Stephen Belafonte has issued a very clear response to Melanie Brown in court.
And it’s rather obvious that the singer’s estranged husband is not taking any responsibility for what Brown claimed he did to her.
On March 20, the former Spice Girls member filed to divorce Belafonte after nearly a decade of marriage.
A few days later, TMZ obtained legal documents also filed by Brown in a request for a judge to grant her a restraining order against her soon-to-be-ex husband.
These papers revealed a lengthy list of allegations… very, very, very, VERY disturbing allegations, we should say.
For example:
Brown says Belafonte has punched, shoved and choked her on numerous occasions.
Brown says Belafonte secretly recorded the couple having intimate relations and threatened to ruin his wife’s career by releasing these sex tapes if she ever defied him.
Brown says Belafonte forced her to have threesomes.
Brown says Belafonte got their nanny pregnant and paid for her abortion with Brown’s money.
We’re talking truly horrible stuff here.
Why didn’t Brown simply end her marriage sooner? Why didn’t she leave Belafonte at the first sign of this kind of trouble?
Because she feared Belafonte would kill her and anyone else who knew about his abuse.
The artist has no spoken out directly to address these charges; and neither has Belafonte.
But the 41-year old film producer filed an official response to Brown’s divorce petition yesterday, stating in the reply that he’s seeking spousal support.
Not exactly the actions of a man who thinks he did anything wrong, huh?
Belafonte has not set a figure yet for the support he thinks he’s entitled to, although he’s also asking Brown to pay for his attorney fees.
In her divorce filing, Brown requested terminate the court’s ability to award spousal support.
The stars are also in dispute over their separation date: Belafonte says it was March 1, 2017. Mel B says it took place on December 28, 2016.
This may come into play when it comes time to divide up shared property.
The singer and television personality was given a temporary restraining order Monday by a judge following her public claims against Belafonte, alleging that he beat, threatened and exploited her throughout their nearly 10-year marriage.
She specifically cited the following image in her papers, saying this bruise was the result of a Belafonte beating…
… but that Belafonte made her claim on social media that she took a tumble while wearing heels.
The couple’s marriage first came under scrutiny in late 2014 after the singer was hospitalized for two days and then appeared three days later on the finale of the U.K. version of The X Factor.
It was apparent at the time that she had suffered injuries of some kind.
On Wednesday’s edition of The Talk, Sharon Osbourne remembered working with Brown on the program.
“Three years ago, in the final two days of X Factor, she didn’t make the first day and she was in the hospital,” Osbourne said on air, adding:
“And it was reported in all the papers that said ‘allegedly’ she’s been beaten by her husband. And she came back for the final day and she had a black eye and bruising everywhere, but she made the final.”
Belafonte is also asking for asking for joint legal custody of the one child they have together.
For understandable reasons, Brown is demanding sole legal and physical custody,