Melanie C is officially married to her partner of three years, Chris Dingwall.
The Spice Girl once described modern dating as offering “slim pickings”, but fast forward to 2026, and she’s found the love of her life to take the plunge with!
Tying the knot isn’t something the former Spice Girl ever thought she’d be doing, but she’s happier than ever.
“No one thought they would ever see Mel in a wedding dress,” a source exclusively tells New Idea.
“She’s watched her [Spice Girls] bandmates go through hell with their husbands and it’s left her convinced it was a bad move. That was until Chris came along. He’s such a gentle soul and her 17-year-old daughter Scarlett adores him.”
British Vogue announced the news of Mel’s nuptials, after she and Chris got married in secret: first in Chris’ native Australia and second in the Lake District in the UK.
For the ceremony, Mel made a nod to her Spice Girls bandmate, Victoria Beckham, wearing a dress designed by Posh Spice herself!
“Victoria was gutted to not witness such a monumental occasion for the band, but Geri, Emma and Mel B wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” our source dishes. “Mel hasn’t been this happy in years.”
Who is Mel C’s partner?
Melanie’s now-husband is Chris Dingwall, an Australian actor and filmmaker in his 40s.
The pair crossed paths when the former Spice Girl was 49 on the dating app Raya.
Chris is originally from Sydney but travels extensively thanks to his work as a model signed to Ford Models and Chadwick.
“The spark was immediate,” she told British Vogue. “I was 49 when I met Chris, and I was in a really good place. We had a date in Australia, and it’s been difficult to separate us ever since.”
While Mel and Chris first met in 2023, they were first linked publicly in May 2024, when Mel shared an Instagram post name-checking some lush hotels she’d stayed at in Australia during her DJ tour, including the Calile Hotel in Brisbane and the Qualia resort in the Whitsundays.
While photos posted to social media showed her posing in swimwear solo, on the same day, Chris shared an update to his own Instagram account, name-checking the Calile and Qualia as places he’d stayed at.
The duo were first spotted together publicly at the Glastonbury Festival in June that year, with photographs showing them walking hand-in-hand around the festival grounds.
A month later, things were official as they were together in public again, posing happily together for the cameras – this time for a day out at the tennis in Wimbledon.
While Mel is famously tight-lipped about her private life, she did share a carousel of photos from a romantic vacation with Chris in July 2025.
“A slice of paradise,” she captioned the snaps which showed her looking ripped in a tiny black bikini, and beaming at her man.
Pivoting to marriage
Before they met, Mel previously spoke about her desire to never marry.
“I think being a successful woman makes things more complicated,” she told The Sunday Times in 2022.
“I’ve never, never wanted to marry. Maybe marriage works for some people, but maybe to think it works for the majority is an old-fashioned notion.”
Instead, Mel revealed that she’s “decided that life is a series of chapters”.
“I think that’s a good way to not have regrets,” she added.
Who has Mel C dated?
Before she met Chris, she was previously in two serious relationships.
From 2002 to 2012, Mel was in a long-term relationship with property developer Thomas Starr. The pair first met during a holiday in Barbados and went on to welcome a daughter, Scarlett, in February 2009.
In 2012, Mel gave a rare insight into her relationship to Good Housekeeping.
“I’d like my house to be run with military precision, but unfortunately someone else lives there – a man!” she joked. “So he scuppers that. We’re probably a good combination, though, because he’s very spontaneous and I like to be organised.”
But just weeks after the interview was published, in July 2012, it was confirmed the couple had split.
In a later interview with BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Mel opened up about how becoming a mother had “changed” her.
“She has made me braver,” Mel said of her daughter. “She has made me stand up for myself more.
“I make big decisions. Leaving her dad was hard but I wasn’t happy and she wasn’t happy, and it wasn’t the environment I wanted my child to grow up in.
“I couldn’t have done that without the strength that I got from her.”
Now, Mel tells British Vogue how her husband Chris “fits perfectly” into her family unit.
In 2015, Mel started dating Joe Marshall, a man she would later appoint as her music executive and manager.
The pair lived together in North London, in a blended family with Scarlett and Joe’s two children.
In 2016, Mel told Closer that Joe was someone who “challenges me but respects and loves me”.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been in a relationship where someone has got my back,” she said.
The pair split amicably in August 2022, with a source telling The Sun: “Mel has an incredibly busy career between her book deal, DJ-ing and other plans. The little free time she does have is devoted to her daughter Scarlett, and that doesn’t leave much time for a relationship.”
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