For those unfamiliar with her work, she suggests picking up a copy. “When Prince William gave me my MBE, he was like, ‘So this isn't for Spice Girls? It's all about your awareness for domestic abuse?’” she recalls. “He wanted to have a full conversation with me. I was like, ‘Well, there's a line of people, but if you just want to buy my book, or I'll send you the new book coming out.’ So that was really sweet, and Victoria [Beckham] dressed me and my mum for it.”
Ahead, Mel B talks to Glamour about her return to America's Got Talent and her upcoming mystery project with the Spice Girls.
Glamour: What can we expect from the new season of America’s Got Talent: Fantasy League?
Mel B: Between us four judges, we all had to pick a straw out, so depending on how short or how long your draw was, you got to pick one of your teams first. That was really interesting. Simon got the shortest draw, so he was always the last to pick. And this year, which is funny, I'm actually sitting next to him. In all the seven years I've done it before, I've never sat next to him. But it's been really lovely to be back in LA and hanging out with Heidi [Klum] again. We've been having our girly sleepovers at her house where the boys are not invited. It’s been a really exciting time.
When you think about how your career has evolved since your original Spice Girl days, what are you most proud of?
I've actually got my book coming out called Brutally Honest. It's quite a dark topic, but I think it's a very relevant topic. There is such an epidemic of domestic violence and coercive control and abuse all over the world. I released it in 2018, but I've added about five or six more chapters to it. You can actually preorder that right now on Amazon, and that comes out in 2024. I'm really excited about it. I've been working on that for most of the year, and obviously Spice Girls stuff. So it's been quite busy. I've been in Australia also because I’m one of the judges on Masked Singer over there, and I love Australia. I've lived there for four years in the past, so it was nice to go back and visit there and be working too.
You mentioned Victoria Beckham dressed you and your mom for your MBE ceremony. Are you and the Spice Girls still close?
Oh yeah! We're working on a big project, which will be announced pretty soon in the middle of next year. I can't say too much about it, but it's all five of us, which is really exciting.
What advice would you share with your daughters about confidence and self-image?
Don't get too swept up with the whole social media vibe, because a lot of those images are not that real. A lot of those images are retouched. I got brought up the same way that I'm bringing my kids up. You have to feel good about yourself. You have to love the skin that you're in. And if you don't like something about yourself, if you can't physically change it, you just have to learn to love it. You have to absolutely learn to love yourself. It's the classic saying, love yourself before anybody else could even begin to love you.
