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Melanie Blatt has said she and her All Saints band mate Nicole Appleton were told to get abortions by their managers. The 50-year-old has revealed the shocking pressure she was put under to get rid of her baby when she told bosses she was pregnant. Her revelation is part of upcoming BBC documentary Girlbands Forever, which will air this weekend. The documentary, a follow-up to last year's series on boybands, will look at what it was like to be in a girl band during the nineties and noughties. It will feature commentary from members of Little Mix , Eternal, Sugababes, Atomic Kitten, Mis-Teeq and, of course, All Saints. That era saw an explosion of girl groups, with managers hoping to launch bands to rival the Spice Girls. However, as those featured explain, immense pressure was put on them. Melanie explained that when both she and her band mate Nicole told their managers they were pregnant, they were told to end the pregnancies. The reasoning was, she said, that the group had just managed to crack America with their song Never Ever, and bosses feared they would lose momentum. According to The Sun , she says in the documentary: "I hadn't been with my partner for very long, it was definitely a bit of a surprise. "It wasn't people congratulating us. It was more like this look of dread and worry and the realisation that things are going to change. "We flew to LA and at LAX our manager, he was behind us, was telling us to abort our babies." She says they they were told that them having babies would "ruin everything" and would be "the end of the band". Melanie had her baby with then partner Stuart Zender, who was the bassist for Jamiroquai. But Nicole, who was dating Robbie Williams at the time, did not. Melanie adds: "Nic and I had been best friends since we were 11. We took pregnancy tests in a hotel in Canada and spent that whole night discussing bringing our kids up together. It was one of the best nights ever. "And it's not really my place to talk about it, but unfortunately... it was a very uncomfortable situation because I kept mine, she didn't. That was a really tricky part of my and our existence." Daily Star has contacted a representative for Nicole for comment. Eventually, the group, also consisting Shaznay Lewis and Nicole's sister Natalie, decided they were done. Melanie says: "One of the proudest moments of being in that band was calling it quits because we didn't stay for the money." She adds: "That's one of the only decisions we were all happy to make together, telling each other to 'F*** off'." Girlbands Forever starts Saturday at 9.20pm on BBC Two Want all the biggest Showbiz and TV news straight to your inbox? Sign up for our free Daily Star Showbiz newsletter.
