British girl group All Saints open up about their career in the music industry in a new BBC
documentary, GirlBands Forever.
In the docu-film, All Saints member Melanie Blatt reveals that she was pressured to have an
abortion when she became pregnant at the height of the band’s success. Ms Blatt says that
despite the intense pressure she came under to abort her child, she resisted it and continued
with the pregnancy.
Fellow All Saints member, Nicole Appleton, has previously spoken about being pressured
into having an abortion around the same time and how the effects of the abortion had left her
suicidal. “I couldn’t believe what I had done,” she said. “I wanted to kill myself.”
Robbie Williams who was in a relationship with Appleton at the time has also spoken about
the abortion. In an interview last year ahead of the premiere of the biopic “Better Man” about
his life, the British music star said: “She [Appleton] was made to have an abortion of our
child; it’s rough and triggering. This thing about Nic is the most difficult bit of the film for me.”
Williams has been extremely critical of his own role in what happened. While he had no part
in coercing Appleton to abort their baby, he said he deeply regrets not doing more to stop
the music executives from pressuring her into ending the baby’s life.
Speaking on the BBC documentary, Ms Blatt says that when she and Appleton told their
record label bosses they were pregnant, both were pressured to have abortions.
Blatt somehow found the strength to resist the growing pressure and gave birth to a
daughter, Lilyella. Referring to the different decisions both women arrived at, Blatt says: “It’s
not really my place to talk about it, but unfortunately . . . it was a very uncomfortable situation
because I kept mine; she didn’t.”
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