When the Spice Girls were at the height of their fame, Melanie C was hiding a secret.

Melanie. Mel C. Sporty Spice.

She's a woman of many names, yet you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who lived through the '90s who wouldn't immediately recognise Melanie Chisholm. 

She rose to stratospheric fame as one-fifth of UK band the Spice Girls, along with Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell, Melanie Brown and Victoria Beckham (AKA Baby, Ginger, Scary and Posh, respectively). 

And their star burned hard and fast. Just two years after forming the band as complete strangers, the women released their debut album, which sold more than 40 million albums worldwide and was number one in 37 countries (told you it was stratospheric).

Girl power, peace signs and slicked-back ponytails reigned supreme. Photos of the women adorned every magazine cover and every inch of every teenage girl's bedroom walls (this writer's included). 

But Chisholm's role in the Spice Girls almost never happened. 

Watch: Melanie Chisholm talks about how the Spice Girls got their name. Post continues below.

In 1994, she was auditioning with a friend to be a dancer on a cruise ship (a job she says she would've taken reluctantly) when she passed a man who handed her a flyer. 

"It said something along the lines of, 'Are you 18-24, can you dance, sing, are you streetwise it went on, but basically it was an audition for a girl band and that was it. That's what I wanted, I didn't want to be dancing on cruises!" Chisholm told Mamamia's No Filter podcast when she sat down for an interview at our Sydney offices. 

Chisholm said she still remembers the day — more than 30 years ago now — so vividly. 

"I remember telling (my friend) – she was on my right – and I just went, 'That's it. That's what I'm gonna do'. And that went on eventually to become the Spice Girls." 

So the then 20-year-old turned up in what she described as a "terrible" lilac top, jeans and trainers. 

"I had no money at the time, bless me. It was my best outfit. It's the best I could muster up on that particular day," she told No Filter's host, Kate Langbroek. 

She made an initial impression, but on the day of the callback, she fell ill. 

"I just happened to be sick when the recall audition was and my mum begged them to give me an opportunity to get better and come back and see them. But they wouldn't have it," she said.

"But luckily for me, not so much the other person, one of the girls they'd cast, they didn't feel like it worked out. So they asked me to come along, and then that was it, I was in." 

Listen to Melanie Chisholm's full interview here. Post continues below.

Despite being grouped together as literal strangers, Chisholm said the energy between the five women was undeniable when Emma Bunton – the final member – came on board. 

"It was instant as soon as we met Emma. I remember being in Geri's car, it was bashed up a bit and she would drive us everywhere – it's amazing that we're all living to tell the tale — and we picked up Emma at the train station… and she was just so lovely and sweet. And there was just a massive dynamic shift and from that moment, it was just sparky," Chisholm said. 

"Even now, it's quite rare the five of us are in a room together, we don't get to do as much as we'd like to, but it is electric. There is something about whatever it is between the five of us, and it has been since day one that it's just exciting." 

But they didn't start with the famous monikers they're now known for. It was actually Top of the Pops magazine's then-editor, Peter Loraine, who coined them. 

"I think that's probably one of the biggest misconceptions about the Spice Girls, because people often ask us, 'how did you feel about your name and having to live up to this thing?' And well, we were given the names. It was a little bit of a joke, but they just stuck," Chisholm explained. 

"And the journalist that came up with the names, he'd done it and we loved it, and we actually now laugh at ourselves because we are SO those people, there's no getting away from it. You become more set in the shape of yourself and I think that's what the Spice Girls have done. And so I've never not wanted to be Sporty. And I think now, more than ever, I celebrate it."

The Spice Girls didn't start with the famous monikers they're now known for. Image: Getty.

Chisholm was known within the industry and within the band for her work ethic and threw herself into recording and performing. 

"I came from very little financially. So when I was earning good money, it was like I had to justify that. I had to justify that to myself, to my family. So I couldn't rest on my laurels. I had to be the absolute best I could possibly be, to be worthy of all of these incredible things that were happening to me," she explained. 

Yet her determination to succeed became her kryptonite.

While she projected confidence on stage, a throwaway comment from an old manager at the start of her Spice Girls career hung over her like a dark cloud. 

"I was doing a backflip, and he said, 'I'm surprised you can do it with thighs like that' and that just really stuck with me," she said. 

"And I've been a dancer… it was brutal. You know, if you put on a little bit away over the summer holidays or something, the teacher would tell you in front of all of your classmates. But it never affected me negatively in that way. I had quite a healthy attitude towards food and towards exercise and all of those things. 

"But there was just something about that comment at that time with what I wanted to achieve. It was just a catalyst and I began to be very restrictive over what I was eating, and I became quite obsessive about exercising.

"And it was this thing of 'I have to be perfect to achieve my dream. There's a way I have to look, there's a way I have to behave, there's a way I have to be, and there's no other way'."

At the height of their fame, while they encouraged a generation with their message of girl power and feminism, Chisholm was secretly battling anorexia. 

The Spice Girls are the best-selling female group of all time .Image via Instagram/@melaniecmusic.

The pressure-cooker environment of fame in the late '90s only made matters more difficult. 

"I was 22 and the media was very different in those days, and a lot of questioning was very intrusive and personal like, 'talk us through the first time you had sex', or, 'who was the first person you kissed'," she said.

"You don't want to talk about those things, but obviously different personalities within the band… I'm a people-pleaser, so I'm thinking, 'well, I've got to answer the questions that have been asked.' 

"And we had no media training. In fact, I often believe media training was invented because of the Spice Girls because we were a nightmare. We just used to speak over each other all the time. There was nowhere for us to hide. We had to make our own mistakes in the public eye." 

Within six years, the Spice Girls went on to perform a record-breaking world tour, become the best-selling female group of all time and filmed their own movie (side note: I still think about their impossibly large tour bus from the film at least once a week). Even when Geri left the band in 1998, they still dominated the charts and continued to tour. 

By 2000, when the band was on hiatus while Victoria and Mel B both welcomed their first children, Chisholm recorded her debut album, 'Northern Star'. 

At 51, Chisholm is now happier than ever. Image: Instagram/@melaniecmusic

It was afterwards, without work to distract her, she hit what she called her "rock bottom". 

"That was my rock bottom because I thought I was going mad. I started binge-eating, and I was struggling to get out of bed. I was agoraphobic. I was struggling to leave the house. It was hard. It was hard for my mum to see. And that was the moment when it was like, 'You know what? I can't do this on my own' because I'm very independent and I was obviously embarrassed, because the things that I was going through, I hadn't said any of it out loud, but it was at that point when I was like, 'I actually can't do this without help,' and that's when I went to the doctors," she said.

Listen to part two of No Filter to hear what happened next and the one line that changed everything for Mel C. Post continues below.

Despite not releasing more music together, the Spice Girls have reunited several times over the years — including for the 2012 London Olympics closing ceremony and for a 2019 UK tour (sans Victoria Beckham). 

And now, as they approach the 30th anniversary of when they released their first single, Chisholm says one thing between the women remains unchanged. 

"There's five people who know what it's like to be a Spice Girl, and even the five of us have very different experiences of the same thing, but we knew it was so important for us to be there for each other. Sometimes that was a toxic environment," she said.  

"We put a lot of pressure on ourselves and each other, but fundamentally, we have each other's back. You know, to this day, if someone messes with one of the Spice Girls, you have to deal with the other four and to have that is pretty incredible."

Feature: Getty/Instagram - @melaniecmusic.