In the summer of 1994, 20-year-old Melanie Chisholm pinned a sign to her bedroom door that read: 'Don't come in, I'm snogging Robbie.' Little did she realise that just three years later, the man of her dreams would ask her out on a date.
"When Robbie first took an interest in me, I was taken aback to be honest," Chisholm writes in her newly released memoir Who I Am: My Story.
"I first properly met Robbie in Cologne in the summer of 1996. We ended up hanging out platonically, but I went up to his room and he gave me one of his tracksuits, a white Adidas one with black stripes. It was way too big for me, but I treasured it."
Chisholm writes how she knew that Williams was troubled, but says they kept in touch as he understood the pressures of fame thanks to his time in '90s boy band, Take That.
While the other Spice Girls had boyfriends, most notably Victoria was seeing footballer David Beckham, Chisholm had been told by manager Simon Fuller that she mustn't date anyone because of her 'vulnerability' and fragile mental health.
"Throughout my time in the Spice Girls, I was pretty much the only single one. I'd had boyfriends at school and a couple of relationships through college but I had been single for a while when I joined the band."
Chisholm writes that after a couple of years of feeling lonely and often ridiculed in the press for her single girl status, she was lonely, fed up, and "craved attention". Her supposed knight in shining armour? A smiling Robbie Williams at rehearsals in Rotterdam for the 1997 MTV Europe Music Awards.
"As I looked out to the empty venue, who do I see, right at the front, watching me, with a big grin on his face? Robbie bloody Williams. I think, I guess, he must have asked me out that night. Not like, 'Do you want to be my girlfriend?', but a more casual, 'When you gonna come and see me play then?'"
When they went on their first dates in November 1997, Williams was on the cusp of releasing his mega-hit 'Angels', so he was still unsure how things might turn out. They met up in locations around Europe after gigs.
"We fitted it all around our schedules. It was very exciting, albeit short-lived. The truth of the matter was we had a couple of dates, but he was a mess; I was a mess. Nothing came of it, and it broke my heart. We'd spent the last year talking about our lives and bonding over this shared experience. He let me know what it was like to be a solo artist and the highs and lows that came with that. I thought I'd found someone, someone of my very own."
While Chisholm was ready for something meaningful, it turned out that Williams wasn't and she took a long time to get over their brief time together.
"Sadly, Robbie did behave badly. He led me on and then abruptly dropped me at a time when I was incredibly vulnerable. I don't have any bad feelings towards him now, but he did break my heart a bit.
"He has apologised to me publicly and privately, and of course I've long forgiven him, but I must admit, it really did hurt at the time."
But dating Robbie Williams wasn't the only big thing to happen for Chisholm and the Spice Girls at those MTV Europe Music Awards.
By the end of 1997 and their MTV performance, Chisholm estimates that Spice Girls merchandise brought in over 300 million pounds. The band had lucrative deals with PepsiCo, Cadbury, Polaroid and Walkers Crisps, which according to Chisholm took its toll on the band and their relationship with then-manager Simon Fuller.
"The focus was veering so far away from the music," Chisholm recalls about that period.
"We were all feeling unhappy about the way things were headed with Simon. And we were getting a lot of stick for it."
"He implemented this divide and rule style of management... which was designed to keep us all separated and insecure. That really impacted our relationships with each other and even our families. We all started to become isolated."
Chisholm writes about how they were all treated like "a commodity", being worked too hard without breaks. She says that while she can see that Fuller did so much for the band, there were many aspects of his management style that made her incredibly uncomfortable.
It was while in Rotterdam that the Spice Girls harnessed their girl power to save themselves.
"We'd built a career on following our instincts and not being bossed about by record industry blokes. Yet here we were, being run into the ground, and in our opinions, mismanaged. We were not happy. Something had to give. And it did."
Led by Geri, Mel B, and Victoria, the bandmates met secretly in Victoria's hotel room to discuss taking back control. Geri, Mel B and Victoria were unsure how 'good girls' Mel C and Emma might react to the idea of sacking Fuller, but Chisholm was resolute.
"'I didn't get into this to advertise f**king chocolate bars,' I told them. 'I want to be onstage, I want to perform. Let's f**king do it!'"
Thankfully, Emma agreed; Simon was out. The women then hatched a covert plan to distract their assistant Camilla and 'borrow' her Filofax and mobile phone to copy down the numbers of relevant industry contacts. Before they had even finished rehearsing, Simon arrived to tell Camilla they needed to leave immediately. The lawyers had called and fired him.
"We were on our own," Chisholm writes.
"We'd had enough of men controlling us and telling us what we should do, say, and wear. Telling us we could and couldn't date. We'd been controlled and manipulated. It put a huge barrier between us, which although we plastered over it as best we could, I honestly don't think we got over it until our reunion 10 years later.
"Ultimately though, it became about us girls or him. We were becoming so fractured as a band that it was in danger of falling apart.
"So, naturally we chose us."
Melanie Chisholm's book Who I Am, My Story, is out now online or at all good bookshops.
For more on this story:
In 1996, Mel C told Victoria Beckham to f*ck off. It was the beginning of a much bigger problem.
The Spice Girls invented Girl Power. Behind the scenes, they were all struggling.
Laura Jackel is Mamamia's Family Writer. For links to her articles and to see photos of her outfits and kids, follow her on Instagram and TikTok.
Feature Image: Getty / Canva.
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