Why Spice Girl Mel B’s candid new interview has fans reeling

Nick Bond

When it seems like every other 90s pop act is able to pull it together to cash in on fans’ nostalgia, it’s hard not to be frustrated by the Spice Girls’ apparent inability to get anything over the line (aside from, of course, random expensive merchandise drops that nobody asked for).

But 2026 seemed like it’d be a no-brainer for some sort of reunion celebration: In June it will be 30 years since the group burst onto the scene with their world-conquering debut single Wannabe.

Despite so many false starts, “Scary Spice” Mel B has always been the group’s most … let’s say, optimistic member. She seemingly never tires of press questions about the reunion, and always strikes a hopeful tone, saying that she’s working behind the scenes to get the other less willing group members (aka Victoria Beckham and Geri Halliwell-Horner) on board.

Which makes Mel’s latest interview so startling.

In a candid new chat with Hello! Magazine, Mel says that, after reaching the milestone age of 50 last year, she’s made peace with the fact the band will never reunite – and she’s stopped trying to make it happen.

“I can tell you it’s not happening,” she said.

“If it does, it’ll be a shock to me, let’s put it that way. When I look at that [2019 tour] and at the feeling it gave me, I was in my element, but there comes a time … I’m 50. You can’t be nagging everyone to go on tour if they don’t want to. I laid that to rest when I turned 50.”

Perhaps more shockingly, Mel told Hello that even if the others were on board for a reunion tour, she would now be reluctant to take part.

“I’ve got fond memories, but I don’t know if I would want to go back up on stage,” she said.

She also gave an explanation as to why yet another aborted Spice Girls project – plans for a tell-all Netflix documentary – never got off the ground.

“I think we’ve all been asked and were all thinking about it at some point,” she said. “But it has to be done in the right way, and it has to be honest – and not everybody wants to be honest.”

This new interview has sent shockwaves among pop fans still holding out hope the group might reunite some day soon.

“Heartbreaking to hear about the reunion,” one fan commented under Mel’s Instagram post sharing the interview.

“I just don’t understand why they won’t do a reunion tour,” another complained.

Another asked why Mel now seemingly has “resentment” about the prospect of reuniting. “She’s the one to hope for a reunion every time and now she said she doesn't know if she would accept a tour?” they asked.

It was Mel B, let’s not forget, who announced on stage at Wembley Stadium in 2019 at the end of the Spice Girls’ last short reunion tour that their next stop would be in Australia early the next year (spoiler: It wasn’t).

When I spoke to Mel in her dressing room at The Masked Singer in 2022, she said she was still “hopeful” the group would soon reunite for another tour that would include their first-ever Australian dates.

“I do miss it, and I’m always eager to go back on stage,” she said. “I love being up there; especially with my girls. Those shows were just massive.”

Fellow Spice Girl Melanie C struck a similarly hopeful tone when asked about reunion plans in an interview with news.com.au late last year, saying that it felt like it would be “rude not to” reunite for their 30th anniversary – but that “the thing with the Spice Girls is, it’s hard to get everybody in the same frame of mind at the same time.”

And she said that she was not “the one that needs convincing. I’m ready, let’s go! But I’ll keep working on some of the others who are being a bit tricky …”

A recent move from Melanie C suggested that she too had given up on a 30th anniversary reunion: Last month she announced her biggest solo tour to date, taking her across the world for several months later this year.

Her November Aussie dates now seem likely to be the closest we’ll ever get to a Spice Girls concert in this country.