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Little Mix: Girls fall out with former bandmate Jesy Nelson
You may have heard a lot of people talking about British singer Jesy Nelson and her former girl group Little Mix.
Band members Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Perrie Edwards and Jade Thirlwall appear to have fallen out with their former bandmate. All three of the Little Mix stars unfollowed Jesy on social media recently.
It all comes after the release of Jesy's first solo single which has caught the attention of lots of people online.
Jesy has also made big changes to who she follows on Instagram. At the moment, she's only following American rappers Diddy and Nicki Minaj who both feature on her new track.
There have also been reports the remaining Little Mix members are looking to pursue solo careers, and that the band could split following their tour next year. However, nothing has been confirmed.
What's happened?
Jesy Nelson, who left Little Mix at the end of 2020 after nine years, recently launched her solo career with her new single, Boyz.
However, since the music came out, she's been accused of what's known as blackfishing. It's a term used to describe a non-black person who pretends to be either black or mixed race.
People have been talking about Jesy's appearance in her music video, in which she has a dark tan, and wears braids, wigs and gold teeth.
Some people feel it is wrong for white people to make money from copying traditionally black characteristics like hairstyles.
Jesy responded to the claims on Instagram live saying: "My intention is never to offend people of colour with this video and my song."
Critics of the video are reported to include Little Mix's Leigh-Anne Pinnock, who is mixed race.
Messages from the singer, allegedly accusing her former bandmate of blackfishing in her latest music video, are said to have been leaked on social media.
However, whether the messages came from Leigh-Anne hasn't actually been confirmed.
Since then, the current Little Mix members have all stopped following Jesy on Instagram.
What's been said?
On Monday, Jesy Nelson took to social media, alongside rapper Nicki Minaj to promote her single. During the live chat, Nicki spoke about the blackfishing accusations that had been made against Jesy.
She defended the singer and also made some harsh remarks which many believe to have been directed at Little Mixer Leigh-Anne.
Some have said it was wrong for Jesy, who has spoken out about her own mental health challenges, to have allowed Nicki to speak about her ex-bandmate in the way she did without stepping in.
Since the release of her music video and the backlash that followed, Jesy has said she is sorry if she offended anyone.
"Growing up as a young girl, this is the music that I listened to. These are the videos that I watched and thought were the best. For me personally, '90s/2000 hip hop, R&B music was the best era of music," Jesy said during her Instagram live with Nicki Minaj.
"My intention was never, ever, ever to offend anyone and genuinely it actually does really hurt me that I may have offended people and hurt people's feelings just by genuinely celebrating something that I love."
She also said that none of her former band members had mentioned anything about blackfishing during the nine years she was in Little Mix - until the most recent music video they shot for their song Sweet Melody, before Jesy left the group.
How have fans reacted?
So far, Leigh-Anne, Jade and Perrie have not spoken out publicly about what's happened since the release of Jesy's music video.
However, lots of Little Mix fans have been using the hashtag '#WeLoveYouLeigh' to show their support for band member Leigh-Anne following the comments made in Jesy's Instagram chat with Nicki Minaj.
Leigh-Anne's mum Debbie took to Twitter to thank people for their support.
"#WeLoveYouLeigh, thank you everyone", she tweeted.
What's next?
It's been reported that Jesy will be giving her first UK interview since the blackfishing allegations were first made, in a few weeks.