Melanie “Mel B” Brown is seeking protection. The former Spice Girl, 41, was granted a temporary restraining order first against estranged husband Stephen Belafonte after filing a sworn declaration April 3, claiming the 41-year-old was “controlling, manipulative and abusive” throughout their 10-year marriage. (He must also stay away from her kids, Phoenix, 18, and Angel, 10, and their daughter, Madison, 5.) Find out more in the video above, and detailed below.
In the bombshell papers, the America’s Got Talent judge detailed the film producer’s alleged verbal (she says he called her “fat,” “dumb” and a “f–king monkey”) and physical abuse, claiming she was “subjected to multiple … beatings” starting just five months after they wed, in 2007. (Belafonte asked for spousal support and joint custody of Madison in his divorce filing; his lawyers tell Us, “We deny all allegations made by Mel B in her court documents.”)
Though the star says she tried to leave many times, she alleges “he threatened to release sexually explicit videos, claiming I would never work again.”
That wasn’t the only alleged emotional trauma. The singer claims Belafonte hired German exchange student Lorraine Gilles to be their nanny in 2010, then began having sex with her. Four years later, she alleges, they told her Gilles was pregnant: “He wanted her to have the baby and all three of us live together.”
According to TMZ and E! News, Brown’s lawyers returned to court April 11 and obtained a restraining order against Gilles, who must reportedly stay 100 yards away from the singer.
Despite Belafonte’s alleged mistreatment, a source close to the singer reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly that Brown spent years denying marriage troubles: “It’s classic victim mentality. She was ashamed and scared he would do something drastic.”
