Celebrity Bear Hunt star Mel B has revealed how she and her fellow Spice Girls got their nicknames.
Mel, Mel C, Emma Bunton, Victoria Beckham and Geri Halliwell rose to fame in the 1990s, but their real names were often overshadowed by their Spice titles.
Mel B is also known as Scary Spice, while Geri was given the nickname Ginger Spice due to her hair colour.
Being the youngest of the group, Emma is known as Baby Spice, while it was Mel C’s love for tracksuits that earned her the nickname Sporty Spice.
Mel B also claims it was Victoria’s look at the time that led to her being named Posh Spice.
Addressing how their nicknames came about, the 49-year-old said it was all down “to a lazy journalist” who couldn’t remember their names.
While a guest on Paloma Faith’s Mad Sad and Bad podcast, the host suggested that scary insinuates being “mad and unpredictable”.
Insisting this wasn’t the case, Mel replied: “I don’t think it did, if you knew me… first of all, all those names were given to us by a lazy journalist who couldn’t remember our names.
“So it was like, ‘She’s in a tracksuit, this one is sporty, she’s in a nice little dress, that’s posh’.
“So the reason he said scary to me is because, say for example we’d be doing an interview, I’d go (takes the notes from the journalist) [and say to them], ‘Now interview me’.
“I’d make that person feel a bit scared, so that’s why I got called scary.”
The singer said during the earlier stages of the band, she would also not hesitant to shut down an interviewer if she didn’t like their line of questioning.
“I think if you would’ve met me back then I was a bit scary,” she told Paloma.
Giving a further example of her actions, she went on to recall a time she stomped on record producers’ papers when they weren’t paying attention to the band singing.
Addressing how some believed she got her nickname, she added: “Some people even say, ‘Oh, she’s called scary because she’s mixed race’.
“Or, you know, ‘She wears leopard print’. I’ve been wearing leopard print since I was 12.”
Mel B is currently a part of new Netflix show Celebrity Bear Hunt, in which 12 celebrities do what it takes to escape survival expert Bear Grylls in Costa Rica.
During the series, Mel expressed her hopes of getting all five of the Spice Girls back together on tour.
The band last performed on stage together back in 2019, but without Victoria.