Appearing on The Johnathan Ross Show, Mel B spoke out about her abusive relationship with her ex-husband who she said nobody ever liked.
Speaking about her ten year marriage to Stephen Belafonte, The Spice Girl said it was ‘very much so [an abusive relationship]’ and that she feels ‘very lucky [now]’ that it’s behind her.
‘You’ve always been very nice to me.’ she said to Jonathan. ‘I think you said to me, “Tell him to f*** off.”‘
The 44-year-old singer, who married Belafonte in 2007 and shares an 8-year-old daughter Madison with him, initially filed a domestic violence restraining order against him before later withdrawing it.
‘When you leave a certain relationship like that, it’s amazing the amount of people that come up to you and say I never liked him.’ she said. ‘Why the bloody hell didn’t you tell me while I was with him?’
‘I was so in denial, I was so living a lie, I was so protective over him and of my family, also I was feeling guilty and ashamed of what I’d got myself into, or what he’d got me into,’ she said.
‘Now I’m like away from that and kind of championing women that have gone through what I’ve gone through, I’m patron of Women’s Aid, so I’ve put it to good use my experience. There’s light at the end of the tunnel, you know’.
Yass Mel, get it!
Mel said her kids, especially 20-year-old Phoenix, were instrumental in supporting her to write her autobiography Brutally Honest which included details of the ‘domestic violence, mental abuse, control and torture’ she suffered during her relationship with Belafonte.
‘My daughter said to me, “You have to release this book because there’s going to be other women and other men in the similar situation, you have to be able to talk to them and give them a bit of a voice, too”‘.
‘I thought to myself, if she’s saying that, if I can help at least one person, then I’m going to release the book. I’ve helped quite a lot of people so far, touch wood. It’s been scary but good.’
Of talking about it publicly with her level of fame, Mel said: ‘I wouldn’t say it’s hard, it’s just a bit traumatising. It’s kind of a bit uncomfortable. So I guess that is hard actually.
‘I thought there was no other way to cope with it apart from to talk about it. My ex has already aired out all the dirty laundry in the public arena. So I just thought, I just wanted to put it into my words.’
The Scary Spice star said she’s now back in Leeds living with her mum who she said she hadn’t really had much contact with during her ‘terrible marriage.
‘Now I’m out of that [marriage]. Now we’re very, very close. My sister’s just had a baby. We’re all kind of together as a family unit. It feels really good.
‘When you’re in that kind of relationship, it doesn’t just affect you and your immediate family. It affects all your friends, your aunties, your uncles. Essentially, you’re isolated from your family, period. To come back to Leeds and kind of reunite with everyone and the Spice Girls, it’s all happened at once.’
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