{"id":216606,"date":"2026-01-14T14:32:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T14:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/14\/mel-b-used-to-babysit-global-sports-star-before-spice-girls-fame\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T14:32:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T14:32:05","slug":"mel-b-used-to-babysit-global-sports-star-before-spice-girls-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/14\/mel-b-used-to-babysit-global-sports-star-before-spice-girls-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Mel B used to babysit global sports star before Spice Girls fame"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"byline\">\n<p>        <time itemprop=\"datePublished\" content=\"2026-01-14\" datetime=\"1768401125\" pubdate=\"\">14 January 2026<\/time>\n    <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/mel-b\/\" class=\"exposure-link \" data-linktrack=\"LinkTracker,articleExposure,mel-b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mel B<\/a> used to babysit Micah Richards when he was growing up in Leeds.<\/p>\n<p>                            <\/p>\n<p class=\"image-caption landscape\">Mel B used to babysit Micah Richards<\/p>\n<p>The former England and Manchester City defender, now 37, grew up in the 50-year-old singer&#8217;s hometown, and he has revealed before her Spice Girls fame, she used to look after him as a child.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to podcast co-hosts <a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/alan-shearer\/\" class=\"exposure-link \" data-linktrack=\"LinkTracker,articleExposure,alan-shearer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alan Shearer<\/a> and Gary Lineker on The Rest Is Football, he said: &#8220;Mel B, she used to babysit me when I was younger.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGet her on the pod! My sister [still] does her hair now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Alan quipped: &#8220;Can I just ask\u2026 what the f*** am I on here?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nGary was similarly baffled as he described the tale as &#8220;unbelievable&#8221;, while football pundit Micah admitted the pair are still in touch.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe added: &#8220;This is way back, back in Leeds days. I spoke to her just a couple of months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nMeanwhile, he also joked that the reason he&#8217;s never told the story before is to &#8220;save something for the pod&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe said: &#8220;It\u2019s not known. You\u2019ve always got to save something for the pod, haven\u2019t you? Always have something up your sleeve.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cI don\u2019t remember too much of it but there were obviously pictures back in the day, yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nDuring his youth career, Micah started in the Leeds United academy, before a spell with Oldham Athletic, and then signed with Manchester City at 14 years old in 2001, where he rose up the ranks to make his senior debut four years later.<\/p>\n<p>\nAfter a decade at the club, he joined Aston Villa before retiring in 2019, going onto become a pundit on the BBC&#8217;s Match of the Day, and in the US on CBS alongside Kate Scott, Jamie Carragher and Thierry Henry.<\/p>\n<p>\nAfter her babysitting days, Mel rose to fame in the 1990s as a member of the Spice Girls, before the Wannabe hitmakers split in 2001.<\/p>\n<p>\nShe continues to work on the likes of America&#8217;s Got Talent and The Masked Singer Australia, but moved back to Leeds in 2019 after a spell in the US.<\/p>\n<p><!-- Pagination --><\/p>\n<p><!-- playbuzz --><br \/>\n<!-- end playbuzz--><\/p>\n<p><!-- \n\n<div data-cn-project=\"femalefirst\">\n    \n<\/div>\n\n --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n<!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<p>    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/celebrity\/mel-used-babysit-global-sports-star-spice-girls-fame-1435993.html?f=rss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>14 January 2026 Mel B used to babysit Micah Richards when he was growing up in Leeds. Mel B used to babysit Micah Richards The former England and Manchester City defender, now 37, grew up in the 50-year-old singer&#8217;s hometown, and he has revealed before her Spice Girls fame, she used to look after him [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":216607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[13466,13467,35,13465,530],"class_list":{"0":"post-216606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-up","8":"tag-alan-shearer","9":"tag-gary-lineker","10":"tag-mel-b","11":"tag-micah-richards","12":"tag-spice-girls"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}