JADE recalls Little Mix bandmates being “wing-women” during embarrassing encounter with Prince Harry

JADE has spoken about the time her Little Mix bandmates acted as her “wing-women” during an embarrassing encounter with Prince Harry.

The singer – full name Jade Thirlwall – has recently launched her solo career, and during an appearance on the BBC’s Sidetracked podcast, she reflected on a memorably cringeworthy moment at the 2015 Royal Variety Performance.

“I was single at the time and all the girls were like, oh Harry – you could be in with a chance!” she said.

“I was like, oh god, here we go. They were being those sort of friends,” she added.

Knowing they would be having a meeting with the future Duke of Sussex, JADE said she “started getting nervous” as he started to approach.

“I shook his hand and I think it was Jesy [Nelson] who [was saying, ‘ohhh ohhh’]. [I was thinking], ‘not in front of the Prince of England!’ I’m all for wing-women on a night out but not in that situation! He must have thought, ‘What a weirdo!’.”

“I can’t flirt anyways, so there was definitely nothing like that,” she added. “But maybe I did a slight over-linger on the handshake just to catch a vibe. But there definitely wasn’t one.”

Last month, JADE released her debut solo single, ‘Angel Of My Dreams’, which she co-wrote with Steph Jones (Sabrina Carpenter), Pablo Bowman (Calvin Harris) and producer Mike Sabbath (RAYE).

“The song is basically about my love/hate relationship with the industry, which, as we know, I’ve been a part of for quite some time,” she said about the track.

“So, I’ve got a little bit to say about that, the good and bad. I wanted the song to sound quite chaotic, it’s basically my story squished into three and a half minutes.”

The song will be included on her as-yet-unannounced debut solo album, while she recently spoke about learning Arabic in honour of her Egyptian and Yemeni roots.

The song’s video features a cameo from Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten sporting a lime green tracksuit, the same one he wore in the video for his band’s single ‘Starburster’. The scene in which he appears was also featured in the band’s video where Chatten is seen walking into Thirlwall’s video shoot before walking into the dressing rooms and changing into an all-white outfit and angel wings.

Elsewhere, JADE’s former bandmate Perrie Edwards released her own solo single ‘Forget About Us’ earlier this year, and Leigh-Anne has confirmed she will embark on her first headline tour in the UK and Ireland in October, following on from her recent single ‘Stealin’ Love’.