How Mel's a saintly mum

Melanie Blatt, formerly of all-girl group All Saints, always had the reputation as being the mouthy one. While fellow Saints Natalie and Nicole Appleton ran off with as many famous boyfriends as possible, and Shaznay Lewis wrote the catchy tunes, it was Blatt who came out with the best quotes. "The Spice Girls are cool, but the day they call themselves artists I'll kill myself," was one, and: "We're much better looking than them anyway, with more upstairs."

"Do I always speak my mind?" she asks now, so petite, pretty and girlish looking you find it hard to believe she would say anything remotely controversial. "Of course I do."

Today, however, her harshest pronouncements are for Natalie and Nicole. Last year, they published their autobiography, Together, which detailed their five years with the hit band, their five number one singles, and the rifts that drove them all apart in 2001.

The biggest revelation came when Nicole, who now lives with Liam Gallagher, suggested that her record company coerced her to have an abortion in 1998 when she found she was pregnant by her then boyfriend, Robbie Williams. Blatt was pregnant at the same time, but kept her child by former Jamiroquai bassist Stuart Zender.

"I don't think they told the whole story," shrugs Blatt. "If there was such pressure to get rid of a child, you'd just leave the band, wouldn't you?" she continues, her chocolate eyes widening. "I would have. And at the end of the day, I kept my baby and Nic didn't. No one can tell you to get rid of your own baby, can they? People in the business knew that story for a while, but it finally comes out when there's a fee attached!".

"I think that rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way. I mean, Nicole was just one woman out of millions who have to deal with that [having an abortion]. As far as morals were concerned, when Nicole had an abortion, that put a barrier up between the two camps in the band; that was the thing that really kicked the trouble off."

Nicole, 28, went on to have a baby boy with Gallagher in 2001. The book also paints Blatt as an unsympathetic character, forever ready to take sides with Lewis against the more extrovert sisters. "How did I feel when I read the book?" asks Blatt. "Really, really hurt. After we'd split up I'd carried some hope of continuing our friendship, but when the book came out, all hope of that disappeared. I find that really sad now, but I know those girls very well and let's just say I'm not shocked by it."

Blatt no longer sees the sisters and won't "until they come and ask for forgiveness," she says, half joking, half not, although she remains good friends with Lewis. But wasn't Blatt at least partially to blame for some of the band's arguments?

"Oh, I've been a bitch loads of times, we were all horrible to each other. I probably said a few things I shouldn't have done, but I'm not going to dwell on them. I wish both Nat and Nic well," she adds.

Two years after the split and Blatt, 27, has just completed her debut solo album, co-written with her fiancé, Zender. "It isn't pop, it isn't R'n'B - I don't know how to describe it, except to say I'm really proud of it."

The album aside, she has concentrated on raising her four-yearold daughter, Lily Ella. "I've just been at home looking after my child and being a dutiful common-law wife," she grins, "and I love it.

"I don't understand why some people have children and then leave them with other people. I would have given it [the band] all up and lived in a council flat if I had to. I'd love more children - I'm supposed to be getting pregnant again, except I never see Stuart because he's always working, so we'll see what happens."

And is Blatt planning on marriage? "Well, we've been engaged almost since we met," she giggles, "so we should get round to it. Maybe we'll just do it on a cliff-top in Hawaii."

Blatt's upbringing was similarly exotic. Her parents - French father and English mother - were hippies who took Blatt, aged six, to the Glastonbury Festival. Initially they all lived in a squat.

"Then my parents made some money after starting their own business, so I know what it's like to have money and not have it." She hooked up with Lewis in 1994, when she was 18, and the backbone of All Saints was formed.

Success didn't come until four years later when the Appletons joined, but even album sales of 10 million couldn't keep them together.

There were reports that the £4 million she had made while in the band had been blown completely ("Not true - I wish I'd had £4m to lose.") and then there was Honest, the film she made three years ago with the Appletons and Dave Stewart, the reviews of which were terrible. "Oh God," quivers Blatt, "I was awful, dreadful, really really bad."

Perhaps, she should also write her autobiography? "I've been offered thousands of pounds to write a book," she says, "but I think it's extreme vanity to think people would want to read a book about anyone other than someone who had a career spanning 50 years." We'll take that as a "no" then.

Good old mouthy Melanie. Nice to see some things haven't changed.

Her single, U Do Me Wrong, is released on 4 August.