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MEL C HAS ALWAYS SWUM AGAINST THE TIDE – AND AT 34, SHE’S HAPPIER THAN EVER TO CONFOUND EXPECTATIONS…

By Louise Gannon

She's the only Spice Girl who hasn't become a yummy mummy – but Mel C still has no plans to join the baby club.

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"Arggh!" she yells. "Don't mention the ‘B' word! Everybody asks whether I'm going to be next or whether I'm trying at the moment.

"I hate to disappoint people, but the answer is ‘no'. Everyone thinks that because I'm 34 and in a serious relationship, I'm desperate to start a family.

"But I'm not. I love kids and one of the best bits about touring with the Spice Girls this time round was getting to know everyone's babies.

"I think people expected me to start feeling broody, but I didn't and I still don't. I'm sure at some point babies will be part of my future, but I don't think there's anything wrong with feeling happy without them."

Melanie Chisholm has many reasons to be cheerful. She's been loved-up with her property developer boyfriend Thomas Starr for six years, has homes in London and Wales, and is feeling chilled about life. But motherhood can wait.

"It's great the other girls are mothers, but we all have different paths in life, and mine doesn't include babies right now."

She bursts into an impromptu laugh. "And while I'm being so honest, I'd better say my current plans don't include marriage either. Maybe one day, but right now neither of us is in any rush to change things."

Melanie was always Singular Spice. Back in the heady days of Spicemania, she felt like the odd one out.

She was the only one who could sing, the only one truly bothered about writing songs, and the only one who didn't feel pretty or special enough to be in the band.

As a result, her days of fame and fortune were scarred by a series of self-destructive eating disorders.

She would survive months of touring and non-stop performances on just a handful of salad, and force herself to run up to five miles a day and spend hours in the gym.

"I felt I wasn't pretty enough to be a Spice Girl so I thought I had to try to have the best body," she said.

It took the band's break-up – followed by years of yo-yo dieting and professional help – for her to get to where she is today: a healthy size 10, no longer obsessed with food.

Still the straight-talking Scouser she always was, Melanie admits she was very much against the recent Spice Girls' reunion.

She explains: "I was the one who didn't want the reunion. I took a hell of a lot of persuading because I was so reluctant to go back into it for all sorts of reasons.

"Part of it was I felt we could never recapture those times, and there was a big part of me that just didn't want to be reminded of who I was back then.

"It's amazing to think that as part of the biggest band on the planet I spent most of my time completely miserable because I had a terrible eating disorder.

"At the height of it all I wasn't eating and I was exercising so much my periods stopped and my bone density was low."

But her main worry is the impact her skinny image may have had on her fans: "The worst thing for me was that I was a role model to millions of young girls," she says.

In the end, Melanie decided that a reunion would finally put her demons to rest.

She smiles: "Eventually I thought: ‘Why not?' The other girls really wanted to do it. At first I was frightened of being overwhelmed by all those old feelings, but then I started to feel that maybe this was something I had to do.

"The idea of putting on a great pop show was appealing, as was the idea of spending time with the girls.

"It was an incredibly positive experience. We're all older and wiser, and we put a lot of ghosts to rest on that tour.

"When it was over, I was finally proud to be a Spice Girl. All those frightened, negative, mixed feelings had disappeared.

"Whatever was said, we all got on incredibly well. We've had our fights and feuds, but we're now more like sisters than friends."

Not that there's likely to be a repeat of the band's reunion.

"When it finished, we all knew that was it. Never again. But in a good way," she says.

Right now, Melanie's thoughts are close to home – her true home of Liverpool – where she is returning to headline a gig in memory of 11-year-old Rhys Jones, who was shot dead while out on his bike a year ago.

"I'm from Liverpool and I was horrified, shocked and saddened when I read about little Rhys," she says. "Like everyone else, I just wanted to do anything I could to help.

"It terrifies me to think that little kids are growing up in a country that is getting more and more violent. Kids carrying knives is just too awful to think about, but we can't sit around being shocked. We all have to do what we can to try to stop it.

"All I think about is what sort of low self-esteem and sense of self-worth these kids have if they accept that being killed in this culture of violence is just a fact of their lives.

"I grew up in a typical working-class area of Liverpool. After school my mum didn't see me because I was outside all the time playing. But kids can't do that any more. All the innocence of childhood is slowly being stripped away.

"It also makes me sad to think that girls start worrying about their weight at such a young age. It's crazy. I hope society wakes up to the way we're bringing up our kids."

Melanie's immediate future includes more touring.

"I've just come back from Canada," she says, then leans forward and adds: "But they're a bit behind with their gossip. They kept asking me whether I was a lesbian, which was funny and quite sweet.

"I haven't been asked that in years. I know everyone thought I was gay when I had my hair cut and put on a bit of weight, and, of course, because of my tattoos."

Misconceptions? All part and parcel of life as Melanie Chisholm, apparently…

Melanie plays at Liverpool Unites: Concert For Rhys on August 15 at the Liverpool Echo Arena. To book tickets, call 0844 8000 400 or visit Accliverpool.com.

Photography: contour by getty images, LFI, Pa Photos, Rex features