Mel B has admitted she felt ‘powerless’ while married to her ‘abusive’ ex-husband Stephen Belafonte, despite her famous Girl Power mantra.
The Spice Girl, 48, revealed that five years after leaving Stephen, she still suffers from panic attacks and PTSD, and had previously tried to end her marriage six or seven times.
Speaking on Thursday’s Loose Women, Mel made an appearance on the show during their Facing It Together campaign, which aims to raise awareness of domestic abuse.
Mel B and American Stephen were married from 2007 to 2017 and share daughter Madison, 12, together.
Over the years, Mel B has accused him of physical, emotional, and financial abuse, claims he denies.
Mel B has admitted she felt ‘powerless’ while married to her ‘abusive’ ex-husband Stephen Belafonte, despite her famous Girl Power mantra
Mel told the panel that she was reluctant to leave Stephen as she had completely ostracised herself from her family.
She said: ‘Even though I was in my marriage for ten years I tried to leave six or seven times. I went back due to fear or blackmail.
‘You think ”what am i going to do if I leave, I haven’t spoken to my mum in weeks, then its month, then years.” It happens so gradually.’
‘You feel like you’re doing everything wrong and they encourage that feeling. I went from living in a mansion in LA to my mum’s bungalow with my kids.’
Mel also appeared on the show to discuss the release of a revised version of her autobiography Brutally Honest.
She said: ‘Writing the book was cathartic. But it was a taboo topic in 2018 and no publisher wanted it.’
Discussing the aftermath of her divorce, she added: ‘I’m seven years out and I still have PTSD and panic attacks because I don’t trust myself, how could I when I thought that person loved me. I’m all about girl power but I was powerless.’
‘I had lots of head tapping things to ease the trauma because I didn’t want to talk about it.’
The Spice Girl revealed that five years after leaving Stephen, she still suffers from panic attacks and PTSD, and had previously tried to end her marriage six or seven times
Speaking on Thursday’s Loose Women , Mel made an appearance on the show during their Facing It Together campaign, which aims to raise awareness of domestic abuse
Discussing the aftermath of her divorce, she added: ‘I’m seven years out and I still have PTSD and panic attacks because I don’t trust myself’
Mel also hinted that another Spice Girls reunion is in the works, adding: ‘We are definitely dong something, I’m probably gong to get told off but there I have said it.’
The singer previously revealed that after leaving Stephen she was only left with £700 to her name and secretly shopped in Lidl to make ends meet.
She said the millions she made as part of the Spice Girls had dwindled down to just a few hundred after she walked away from her marriage to Stephen in 2018.
Mel said she would bulk buy on visits to Lidl and Costco and moved into her mother’s bungalow in Leeds while facing hefty legal fees amid their divorce battle.
It was a far cry from her Los Angeles lifestyle, where she says she completely lost control of her huge fortune.
‘In LA I hadn’t bought a pint of milk in years. But back home I would buy in bulk from Costco and got really into shopping in Lidl and Aldi,’ Melanie told The Sun.
‘It was Covid times and I would put on my face mask and no one would recognise me. I stood in a queue for the first time in a long time. No one batted an eyelid.’
The media personality learned to budget for herself once again and spent what money she had more wisely, saying she saw it as taking back her power after being in an abusive relationship.
Mel previously said the millions she made as part of the Spice Girls had dwindled down to just a few hundred after she walked away from her marriage to Stephen in 2018
She said of the dark period in her life which was plagued by financial stress: ‘People will assume, ”She’s rich, she’s a Spice Girl”. But I went from performing to thousands at Wembley on the Spice Girls’ 13-date Reunion Tour in 2019 to squeezing into my mum’s with my kids sleeping in bed with me.
‘I didn’t expect that to happen in my 40s after a successful career but I had nowhere else to go because I was so badly affected financially from my relationship, I had to pick up the pieces.’
Mel spent five years saving and moved into a converted farmhouse in West Yorkshire this month.
In addition to her work with the Spice Girls, Mel had built her fortune back up, gaining lucrative jobs on American television shows such as the US version of Strictly Come Dancing – Dancing with the Stars – and a judge on America’s Got Talent while living in Los Angeles.
She also appeared as a judge on The X Factor in the UK prior to moving back home for good.