The Louis Theroux Podcast

Podbit · The Louis Theroux Podcast

S8 EP5: Melanie C on Spiceworld, comparing muscles with Arnold Schwarzenegger and why she’ll always be a Spice Girl

Explore episode Jul 6, 2026

Where this was said

Phone Hacking: Thirteen Years of Surveillance

At 40:28 · chapter starts 40:20

Melanie C describes how the Spice Girls lived in constant fear of tabloid exposure — anything they did at night, anyone they met, any transgression would 'get found out.' She pauses, then delivers the reveal: 'Now we know why and how. Because our phones were being hacked.' The hacking ran from 1996 to 2009, the year she had her daughter; she has taken legal action against The Sun and News of the World. She declines to comment specifically on Piers Morgan and The Mirror ('those proceedings have come to a halt'). Her broader view on tabloids is clear: they helped build the Spice Girls but also tried to destroy them. Now, with social media, tabloids have 'lost so much of their power' and she has no interest in engaging with them.

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