NEED TO KNOW
Mel B was forced to put a stop to a coworker’s conduct on live television.
Recently, a video of the Spice Girl, 50, from her time as a judge on The X-Factor UK in 2014 has resurfaced. The video shows Mel B at a table with colleagues Louis Walsh, Simon Cowell and Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, discussing performances they had just watched.
Early in the conversation, Louis Walsh’s hand moves from across the top of the couch behind Mel B to her bottom. He hovers momentarily before grabbing her butt, while continuing to engage in the conversation. Mel B put a stop to both by calling it out.
“Hold on a second, why are you grabbing my butt?” she asks him, prompting Walsh to immediately remove his hand.
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Walsh seems to reply, “I’m looking out for her” as Fernandez-Versini says, “Hands where I can see them, please!”
Walsh laughs raucously while Mel B reiterates twice that his behavior is “inappropriate,” making a disgusted face at him as everyone else moves on with the conversation.
The moment was edited out of subsequent airings of the show, making the viral clip the first time some became aware of what had transpired in that moment.
When the content of the videos came up in 2024 upon news that ITV had cast Walsh in Celebrity Big Brother UK, Walsh addressed the moment.
“We’d be sitting there all day on the couch doing TV, and I just grabbed her ass as a joke,” he told Today FM‘s Mario Rosenstock.
“She was very funny and you could say anything or do anything to her and I loved her, so I would just grab her for a laugh but it’s not PC anymore.”
