Perrie Edwards has opened up about her “difficult” relationship with Jesy Nelson during their time in Little Mix.
The singer appeared on the Great Company podcast with Jamie Laing, where she spoke at length about Nelson’s high-profile split from the girl group in 2020. At the time, Nelson said being in the group had “taken a toll on my mental health”.
Now, Edwards has said that Nelson was “difficult” to work with, adding: “Sometimes you just won’t win with people. I don’t want to seem like a bitch, but what upsets me the most is when the other person doesn’t take accountability. That boils my blood.
“I’m not blaming everything on you,” she added, seemingly addressing Nelson. “I’m not saying she’s this fucking monster, and everything was her fault, but take some accountability for your actions and realize that you were difficult, you had difficult moments. Granted, there was reasons for those moments, but you can only pick somebody up so many fucking times before you start losing track of your own sanity.”
She continued to say she had extended support to Nelson, but added it was useless if “they can’t accept the help and the love you’re trying to show”. “I could have done better I suppose, but I thought what I was doing was enough,” she added. “I thought I tried everything. So then to sit there in interviews and be like ‘I wasn’t supported’… you were, though.”
When asked if she ever wanted to rekindle their friendship, Edwards responded: “Part of me wanted to until the documentary, and then part of me withdrew again. If you upset me and hurt me in a way there’s not really any going back, I can forgive, but I don’t want you in my space”. Watch Edwards speak about her relationship with Nelson below:
@greatcompanypodcast “I thought I tried everything” ❤️🩹 Perrie Edwards opens up about her friendship breakup with Little Mix bandmate Jesy Nelson. Search ‘Perrie Edwards Great Company” on YouTube, Spotify or Apple for the full episode. @Perrie. @jamie #perriedwards #jesynelson #littlemix #friendship
In an interview with NME in 2024, Edwards further spoke about the “heartbreaking” rift between her and Nelson.
Edwards has revealed she and Nelson “don’t talk, and haven’t done for a long time,” adding: “It’s really sad, it’s heartbreaking.”
“But sometimes these things happen and people decide they want to part ways, and that’s absolutely fine,” she continued. “I would rather it went differently, but you can’t control how things go.’”
Edwards went on to say that being in the award-winning girl group was “the happiest time of my life”, adding: “All we did was laugh together, banter together, cry together.
“It was so much fun. Yes we went through a lot in those 10 years, but we had each other.”
Since leaving Little Mix, Nelson announced she was pregnant with twins in January 2025. Two months later, she shared she had to have an emergency procedure after a warning that her babies “could die”. The operation was a success, and her daughters were born in May 2025.
In January 2026, Nelson learned her twins had a rare muscular condition called spinal muscle atrophy, adding that they will “probably never walk”.
According to the charity SMA UK, an estimated 47 babies were born with the condition in the UK in 2024, although roughly one in 40 people carry the gene that can cause the disease.
In a social media post, Nelson explained that “it does affect every muscle in the body, down to legs, arms, breathing, swallowing.
She added that doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital informed her that the girls were “probably never going to be able to walk. They probably will never regain their neck strength, so they will be disabled.”
Nelson went on to say that she wanted to share the diagnosis so that it might help others in a similar situation, and said that she believed her daughters would “defy all the odds” and that they “will fight this”.