Highlights
- Former Little Mix star says online abuse took a serious toll on her mental health
- Backs proposals to restrict social media access for under-16s in the UK
- New Prime Video documentary follows her journey into motherhood and her twins’ rare diagnosis
- Singer calls for greater awareness and newborn screening for spinal muscular atrophy
Jesy Nelson has thrown her support behind proposals to ban under-16s from social media in the UK, saying the platforms played a major role in damaging her mental health and that she wants to protect her daughters from similar harm.
The former Little Mix singer, who has faced intense online trolling since rising to fame on The X Factor in 2011, describes social media as the “downfall” of her mental wellbeing in a new documentary charting her path into motherhood.
Now a mother to eight-month-old twins Ocean and Story, Jesy says she wants children to enjoy their early years away from the pressures of online life — while acknowledging the social challenges that can come with being left out.
“I’m all for kids being kids for as long as possible,” she tells BBC Newsbeat. “But I also understand there’s a point where, if your child doesn’t have social media or the latest thing, they could end up being bullied.”
Her comments come as the government consults on plans aimed at improving young people’s wellbeing, including tighter controls on social media use.
Documenting an unexpected journey
Jesy’s Prime Video series Life After Little Mix offers an unfiltered look at her pregnancy and the months that followed, including the moment she learned her twins had twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome — a rare and potentially life-threatening condition affecting identical twins who share a placenta.
After surgery and an extended hospital stay, the 34-year-old gave birth prematurely in May at 31 weeks. Months later, concerns over the twins’ movement led to urgent tests, revealing they had spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) Type 1 — a severe genetic condition that causes muscle weakness and can be fatal if untreated.
Jesy says she initially agreed to be filmed to capture happy memories to one day share with her children, but the experience took a very different turn. “It just did not play out in any way I thought it was going to,” she says. “My reasons for making it before are now so different.”
Raising awareness through honesty
The twins have since received a one-off gene infusion treatment designed to preserve remaining muscle function, though damage already done cannot be reversed. Jesy has been told her daughters are unlikely to walk or regain neck strength and now attend hospital check-ups twice a week due to side effects.
“We’re just taking each day as it comes,” she says. “They’re happy, they’re smiling — that’s all I can ask for.”
Jesy says allowing cameras into such a difficult period has helped her focus on raising awareness about SMA and showing her daughters “how resilient and strong” they are.
Co-parenting under pressure
The documentary also highlights the support she has received from family, friends and the twins’ father, musician Zion Foster. Jesy admits the past year has been “really stressful” and “traumatic” for them both.
“Our main focus is our girls,” she says. “We just want to co-parent the best way we can and give them all the love and positivity.”
Fame, fallout and life after Little Mix
Across the six-part series, Jesy also revisits the pressures of fame, her decision to leave Little Mix in 2020 and the backlash that followed her solo debut. Her 2021 single Boyz, featuring Nicki Minaj, sparked accusations of “blackfishing”, which she later addressed, saying she never intended to cause offence.
She describes her relationship with The X Factor as “bittersweet”, adding that more should have been done to safeguard contestants’ mental health. Therapy, she says, has helped her come to terms with the trolling she once faced.
“I actually have sympathy for people who feel the need to write nasty things,” she says. “I don’t believe a happy person would go out of their way to be mean.”
Asked about returning to music, Jesy says her focus remains firmly on her daughters. She has also joined calls for SMA to be added to the NHS newborn heel-prick test, meeting Health Secretary Wes Streeting to discuss plans for expanded screening.
