Highlights
- Mel B opened up about enduring a decade of abuse in her marriage with Stephen Belafonte.
- She shared her struggles with depression, financial abuse, and fears of intimate tapes being released.
- After leaving Belafonte, Mel B found love and healing with her fiance Rory McPhee.
When Mel B released her memoir "Brutally Honest" in 2018, fans assumed that she would share stories about her music career and her time as a member of the beloved '90s girl group The Spice Girls. Maybe she would even talk about her feud with Posh Spice/Victoria Beckham. While she did talk about her professional life, Mel B also wrote about her abusive marriage to Stephen Belafonte, which lasted from 2007 to 2017.
After Mel B filed for a restraining order from Belafonte in 2017, Belafonte won custody of their daughter Madison. Sadly, the darkness of their marriage was a secret for a long time. According to ABC News, the singer said that he was verbally and physically abusive and also stalked her.
In this article, we'll take a look at what Mel B shared about Stephen Belafonte, along with how her life changed after she left the marriage.
What Did Mel B Say About Abusive Ex-Husband Stephen Belafonte?
Whenever Mel B talks about Stephen Belafonte, she shares a disturbing picture of their marriage, and it's awful hearing about the pain she went through. According to Us Weekly, Mel B shared a lot about Belafonte in her memoir "Brutally Honest" and on The Drew Barrymore Show. She wrote that she swallowed 200 pills because she had become so depressed after enduring abuse for a decade. She opened up about this and told Barrymore that Belafonte barely reacted when she told him she tried to end her life.
Mel B said:
“I realized what I did, and I’m like, ‘You know what? No, I want to live. So I told him, ‘Look, I’ve done something really silly’ and he said, ‘So?’
Besides being afraid that Belafonte would release intimate tapes of the two of them, Mel B shared another scary revelation in an interview with The BBC. She said that she began living with her mother in Leeds, England when she left her husband because Belafonte stole money from her. Since she has three children, that must have been particularly scary.
She said:
“I wasn’t just emotionally and physically abused, there was all the financial abuse, too. I didn’t realize 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.”
Howard Stern Labeled "Disgusting" After Uncomfortable Spice Girls Interview That Didn't Age Well
Viewers called Howard Stern "disgusting" for his awkward interviews with Emma Bunton and other Spice Girls.According to OK! Magazine, Mel B said that she has "trauma" from her abusive marriage that will persist. She wants people to know that walking away from a dangerous relationship is challenging. She said she will:
"never be fully there, but I am on the right path, and I have the tools to kind of get myself through those dark times."
She added, For example, my mother would say, ‘What’s wrong with you? You’re fine now. You’ve left him.’ And I’d be going, ‘Yeah, but now I’ve got to pick up the pieces and I’ve got to deal with the shame and the guilt, and I want to protect my kids. And I don’t want to block out what happened because I did that for a little bit, and you get PTSD."
Who Has Mel B Dated? (As Of March 2024, According to Distractify)
- 1995: Fjolnir Thorgeirsson
- 1996: Peter Andre
- 1998-2000: Jimmy Gulzar (married)
- Max Beesley
- 2002-2006: Christine Crokos
- 2002-2007: Christa Parker
- 2006: Eddie Murphy
- 2007-2017: Stephen Belafonte (married)
- 2019-present: Rory McPhee (engaged)
Does Eddie Murphy Have Anything To Do With The Daughter He Had With Spice Girl Mel B?
Eddie Murphy remained absent from his now 16-year-old daughter, Angel Iris Murphy's life for years.According to Express.co.uk, Mel B also explained on The View that she realized she had to end her marriage after spending time with her dad Martin Brown, who died of cancer in 2017.
Important Dates (According to Wonderwall) | |
|---|---|
began dating | 2007 |
got married in Las Vegas | June 6th, 2007 |
vow renewal in Hurghada, Egypt | November 2008 |
their daughter Madison was born | September 2011 |
went to the hospital and appeared bruised | 2014 |
got separated | December 2016 |
Mel B filed for divorce | March 2017 |
She said:
“He gave me the strength to get out of that relationship because I promised him on his deathbed; ‘I’m going to go back to America and leave that monster.'"
What Happened To Mel B After She Divorced Stephen Belafonte?
After Mel B and Stephen Belafonte got divorced in 2017, she began dating her now fiance Rory McPhee in 2017. The singer talked about her relationship with McPhee in an interview with People and said that after being friends for a while, they realized that they had feelings for each other.
She said, “I was like, ‘I'm never going to get married again. Never, never, never. I'm never having a relationship. I'm fine by myself. I want to raise my kids, put my head down and work, and that's it.' And then… never can say never, can you?”
Mel B added that Rory McPhee treated her so well, which was of course important after the abuse that she suffered. She said:
“It’d been a long time that anybody was that kind to me. I wasn’t looking for intimacy or anything like that because I was still suffering a lot from PTSD. And he was just patient. He read the first draft of my book. He just couldn’t believe that a person that says they loved you would treat you like that.”
David Beckham's Best Man Made A Shocking Spice Girls Joke At His Wedding To Victoria Beckham
David Beckham's best man Gary Neville made a stunning Spice Girls joke during his wedding to Victoria Beckham.In an interview with The Sun, Mel B said she is "confident" with Rory McPhee and that he helps her feel good about herself. This is in contrast to her ex-husband, who said she was "fat and ugly."
Who Are Mel B's Three Daughters And How Old Are They? (As Of March 2024)
- Phoenix Chi Gulzar (born 1999, 25 years old)
- Angel Iris Murphy Brown (born 2007, 16 years old)
- Madison Brown Belafonte (born 2011, 12 years old)
Mel B's abusive marriage to Stephen Belafonte also affected her parenting since she began thinking carefully about what to say to her kids about it. In an interview with Hello! Magazine, Mel B shared that she is open with her daughters about her abusive marriage.
The family has important discussions with her three daughters about self-love, self-respect, and kindness. She said, "We talk a lot in our house. It's so important, especially with kids who are in their teens, or coming up to them, as their hormones are all over the place. I always teach them: 'Just be kind – treat somebody how you'd like to be treated and don't be a pushover.'"
