After the tabloids attacked Melanie for putting on weight and alleged she was
having a gay relationship, Mel rang heat to clear things up.

In an emotional phone call to heat, Mel C has hit back at newspaper reports
suggesting she's having a lesbian affair with her personal assistant.  She's
also revealed that she piled on the pounds after stopping her vigorous two-
hour-a-day gym regime.  But she's blaming Indian food and lager for the
weight gain, not steroid muscle supplements.


Mel called heat after returning from a Caribbean holiday to find paparazzi
shots of her and long-time assistant Ying Yau on the beach splashed across
national newspapers.  The stories claimed the pair had shared a room with a
double bed at the £500-a-night Royal Pavilion Hotel in Barbados.
Melanie says that while she usually ignores the "acres of s***" written about
her in the tabloids, this time she's fighting back.

It's not the fact they called her fat.  It's not the fact they called her a
lesbian.  Mel says she's more annoyed that the reports suggested she's living
a lie by refusing to come out of the closet.  "People ask me when I'm going to
come out.  I'm never going to come out, because I'm not gay.  So stop it", she
said.  "I really don't care what people say about me.  But if I was gay I
couldn't live a lie.  I'm too honest a person - I would admit it.  I've had 
worse things said about me in the paper.  It's not even a bad thing, it's just
not true.  I think it's always been funny before but it's gone beyond a joke
this time.  At first we did laugh but on Monday all the lies about us sharing a
room were said."

Mel says her relationship with Ying - formerly of Take That's management team -
is purely professional and definitely platonic.  "Ying is a professional woman
and she doesn't want to be famous or a celebrity.  She just wants to do her job
and she does it well.  All this innuendo about us is lies."


Rumours have dogged the Spice Girl because she's rarely seen in public with a
man - even rumoured boyfriend J from Five.  One of the more popular stories in
media circles states that she and J staged a photo opportunity outside a Dublin
hotel so people would believe they really are a couple.

"That's a load of rubbish," Mel said.  "There were photographers outside the
hotel trying to get a photo of me and J together and I was like, 'Forget it.'
One day they may catch me with J and get a photo but I'd never set it up.  I
have nothing to prove, it's not a PR thing.  The thing about J is that he's
great and I enjoy spending time with him but it's really nobody else's
business.  I'm not gonna tell you about what we talk about when we're
together."


Mel's weight gain meanwhile sparked accusations that she'd been using steroid
supplements to boost a punishing two-hour-a-day gym regime.  "When I was in
Los Angeles last year I did drink protein shakes to give me an energy boost
but they weren't steroid-based, just whey and stuff like that.  You can buy
them down Holland & Barratt."

"I knew someone was bound to photograph me on a beach eventually.  When I saw
the paparazzi I though, 'Well, they've got a great story, haven't they?'  Just
because I've put on weight - which is no big deal.  I'm a human being.  I'm 26
for heaven's sake.  I'm not a 17-year-old anorexic model."

"The reason I've put on weight is because I've not been training as hard as
normal.  I've been going out, I've been drinking, I've been eating junk food,
I've been enjoying my life and I've put on a bit of weight.  I also have an
injury.  I've got a bad hip from over-exercising.  It's an RSI injury - I used
to do a lot of running and it's hard on your joints.  I just think exercise
was my escape.  I could run away my stress and my anxiety.  But I haven't
trained properly since January.  I'm starting exercising again but it's not to
lose weight, it's to get fit again because I'm on tour in September.  I don't
care if I've put on weight.  It means I can buy new clothes, it's great."

"I was probably skinny before, but I have put on weight.  I'm a size ten now,
right; I'm sorry but the average size of women in the UK is 14 or 16.  So if
the tabloids can criticise my weight when I'm a size ten, I wonder how many
young girls that's going to put in hospital who look like me, or are bigger
than me.  It's really disgusting.  They can say what they like as long as I'm
happy.  But when I'm a bit down and lacking in self-confidence it does hurt and
I don't want to get out of bed."

"A huge percentage of women in this country are thinking they shouldn't eat
this, they shouldn't eat that.  Life is hard enough, you don't need pressure
from newspapers looking at some pop star who's put on a few pounds.  I'm
lucky, I can afford a trainer - most women can't.  All the Spice Girls have
been criticised about their weight.  We're all normal, all four of us are
different shapes and sizes and we get really concerned about the effect the
criticism of our weight or how we look will have on our fans."