Jade Thirlwall wore a teddy on her shoulder to help her cope when Little Mix stopped.

The 33-year-old singer has told how she suffered from a "mini menty-b", which is slang for a mental breakdown, when the girl group went on an indefinite hiatus after their 2022 Confetti Tour, but she sought solace in a teddy of Guardians of the Galaxy character Groot.

Speaking on podcast By The Way... With Harriet Rose, she said: "Little Mix, that was my life. I'm very career driven and poured everything into Little Mix.

"So when that kind of stopped, that was a massive shock to the system. I had a little bit of a mini menty-b [mental breakdown].

"I had a little teddy of Groot and started wearing it on my shoulder all the time. It was really weird."

Jade believes she was effectively "replacing" her band members - Perrie Edwards and Leigh-Anne Pinnock, as well as former member Jesy Nelson - with the Marvel teddy.

She added: "After Little Mix, I went on holiday with my friends and they were like, 'Why do you keep wearing Groot on your shoulder?'.

"I think I was replacing the girls with Groot."

But Jade's pals advised her to put Groot down.

She added: "My friends were like, 'I think it's time to stop wearing Groot'."

Last year, Jade told how she was still in awe over Little Mix's achievements.

She told RTÉ Entertainment: "I'm so proud of what we achieved.

"Sometimes we'll message in the group chat and one of us would say, 'Oh my God, I've just watched the BRITs performance we did in 2017, weren't we amazing!'.

"It's so hard when you're in that bubble to understand the greatness of it. The best thing about it is - we remain friends, we remain equals, but also we created such a lovely fan base. As a girl band, that's what it's about - it's about female empowerment, sisterhood.

"So many of our fans became lifelong friends off the back of that fandom. Even now, as a solo artist, the front row of fans at the festivals are those diehard, day ones that have been there since they were 8 years old. I think that's so beautiful."