Spice Girl Melanie C’s secret Aussie romance revealed

Melanie C is with an Aussie model at Glastonbury – and we can reveal they were secretly inseparable during her recent Aussie tour.

Spice Girl Melanie Chisholm has been spotted walking hand-in-hand with a mystery man at Glastonbury Festival, who’s been revealed as a hunky Aussie model and actor.

And it appears the pair have spent a lot of time together recently, as news.com.au can reveal that Melanie C’s recent extensive Australian DJ tour also doubled as a loved-up private getaway with her new man.

Sporty Spice herself, 50, was photographed over the weekend at Glastonbury holding hands with a man the Daily Mail named as Aussie Chris Dingwall.

That outlet reported that Dingwall, believed to be in his 40s, is originally from Sydney but travels the world as a model signed to Ford Models and Chadwick.

Mel C holds hands with Aussie Chris Dingwall. Picture: Samir Hussein/WireImage

It’s not clear where the pair met, but Mel has been a frequent visitor to our shores of late. After a short DJ tour last November, she returned in April for a longer string of DJing dates across the country lasting almost three weeks.

And a snoop of the pair’s respective social media suggests they spent some time together during that visit: Melanie C wrapped up her Australian visit on May 16 with an Instagram post tagging the hotels she’d stayed at as she travelled the country.

Mel C soaks up the sun at Brisbane’s Calile …

… and unwinds at Qualia in the Whitsundays.

They included a stay at Brisbane’s lush Calile Hotel as she headlined the Big Gay Day festival, and a couple of nights at the super-private Qualia resort in the Whitsundays.

Photos of Mel at those hotels show the star looking relaxed, posing solo in swimwear.

On May 16, Melanie C name-checked her Aussie hotels – including the Calile and Qualia.

The same day, Dingwall revealed he'd stayed at the same hotels during the past couple of weeks.

The very same day, Dingwall posted an update to his Instagram account sharing photos of places he’d stayed in the “last couple of weeks” – among them, the Calile and Qualia. The Spice Girl was nowhere to be seen in Dingwall’s post, which instead showed photos of the empty hotel rooms.

Dingwall also noted a recent stay at Byron Bay’s ritzy Rae’s on Watego’s hotel in his May 16 post, which Melanie C hadn’t mentioned – but it appears the pair did spend some time together in Byron Bay.

A surprise Melanie C (left) performance in Byron Bay, as Dingwall (right) watches on.

A video posted to Instagram by Byron Bay Piano Bar on May 8 shows Melanie C herself at tehe venue, entertaining the crowd with a surprise rendition of the Spice Girls hit Wannabe.

Dingwall can be seen standing next to her as she sings, filming on his phone and beaming proudly. You can watch footage of that at the top of this story.

Dingwall is Sydney-based …

… but travels the world as a model.

Meanwhile, Melanie C wasn’t just at Glastonbury as a punter: She also made a memorable on-stage cameo, appearing during 90s dance legends Orbital’s set to provide the vocals for their new song Spicy – a reworking of Wannabe.

Mel C’s made two visits to Australia in the past seven months. Picture: Ian Currie

Her Glasto cameo was a festival highlight.

Clad in a Sporty Spice tracksuit and light-up glasses, Mel had the crowd in the palm of her hands as she belted out the 1996 hit, given an energetic new makeover.

The build-up at the 2:30 mark of the clip below, leading to a massive crowd reaction as the beat drops, is a proper euphoric Glastonbury moment that’ll give anyone watching FOMO:

Melanie C is undoubtedly the most private of the five Spice Girls when it comes to her love life, largely keeping her relationships out of the public eye since a string of romances with high-profile musicians in the late 90s and early noughties.

Mel briefly dated Robbie Williams, had a relationship with Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis that inspired a song on their album Californication, and also had an on-again, off-again relationship with former Five boy band star Jason “J” Brown.

She has a teenage daughter from a longtime relationship with ex-partner Thomas Starr. The pair split in 2012 after a decade together.

After that, Melanie dated her manager, Joe Marshall, for seven years before they split in 2022.

Originally published as Spice Girl Melanie C’s secret Aussie romance revealed