Melanie Blatt reveals All Saints bandmate Nicole Appleton never discussed her abortion with her after they fell pregnant at the same time as she reflects on the group’s ‘difficult relationships’

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Melanie Blatt shared that despite both she and her All Saints bandmate, Nicole Appleton, becoming pregnant around the same time, Nicole never talked to her about her abortion.

In the April issue of Good Housekeeping UK, the 50-year-old singer shared that she didn’t know how to talk about the challenging dynamics within the group, looking back on their ‘difficult relationships.’

Melanie started the girl group in 1993 with Shaznay Lewis and Simone Rainford. Simone later left, and was replaced by Nicole and her sister Natalie.

Despite the fact that two members were siblings and she and Nicole had been best friends since they were eleven, the group had always found it difficult to get along.

In 1998, at the peak of her career, Melanie became pregnant with her daughter, Lilyella. Lilyella’s father is Stuart Zender, who was the bassist for the band Jamiroquai and Melanie’s partner at the time.

Around the same time, Nicole found out she was pregnant with her boyfriend, Robbie Williams, after she and her friends took pregnancy tests together while staying in a Canadian hotel.

Melanie remembered it being an incredible night. Unfortunately, the story quickly became public and spread rapidly. People began to worry it could damage the band and that they were disappointing their fellow bandmates.

Nic chose to have an abortion, and we didn’t talk about it much, mostly because we weren’t good at communicating our feelings back then. We’ve never really discussed it, even now.

Reflecting on their connection, she explained that the four of them always had a challenging dynamic. She felt it was unfortunate, as she believed they could have had a much happier outcome if things had gone differently.

We were honest about how we felt and didn’t try to appear fine if we weren’t. Plus, financial gain wasn’t the reason we continued playing music together.

Robbie Williams’ 2024 biopic, Better Man, featured a dramatized portrayal of his nineties relationship with Nicole of the group All Saints.

He once described his former girlfriend as ‘a complete angel’ while discussing their difficult relationship and the painful abortion she had in the 1990s.

He told Hello! Magazine he’d shown her an advance screening of the film. He then revealed the hardest part was watching scenes involving Nicole and their difficult past, explaining she had been told to terminate their pregnancy.

I wasn’t responsible for her actions, but I was a terrible boyfriend at the time. I was struggling with serious addiction and alcoholism, and I behaved really badly.

The singer shared that watching the footage is painful, explaining, ‘She’s such a sweet person, and it’s upsetting to see how much stigma remains around my past.’

Robbie added that he called her as soon as she left the screening and both of them shed tears.

In her 2002 autobiography, Together, Nicole shared details about her relationship with Robbie and their split, revealing she became pregnant with his child. However, she had an abortion after being pressured by her record label, All Saints.

She remembered Robbie Williams’ reaction to the news of her pregnancy, saying he touched her stomach and told her, “This baby is saving my life.”

Robbie supported his former partner’s choice to include their abortion experience in her memoir, but later confessed that revisiting it was deeply painful for him.

I’ve always been a huge supporter of hers, and I totally get what she did. It’s like when something’s been bothering you for so long, something really deep down, and you just need to get it out in the open – to finally address it and feel a weight lifted. It’s about freeing yourself from something that’s been holding you back.

‘Secrets can make you sick and secrets can make you feel terrible… then I’m completely behind her,’ he previously told the Daily Mail. 

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2026-02-26 03:52