Melanie Blatt describes ‘difficult’ All Saints relationships

Blatt said she spent ‘many, many years’ feeling ashamed about being in a pop band but is more comfortable hearing the girl group’s songs now.

By contributor Jenny Garnsworthy, Press Association
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Supporting image for story: Melanie Blatt describes ‘difficult’ All Saints relationships
Melanie Blatt has told Good Housekeeping UK about being in girl group All Saints (Joe Giddens/PA)

Former All Saints singer Melanie Blatt has described how there was “always a difficult relationship between the four of us” in the band.

In an interview with Good Housekeeping UK magazine, Blatt said the 1990s girl group, which was also made up of sisters Nicole and Natalie Appleton and Shaznay Lewis, had a tricky dynamic.

Blatt told the magazine: “For a start, you’ve got two sisters. Nic and I were best friends when we were 11, then Shaz and I were best friends… we could never get it right.

“It’s such a shame; I think if we’d got it right, we’d have been laughing. At the same time, we didn’t fake it. We didn’t pretend we were okay.

“And we certainly didn’t stay in the band for money.”

Blatt, who features on the cover of the April issue of the magazine, also discussed how she and Nicola Appleton both discovered they were pregnant while on tour but “didn’t have the communication skills” to talk about it as they were so young.

She told the magazine: “I’d only been dating Lily’s dad (Jamiroquai bassist Stuart Zender) for a couple of months and the pregnancy was unplanned, but I knew that having the baby was absolutely the right thing for me.

“Nic decided to have an abortion, but we didn’t really discuss it because we didn’t have the communication skills to do so.

“I don’t think we’ve ever spoken about it, to this day.”

Melanie Blatt appears on the April issue of Good Housekeeping UK
Melanie Blatt appears on the April issue of Good Housekeeping UK (Good Housekeeping UK/PA)

Blatt said she spent “many, many years feeling ashamed about being in a pop band,” but is more comfortable hearing the group’s songs now.

She added: “I wanted to work with Timbaland and Missy Elliott. I didn’t want to release Pure Shores.

“I was always making a fuss, I was always upset, and I was wrong. It became our biggest song.”

Blatt, who appeared as a contestant on last year’s Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special, said she would love to publish a cookery book or have her own cooking show.

She added: “Something like Cheeses Of The World, where I travel to Africa and Asia and talk to people about cheese.

“I’m putting it out there, because I’m going to make it happen.”

The full interview can be read now in the April issue of Good Housekeeping UK.