Mel B speaks out on moving into her mum’s bungalow after abusive relationship left her “powerless”
Mel B has opened up about having to move into her mum’s bungalow after an abusive relationship left her “powerless”.
The Spice Girls star – real name Melanie Brown – left California and returned home to Leeds after she allegedly suffered physical, emotional and financial abuse at the hands of ex-husband Stephen Belafont, who has repeatedly denied claims made by the singer.
The decision to move back home with her mum came while the Spice Girls were on their UK stadium tour in 2019, as revealed in a new interview with the BBC.
She said that money made from touring was spent on legal fees and payment to her ex-husband, who is a film producer.
“I wasn’t just emotionally and physically abused, there was all the financial abuse too. I didn’t realise that I didn’t have as much money as I thought I had. So I literally had to eat humble pie, live with my mum,” she said.
“My mum was the kind of person that would say, ‘Oh you’ve left him now, you’re fine’. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“Obviously any situation is better than being with your abuser, but when you’ve left that kind of abusive situation, it’s like starting all over again. You have to learn to trust people. You have to learn to trust yourself.”
The singer said she has now managed to buy her own home again, which she thought would “never be on the cards”.
The former couple reached a private settlement out of court in 2017 before their divorce was finalised one year later.
Brown reportedly had to pay Belafonte a $350,000 (£274,000) lump sum plus $5,000 (£3,900) a month in child support for their daughter Madison as part of the settlement.
The pop star has been vocal about domestic abuse in recent years, teaming up with Women’s Aid for a powerful campaign video in 2021. “It’s every woman’s story, it’s everybody’s voice, because we are dealing with an epidemic,” she told Good Morning Britain.
She detailed her own claims of domestic violence in her 2018 memoir Brutally Honest.
Last year, she was made an MBE in recognition of her services to domestic violence victims.
This month, Mel B – AKA Scary Spice – confirmed that Spice Girls are “definitely” going to reunite later this year.
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Hollie Geraghty
NME
