Jade Thirlwall is reflecting on the pushback she received from people behind the scenes during her time in Little Mix.
Throughout her time in the spotlight, Jade has become well-known for her unwavering support for the LGBTQ+ community, which has included holding meetings with Stonewall to improve her allyship and winning a Gay Times allyship award in 2021.
While promoting her new single Angel Of My Dreams, the chart-topping singer sat down for a video interview with RuPaul’s Drag Race favourite Willam Belli, a friend of Jade’s who previously appeared in Little Mix’s Power music video.
During the conversation, Willam asked: “Did you ever get any pushback in the group from the label for wanting to do gay shit and putting drag queens in everything?”
“Yes,” Jade replied, singling out the Little Mix single Secret Love Song as one such example.
“There have been times, I know the original treatment for Secret Love Song was a lot more LGBTQ+ based. There were, like, storylines in the video, it was more, like, narrative-led. And it got scrapped, unfortunately.”
“It happens,” Willam explained, to which the newly-solo performer agreed: “It does. But things like that do annoy me.”
Jade and her Little Mix bandmates have long spoken about how they hoped for Secret Love Song to be considered an anthem for the queer community, while they were recording the song.
It was eventually released as a single featuring a guest verse from Jason Derulo, although a solo version dubbed Secret Love Song Part II continued to be a staple of their live shows until they went on hiatus in 2022.
This was the version that Little Mix also included on their greatest hits collection Between Us
Elsewhere in her interview with Willam, Jade also spilled more tea from her days on set with Little Mix, sharing a story from the set of Power.
“When we did Power and I had you girls in the video that was such a wow moment for me,” Jade told the drag legend. “I remember Hannah Lux Davis was directing, and she came over to me after the first take and was like, ‘this is your video, remember, it’s not the Triple A Girls’ video’, because I was so obsessed with you girls.
“We were doing the take and I just kept watching yous, and forgetting that it was my scene and that I was the star of the show.”
Watch Jade’s full interview with Willam below: