Former Spice Girl Mel B filed court papers in 2020 for her child support payments to be increased, claiming her income had "dramatically reduced". Photo / Instagram
Former Spice Girl Mel B filed court papers in 2020 for her child support payments to be increased, claiming her income had "dramatically reduced". Photo / Instagram
Eddie Murphy has been ordered to pay more child support to former Spice Girl Melanie Brown.
The 61-year-old US actor agreed to fork out $61,000 in monthly payments to the 47-year-old English singer, after they welcomed daughter Angel Iris Murphy Brown in 2007. She is now 15.
Murphy had previously been paying $44,000 monthly, before Brown filed court papers in 2020 for the payments to be increased, claiming her income had "dramatically reduced".
According to court documents seen by Daily Mail, Brown's lawyers wrote: "Until recently, Melanie has been fortunate in her career to sustain a comfortable lifestyle for herself and Angel. Unfortunately, Melanie's income has dramatically reduced, such that she must consider modifying child support for the first time."
Murphy, who is listed in the filing as an "extraordinarily high earner", agreed to make the extra payments beginning from last October up until Angel turns 18, in an agreement stipulated in August. He also signed off on funding Brown's legal fees.
Up until recently, Murphy, who has 10 children with different women, didn't have a relationship with Angel, having denied he was the father when Brown fell pregnant in 2006. A paternity test soon confirmed he was.
The pair had met that year after Murphy's divorce from actress Nicole Mitchell, however, they split before Angel was born.
Brown, who reached a settlement with Murphy in 2009, opened up about their split in her 2018 memoir, Brutally Honest.
The former Scary Spice, who was a judge on the recent season of Masked Singer Australia, claimed Murphy was the love of her life but she was "spectacularly dumped" after leaving him for a few days to think about their relationship when talks of buying a house together broke down.
Murphy originally denied he was Angel's father but now plays a role in her life. Photo / Supplied
"I told Eddie, 'I need a break for a few days. I need time to think.' 'Are you insane?' he said. 'What do you need to think about?'," Brown wrote in her book.
Brown wrote she flew home to Leeds to see her mum Andrea, before returning back to LA a few days later to "make it work".
But while she was on the plane, Murphy was asked about the pregnancy by a TV reporter, to which he replied, "We're not together anymore, and I don't know whose that child is until it comes out and has a blood test."
"I felt sick, humiliated and confused," Brown wrote of the moment.
Murphy rang Brown to say he'd been caught off guard before he cut her off completely, she claimed. "I'd been madly in love with Eddie and I lost him."
However, Brown wrote Murphy and his mother, Lillian, now play a fundamental role in Angel's life.
"It's funny because now his mum's in my life and she's like, 'You've always been my favourite' and I'm like, 'Oh stop it Lillian'. Angel spends weekends with Eddie now, and that she's getting to know the man she so reminds me of is one of the greatest joys of my life."
She also opened up about her financial woes in the wake of her messy split from Stephen Belafonte in 2017.
"In the past 20-something years of my life, I have made more than £80 million ($158 million). When I met my second husband (Stephen), I had a house and a loft apartment in LA and a good career. When I left him I walked away with US$936 ($1667) in a bank," Brown wrote in her book.
