Mel B on how ‘financial abuse’ forced her to move back into her mum’s bungalow

She made her fortune as one of the Spice Girls, topping charts around the world with hits such as “Wannabe” and “Spice Up Your Life”, but Mel B claims she was left with nothing after her divorce.

The singer, born Melanie Brown, left California after splitting from ex-husband Stephen Belafonte, accusing him of domestic violence. Belafonte has always denied the allegations.

Brown has since regained a level of financial security she never expected to experience, following the successful comeback of the Spice Girls and the publication of her 2018 memoir. Brutally honest.

However, the 48-year-old ‘Viva Forever’ singer told the BBC she was left in a “helpless” position after her divorce was finalised, with the decision to move on coming in 2019, just as the Spice Girls were reforming.

Proceeds from the screenings apparently went towards paying legal fees and payments to Belafonte, the film’s producer, as well as a lump sum of £274,000 and £3,900 a month in child support for his daughter Madison.

“I wasn’t just a victim of emotional and physical abuse, there was financial abuse as well,” she said. “I didn’t realize I didn’t have as much money as I thought I did. So I literally had to eat my ass off, live with my mom.”

She continued: “My mum was the type of person who would say, ‘Oh, you left him, it’s fine.’ But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Of course, any situation is better than being with an abuser, but once you leave an abusive situation, it’s like starting all over again. You have to learn to trust people. You have to learn to trust yourself.”

Brown said moving back to her hometown of Leeds had helped her find her bearings: “My mum is one of seven siblings, so I’m surrounded by friends, family, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces – the whole world,” she explained.

“Leeds is beautiful, so green and so down to earth, and the people are just warmer.”

Brown recently opened up about how she and her former bandmates are now rallying around ‘Ginger Spice’ Geri Halliwell amid the Formula One scandal involving her husband Christian Horner.

In February, she also announced that she had finally managed to buy her own home after more than five years of “hard work.”

“I still love shopping in Aldi and Lidl, I don’t think I’ll ever stop, to be honest. I’m still a Leeds girl!” she told the BBC.

The singer, known in the Nineties as “Scary Spice”, spoke about her work as an anti-domestic violence campaigner during a panel to mark the 50th anniversary of the charity Women’s Aid.

“Before I was like, ‘Okay, this is awful,’ and now I’m in Aldi or Sainsbury’s and women are literally coming up to me with tears in their eyes and telling me their stories,” Brown said of the response to her work as an activist.

“It’s more of a conversation now. It’s not a conversation you want to have, but I’m very happy to be experiencing it and talking about it.”

In 2022, Brown was awarded an MBE for her charity work helping women in need, and in 2018 she became patron of Women’s Aid.