Melanie C developed an eating disorder because she felt she had to be "perfect" to be a pop star

She explained: "So that all ended up in me not eating properly and exercising obsessively, because I thought I had to be a certain way to be deserving of everything that was happening to me... to be a pop star I had to be perfect, and that was my way of trying to achieve perfection.

"I'd never starved myself, but I wasn't eating properly and I was exercising obsessively and all of my time with the Spice Girls I think I was probably living on adrenaline, God only knows how I got through it and I think my body just got to the point where it was like - enough."

The 43-year-old singer was diagnosed with depression in 2000 and felt hugely relieved after she sought help following a family holiday when she had been "binging" and "crying a lot".

She recalled on Bryony Gordon's 'Mad World' podcast: "Literally my thoughts were 'I'm losing it, I'm going mad, I can't cope', so when I got home I went to my GP and for the first time ever I said out loud what was going on with me, and he said 'OK, well the first thing we need to address is your depression', and this huge weight was lifted from my shoulders.

"I felt so relieved because I just thought, Oh my God it's got a name, it's something, I can be helped', you know, it was such a relief to me."

Melanie - who has an eight-year-old daughter, Scarlet, with ex-partner Thomas Starr - was treated with anti-depressants and talking therapies, and also worked with an acupuncturist, who she still sees now.

The 'Northern Star' singer admitted she suffered a relapse around a year after she split from Thomas in 2012.

She added: "Sometimes you can do all the right things but it doesn't matter".