Jade Thirlwall says Little Mix have stayed together for almost a decade because of their "solidarity and empowerment".

The 27-year-old singer - who is joined in the 'Sweet Melody' group' by Jesy Nelson, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Perrie Edwards - has admitted it's "quite rare" for a girl band to stay together "without killing each other", but the reason they are still going strong is because they treat one another as an "equal".

Speaking to RuPaul for the December 2020/January 2021 issue of Cosmopolitan UK, Jade said: “A producer that we worked with at the start said to us, ‘When one woman walks into a room, a few heads turn. But when a group of women walk into the room, every head turns.’ That’s something we’ve always thought when we’ve lacked confidence … This whole idea of solidarity and empowerment... I think it’s one of the reasons why we’ve been together 10 years next year. That’s quite rare, for a girl band to survive without killing each other."

Drag queen RuPaul, 59, asked: “Why do you think so many other girl bands dismember after a few years?”

To which Jade replied: “We always said, no matter what happened, we would remain equal. The minute somebody thinks they are more important, that’s where it starts to go wrong.”

Meanwhile, Jade asked the 'RuPaul's Drag Race' legend if he'd do collaboration with Little Mix as she was such a huge fan of his feature on Miley Cyrus' track 'Cattitude' from the 'Midnight Sky' hitmaker's 2019 EP 'She Is Coming'.

The 'Woman Like Me' hitmaker - who was a guest judge on the inaugural season of 'RuPaul's Drag Race UK' last year - said: “I loved your collaboration with Miley Cyrus ['Cattitude']. When will you be featuring on the Little Mix album?”

And RuPaul responded: “As soon as possible. I’d love that. I’m yet to meet the other girls so I’m very excited.”

The Dec 20 / Jan 21 issue of Cosmopolitan UK is on sale from 29th October or head to www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/RuPaul to read the interview online.