In a declaration for a restraining order against her husband, Stephen Belafonte, filed in a California court on Monday (Apr. 3), former Spice Girl Mel B claims that Belafonte attempted to control her through physical and emotional abuse, according to a TMZ report. The singer and America’s Got Talent judge allegedly claims in the order that she was in an emotionally weak state when she married Belafonte in June 2007 in Las Vegas.
In the restraining order granted Monday that reportedly forced Belafonte to leave the family home and have no contact with B (born Melanie Janine Brown) or their three children, the star said that at the time she got married “I was vulnerable. I was giving birth as a single mother, my self-esteem was very low, and my hormones were out of balance due to the pregnancy.” Billboard could not reach Brown for comment at press time.
At the beginning of their married life, Brown said Belafonte “rushed to help me in every way,” but shortly after their nuptials she claimed the situation changed and he would tell her that she was “worthless, that he made me ‘who I am,’ that no one knows how really stupid I am.” She reportedly claims in the document that Belafonte attacked her self-confidence and self-esteem, specifically as she tried to lose weight post-pregnancy and that she lived in fear that he would make good on his threat to release sex tapes on them that he’d recorded in order to ruin her career and possibly have their children taken away.
TMZ previously reported that at the worst point in December 2014 Brown attempted suicide by swallowing an entire bottle of aspirin. Among the other claims in the document are Brown’s allegation that Belafonte got their nanny pregnant and suggested that they should all live together, prompting her to fire the domestic worker, then re-hire her when Belafonte allegedly threatened once again to leak damaging stories to Child Protective Services and the media.
According to TMZ, Belafonte has questioned Brown’s motives in going public with her accusations. Read the full TMZ report here.
