Nearly a decade after her debut on Oxygen’s hit television series Bad Girls Club, Rima Mellal, 32, has traded in her bad girl demeanor for a life driven by self-awareness and personal development.
A fan favorite on BGC Season 9, Mellal found herself caught in a cycle of toxicity and despair after her time on the show. At the time, she was working in the nightlife industry and was stuck in an abusive relationship. No matter what she did, she couldn’t seem to escape the vicious cycle of pain and drama that followed her after the show.
“Bad Girls Club overall for me…there’s still a lot of healing work I have to do from that time,” Mellal said. “I question a lot of things that happened there and how I even got on the show.”
Eight years after BGC ended, Mellal would sit in her car crying about what her life had become and, although she didn’t know where to start, she wanted to change.
“The show was a catalyst in a way where it showed me a lot of who I was, who I wasn’t, and who I needed to become,” she said.
Now a mother of three residing in the countryside of France, Mellal has a new outlook on life and spirituality. She and her partner have both taken up cosmic sexuality, connecting on a deeper level spiritually through intimacy.
Mellal spends her time transforming clients’ lives by providing life strategy and coaching services. Realizing that most issues are rooted in past and childhood trauma, Mellal helps others do the work needed to reach their own healing as she has.
“Once you really know why you do what you do, like really know why and feel that, face that, then it’s easier to change the habit,” she said.
With her partner being an overseas basketball player, Mellal spends most of her time abroad and believes living in Europe has contributed to her spiritual awakening. When she first relocated, she lived in Turkey, which she described as a rough time in her life. From there she moved back home to Chicago but eventually found herself in Spain after reuniting with her partner. The couple and their children have been in France since 2021.
Although Mellal enjoys living abroad, she does miss home often. But the growth she experiences living abroad is worth the time apart from her family and friends.
“When I get the little taste of being back in the states and then I’m like ‘ugh I have to turn around and go back to Europe’, I have to continue to remind myself to be more open-minded,” she said. “And that this is the life that I chose and putting myself in uncomfortable situations like this definitely helped me grow.“
Mellal describes her time in Europe as isolation and compares herself to a monk. The language barrier in France makes it difficult to meet new people and she spends a lot of time with just her children and partner. However, she welcomes the solitude and sees it as another opportunity to work on herself.
“I’ve learned about myself,” she said. “I don’t want to say it’s an ugly journey but I get to see a lot of my toxicity that I didn’t really get to see because I had so many distractions back home.”
Although she has had to tame her Chicago bad girl attitude to adjust to European living, Mellal has found comfort in the multitude of Algerian immigrants in France. Being able to engage with fellow Algerians and discover more about her native culture has brought her peace.
“A lot of them migrated here to France so I got to experience and spend some time with some fellow Algerians and North Africans,” she said.
Although she has come a long way, Mellal feels she still has work to do and plans on spending her time in Europe continuing to transform her life.
“Being away from all that makes me face a lot of my shadow side and a lot of the toxicity within me that I’ve carried all my life and having to break that down and change that part of me because it’s not helping me elevate or grow,” she said.