every day.
In the doc, he said:
One day it’ll click and she’ll look at herself and she’ll see that she is beautiful and she is unbelievable.
She doesn’t see that when she takes her make-up off so that’s why I tell her every night.
Jesy Nelson: Odd One Out is available to stream on BBC iPlayer now.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues, and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123.
Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.