Jesy Nelson's new documentary Jesy Nelson: Life After Little Mix has dropped this Friday, 13th February, and fans are describing it as shockingly heartbreaking.
Following everything from her bedroom rehearsals for her X Factor audition to career highs and lows – and, most recently, her journey into motherhood – the former Little Mix star opens up in a way she never has before, providing a refreshingly honest look into her life as a pop star.
Below are the 6 most important takeaways from the docu-series, from the funny to the emotional:
Where to watch Jesy Nelson: Life After Little Mix
Good news, Amazon Prime subscribers: you can watch Jesy Nelson: Life After Little Mix for free on Prime. If you don't already have a subscription, you can sign up for £8.99 to watch the new doc.
5 things we learned from the documentary
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“I've never seen her so happy”, says Jesy's mum in episode one. It's clear that the father of Jesy's twins and her now-ex (they split in January), Zion Foster, 27, brought Jesy, 34, lots of joy and support during their relationship together. She's shown buzzing with happiness while around him in heartwarming moments in the doc, and he was by her side during the diagnosis of her twins' health issues. Despite the breakup, reports indicate that Jesy and London-based hip-hop musician Zion remain friends and are "fully united in co-parenting" their children.
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One of the most harrowing moments in the doc is when Jesy shares the news that her identical twins, Ocean Jade and Story Monroe, have spinal muscular atrophy (SMA1), a genetic condition and severe muscle-wasting disease that means there's a high chance that the girls will never walk. The couple also shared about how the twins were ‘mono/di’ twins, meaning that they shared the same placenta rather than both sharing separate ones, which is known to increase the likelihood of developmental issues.
In one emotional part of the documentary, the doctor who does her scan sits the couple down afterward and explains that one of the twins is receiving significantly less blood than the other, explaining that, with this condition: “90-95% of the time, both babies don't make it”.
Despite the seriousness of the twins' condition, the girls survived, and Jesy remains strong: “I truly believe that my girls will defy all the odds and go on to do things that have never been done before”, she says.
It's clear that despite all the heartbreak, Jesy loves her new role as a mother. In episode one, while still pregnant, she says: “I really like feeling like a mum. I'm so protective. You're never lonely and I love that feeling. Before I got pregnant I felt lost."
"I was very very depressed when I was in the band," says Jesy in the documentary, explaining that, just days before quitting the band, she tried to take her own life after feeling like ‘no-one cared’ about her after she'd sat down fellow Little Mix members Perrie Edwards, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall to explain that she wasn't doing well.
"I just felt like no-one cared... And I remember one of their responses being like ‘are you done now, is that it?’ That just made me feel alone and like there's no point to this, no-one cares.”
In the doc, Jesy's mother Janice explains how she was the one to raise the alarm about Jesy's overdose when she fell asleep while on the phone to her: "For a few days before, she had just been really down and not talking much. She wanted to be on her own quite a lot.
"I got a gut feeling that something wasn't right. I kept ringing and ringing, but there was no answer. She eventually answered the phone and the way she was talking was really slurry.
“I heard the phone drop and didn't hear anything else — I knew she'd done something.”
Jesy described how intense the process of auditioning for The X Factor was at such a young age (she was only 20 years old), describing it as feeling like she was ‘naked’ in front of the sea of people: “I was mortified. I remember coming off stage and just crying".
It wasn't until she was paired with the other girls to create Little Mix that she ‘felt more confident’, saying she ‘felt safe’ and like she belonged. Soon, the girls were performing on live TV for audiences of over 10 million.
Despite looking like an absolute goddess, Jesy revealed that comments on social media majorly affected her self-esteem, especially during her time on the X Factor. “It's such a bittersweet feeling when I look back on it because feeling that open and honest and vulnerable made so many people relate to us but… it didn't help me. It just made me feel worse”. She also shared how the girls were encouraged to have social media accounts to interact with fans, but that it just intensified the level of negative attention she got.
We can't wait to see what the girls do next ❤️
