Pop icon Melanie Janine Brown McPhee was Richards’s babysitter

Mel B and Micah Richards. Pics/Mels’s Instagram; Getty Images

Melanie Janine Brown McPhee, popularly known as Mel B, is a name synonymous with the pop music scene in the 1990s, with the British singer being a part of the famed Spice Girls quartet. However, it turns out before ‘Scary Spice' achieved global stardom, she happened to babysit former Manchester City and England footballer Micah Richards.

Richards, 37, revealed this on The Rest is Football podcast, leaving England legends Gary Linekar and Alan Shearer shocked.

"Mel B, she used to babysit me when I was younger. My sister [still] does her hair now," said Richards.

Shearer then joked: "Did she tell you what she wanted, what she really, really wanted?" A reference to the lyrics from the famous Spice Girls song, Wannabe.

After the Spice Girls split in 2001, Mel B, now 50, has continued to remain in the public eye with her appearances as a judge on The Masked Singer in Australia and America's Got Talent.