Leigh-Anne Pinnock defends her character after Nicki Minaj clash

Leigh-Anne Pinnock has defended her character in a new social media video.

At her 30th birthday party over the weekend, the Little Mix singer addressed recent backlash against her in a teary speech to her friends and family.

"I'm 30 years old. I know my character, you know my character, anyone that meets me knows my f**king character - that's all I care about," Pinnock said in a video published via The Mirror. Her fiancé, Andre Gray, can be seen standing by her as she makes the fiery remarks, which were met with applause.

The speech comes days after Pinnock was slammed by Nicki Minaj during an Instagram Live session with former bandmate Jesy Nelson, who recently collaborated with the rapper on her new single Boyz.

During the conversation, the Starships rapper referenced private messages that Pinnock allegedly sent an Instagram content creator, who posted them on social media. In the unverified exchange, Pinnock purportedly encouraged the user to make a video about Nelson's alleged "blackfishing" - making herself appear racially ambiguous - and wrote that the singer, who left the group in December, "cut us off" and is a "horrible person".

Minaj accused Pinnock of being motivated by jealousy, saying, "Take them text messages and shove it up your f**king a*s, because when you do clown s**t I got to treat you and talk to you like you a clown. If you was in this woman's group and you ain't talk about this s**t for 10 years... and as soon as you see she got a video coming out with Nicki Minaj and Puffy, now you sending text messages and all this s**t (sic)."

The rapper concluded by asking Pinnock to "stop trying to hurt people and kill people's lives" and that if she wanted a solo career "baby girl, just say that".

Nelson came under fire for sitting quietly and occasionally laughing during Minaj's rant and went on to say that one of her bandmates - presumed to be Pinnock - brought up blackfishing with her on the set of her last Little Mix video Sweet Melody. After the Live concluded, the rapper posted a now-deleted video on Instagram asking why Pinnock didn't make any comments when the band collaborated with Minaj on their 2018 single Woman Like Me.