Mel B admits her Spice Girls bandmates knew about her ‘abusive’ marriage

Mel B has revealed that her Spice Girls bandmates knew about the abuse she suffered during her marriage to Stephen Belafonte.

The 47-year-old singer confessed that she became “very good at hiding things” at the height of her ordeal, as she suffered for 10 years during their relationship.

Mel has previously spoken about being in an abusive relationship with her ex-husband Stephen, something he has always vehemently denied.

Speaking to Newsnight on Wednesday, Mel added that abuse is something he will live with ‘for the rest of his life’, noting that others who experience it have to adjust so they are not denied basic rights like driving or having a credit card.

She also admitted that she would not report domestic abuse because she doesn’t know if she can “trust the police.”

Asked if the Spice Girls knew about her abuse, Mel said: “Yeah, I think some of them did it on the drop.”

“But I was, you know, I was at this for 10 years, I was very good at hiding things, especially anything to do with my then-husband, and where he was going home or where he came from.”

The singer split from Stephen, 47, in 2017 and claimed he had emotionally and physically abused her during their 10-year marriage, which he denies.

Two years later, Mel reunited with bandmates Mel C, Geri Horner and Emma Bunton for a national tour.

Mel admitted that she will continue to live with her abuse for the rest of her life, adding: “I will always have to live with what happened to me, and it will be living with me side by side for the rest of my life.

“For example, my mom said that the first thing he said to me was like ‘well, you’re okay now that you’ve gotten away from him.'”

‘No, if anything, your world has been completely turned upside down, because if you’ve been, whether you’ve been in an abusive relationship for an hour, a day, a month, a year, ten years, there are things that a abuser does for you that he will never leave you, to literally tell you what is happening to you, to put you in certain situations, in which you feel so humiliated.

‘The simplest things like getting dressed in the morning, what do I wear?

“I’m used to being told what to wear in such an aggressive way that these are things I didn’t have to think about. I can’t drive so I have to relearn everything.

Mel, who is a patron of Women’s Aid and campaigns with the charity on domestic abuse issues, urged the government to reform the “whole system” of justice.

She said officers need education on the “tell-tale signs” that someone is in an abusive relationship.

“I wouldn’t (call the police), because I wouldn’t know if they would take it seriously,” Mel said.

‘Like if I’m living here and I want to report it to the police, I don’t know if I can trust the police. I don’t know if they’re going to take my accusations seriously.

He also said, “He’s just an average person who just wants to be loved and cared for.”

The singer added that “more and younger” people are experiencing domestic abuse, including “children as soon as they start some kind of intimate relationship.”

In his interview with broadcaster Victoria Derbyshire, he also called the problem an “epidemic” and said the statisticians’ job allowed victims to “speak openly”.

She said: ‘When I got my book out, nobody wanted to talk about it. It was like a taboo subject. It was something that everyone knows but nobody talks about it.

‘He’s just an average person who just wants to be loved and cared for’

MailOnline has contacted the Metropolitan Police, the National Police Chiefs Council and Women’s Aid for comment.

It comes after Mel urged Sir Keir Starmer to make fighting domestic violence one of his “national missions” if he becomes prime minister.

The Labor leader said he would make the issue a priority after being questioned by Spice Girl, a survivor of domestic abuse who is campaigning for change.

Sir Keir said a “powerful point” in his pledge to “make Britain’s streets safe” is tackling violence against women and girls.

He unveiled five missions last week to improve the nation, including ensuring sustained high growth and building a future-fit NHS.

But Mel, sitting next to Sir Keir at a Woman’s Aid panel, demanded that she add a sixth mission: tackling domestic violence.

“If you’re going to talk about your top five things, you have to add another one that is specifically domestic abuse,” he said.

As the audience laughed at her sustained questioning, she said: “You may laugh, but I’m being very serious.”

“It has to be an independent thing where we’re educated on from the ground up, from the inside out.”

Sir Keir said he would “absolutely make it a priority” if he is prime minister, but did not commit to a sixth national mission.

He said an “end-to-end change” is needed and that “tinkering is not going to make a difference.”

Mel B, patron of the Women’s Aid charity, described herself as a “big fan” of Sir Keir and expressed confidence that he would win the next general election.

But she warned him: ‘Keir, I am forcing everything on you. I’ll go after you, I will.

“To every survivor and the voice of all who cannot be heard, I am your voice, so be careful. Because I really like you.

In May 2022, Mel B also dedicated her MBE for services to charitable causes and vulnerable women to ‘all other women’ facing domestic violence.

Mel and Stephen secretly got married in 2007 and separated in 2017.

They share a daughter, Madison Brown Belafonte, 11, and Mel has two children from previous relationships: Phoenix Chi Gulzar, 24, whom she shares with ex-husband Jimmy Gulzar and Angel Iris Murphy Brown, 15, whom she shares with Eddie Murphy. .

The mother of three claimed she suffered financial abuse during her marriage to Stephen, as she did not have access to her own money.

Mel admitted that she is famous for being “confident and outspoken like Scary Spice” and despite feeling “at home” on stage, she believed that many had seen her as the last person to feel “totally trapped and alone” in her marriage.

And it was while writing her book Brutally Honest that Mel discovered “to my horror what my 22-year-old daughter Phoenix had witnessed.”

The Spice Girl star said she finds it “very disturbing” that she “doesn’t have a clear recollection” of an incident her daughter described to her ghostwriter, because her post-traumatic stress disorder blocked out the trauma.

And he added: “Knowing what my daughter saw kills me.”

Watch the full Newsnight interview on BBC iPlayer.

For free and confidential support, connect with a Women’s Aid support worker via their instant messaging service at chat.womensaid.org.uk.