Mel B opens up on alleged abusive marriage to Stephen Belafonte

Stephen Belafonte and Mel B at the Maxim Hot 100 Party. Photo / Getty Images

Warning: This story references suicide.

Mel B says she “fell so low” during her marriage to Stephen Belafonte.

The 49-year-old pop star was married to producer Stephen, also 49, from 2007 until 2017 in what she has alleged was an abusive relationship – although he has always denied the claims – and admitted she felt “controlled and isolated” in the years that followed her initial fame as part of the Spice Girls.

She told Schweizer Illustrierte: “I am incredibly proud to be a Spice Girl - it is part of me. But back then we were young. Our life experience was that of teenagers and women in their twenties. Life changes you.

“I was in a marriage for 10 years in which I was controlled and isolated from family and friends. I fell so low that I considered [taking my own life]. But I managed to get out of it. ”

The I Want You Back hitmaker - who was part of the world’s best-selling girl group alongside Geri Halliwell, Victoria Beckham, Emma Bunton and Melanie C in the late 1990s - went into detail about her marriage in her book Brutally Honest and admitted that even though she worried the memoir would jeopardise her career, she made it her “mission” to help other women.

She said: “In 2017 I wrote my book Brutally Honest about my experiences - at a time when hardly anyone was talking about violence against women and abuse. One in three women is affected by it.

“At the time I thought the book could ruin my career, but it became my mission to help other women.”

Mel - who in 2022 received an MBE for services to charitable causes and vulnerable women - has daughters Phoenix, 25, with ex-husband Jimmy Gulzar, Angel, 17, with Hollywood star Eddie Murphy and Madison, 13, with Stephen and explained that she wants her children to feel as if they can “raise their voices” in life.

She added: “[I want them] to raise their voices, to be brave, to know themselves - with all their good and bad sides, to be proud of who they are and where they come from, and to be friendly.”