Melanie Chisholm knows how to spice up her life.
The Spice Girl who’s better known as Mel C – or Sporty Spice to those of a certain age – is very low-key despite her global fame. But in a Sporty Spice first, the ‘Wannabe’ singer who calls Victoria Beckham, Emma Bunton and Geri Horner her besties and bandmates (plus Mel B, who just goes by the latter) is looking happier than ever.
The secret ingredient? An Aussie Spice!
As the 51-year-old temporarily relocates Down Under for her debut stint on The Voice Australia, we’re thrilled she has her own personal tour guide in the form of Aussie model Chris Dingwall. He also happens to be her boyfriend of around one year.
“I have always cherished my trips down under over the years, so to be there with such a super line-up of coaches in one of my favourite countries is a real honour,” Sporty Spice told media before heading to our shores.
“Also very happy to be missing some of the British winter! Very much looking forward to unearthing some brilliant talent to join Team Melanie,” she added.
Who is Mel C’s boyfriend Chris Dingwall?
Model, actor, filmmaker, and Sydneysider Chris Dingwall has a lot in common with the Spice Girl.
They both love fitness, tennis, travel, and both work in the arts. Believed to be in his forties, little is known publicly about Dingwall.
How long have Mel C and Chris Dingwall been together?
Fans have had to do their own detective work to determine this major question. They were first pictured holding hands at Glastonbury festival in 2024, but it wasn’t until they took in a spot of tennis at Wimbledon that we knew it was serious between the Brit and the Aussie.
That was in July.
However, if we rewind back to May, all the signs were there. Back then, she wrapped her Australian visit with an Instagram post detailing the hotels and resorts she’d stay at along her way. Then, Dingwall shared a similar post captioned, “last couple of weeks”, featuring snaps from some of the very same locations.
Before finding Dingwall, she told Not My Bagg with Joe & George Baggs podcast that her options were slim after turning to online dating.
She told the hosts, “What is it about Hinge? I’m single, and I’m having a little look around, it’s slim pickings.
“There seem to be loads of hot girls but all the hot guys are gay.”
What have Mel C and Chris Dingwall said about each other?
Nada. Zilch. Nero…kinda. Sporty Spice has always been incredibly private about her love life, especially her Aussie hunk.
But in January, she responded to a very sweet post Dingwall shared on Instagram to celebrate her birthday. “Happy Birthday @melaniecmusic (for yesterday)! Been a beautiful year. Looking forward to another amazing one with you,” to which she replied, “Thank you my love.”
In the past, she’s spoken about a couple of partners, one being her first love, Tom Starr. They dated from 2002 to 2010, and in that time they welcomed their daughter, Scarlet.
“It was my first serious, long-term adult relationship,” she told Bustle in 2022. “I’d spent a lot of time alone or in relationships that didn’t really amount to much. There was probably a little bit of trepidation, but also the feeling that it was my time to be settled.”
Inside Mel C’s relationship history
When it comes to their love lives, Melanie C is certainly the most private of the five Spice Girls.
Even in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, the 50-year-old chose to keep her relationships on the more private side.
Her most notable previous relationships include her manager Joe Marshall whom she dated for seven years from 2015 to 2022, as well as Thomas Starr who she was in a relationship with from 2002 to 2012. The couple also share a 15-year-old daughter together.
Prior, she’d dated singer Robbie Williams, and later, Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis.
“When Robbie first took an interest in me, I was taken aback to be honest,” Mel C wrote in her memoir Who I Am: My Story.
“I first properly met Robbie in Cologne in the summer of 1996. We ended up hanging out platonically, but I went up to his room and he gave me one of his tracksuits, a white Adidas one with black stripes. It was way too big for me, but I treasured it,” she recalled.
Despite her time with Williams, she admitted, “Throughout my time in the Spice Girls, I was pretty much the only single one. I’d had boyfriends at school and a couple of relationships through college but I had been single for a while when I joined the band.”
