Jade Thirlwall admits she’s ‘still getting over’ Jesy Nelson’s Little Mix exit: ‘It just exploded’
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Nelson announced her abrupt departure from the chart-topping girl group in 2020. Pop star Jade Thirlwall has opened up about the grief she experienced when her former bandmate, Jesy Nelson, quit their group Little Mix. Formed on ITV reality show The X Factor in 2011, Little Mix went on to become one of the most successful British pop groups of all time, releasing hit singles and chart-topping albums including “Shout Out to My Ex”, “Black Magic” and “Break Up Song”.
![[Jesy Nelson opened up about the effect of the online bullying she received while in Little Mix for a 2019 BBC documentary]](https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2019/03/20/09/jesy-nelson.jpg)
Nelson departed in 2020, citing the toll being in Little Mix had taken on her mental health. Thirlwall remained in the group with bandmates Perrie Edwards and Leigh-Anne Pinnock before they announced a hiatus in 2022. All four members have since been pursuing solo careers.
![[Jade said she felt intense grief after Jesy Nelson’s departure from Little Mix]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/20/15/MixCollage-20-Jan-2025-03-48-PM-8823.jpg)
Appearing on The Louis Theroux Podcast on Spotify, Thirlwall, who released her latest single “IT Girl” this month, said she bore no ill feeling towards Nelson for her decision, but admitted that she struggled to process her abrupt departure. “I think that's why I struggled with it, because we didn't all get a chance to just sit together like we've done for so many years… just hash it out,” she said. “There's no hate there from me or from any of us I think.”.
She recalled a time not long after Nelson quit, when she had begun dating fellow musician and author Jordan Stephens: “It was very early days at the time. And so I was scared to show him what this meant for me,” she said. “Because I think in his head, he was like, ‘Oh, you know, someone left that happens all the time.’”.
