Have you been keeping up with the nightmare scandal that is the divorce between Mel B and Stephen Belafonte?
If not, let’s sum it up real quick: the entire thing is the biggest, saddest mess you ever saw.
Mel B, also known as Melanie Brown of Spice Girls fame, married film producer Stephen Belafonte nearly ten years ago, but a couple of weeks ago she filed for divorce.
In her legal documents, Mel B requested joint custody of the couple’s five-year-old daughter, and she wants to block Stephen from receiving any spousal support from her.
Just from those papers, we didn’t get a clear understanding of she decided to file for divorce. But when she filed for a restraining order against her estranged husband, things made a little more sense.
In the documents for the restraining order, Mel B made all sorts of horrifying claims — she said that Stephen physically abused her on multiple occasions throughout their marriage.
She also said he tried to blackmail her with secretly recorded sex tapes, and that he even got their nanny pregnant, then took her money to pay for the abortion.
She even made some particularly twisted claims about her 2014 overdose, explaining that she took an entire bottle of aspirin and then Stephen locked her in their bedroom and refused to let her call for help.
Mel B also shared a photo of the alleged abuse:
So that’s all completely and totally terrifying, right?
But wait until you hear the statement Stephen made through his lawyers.
“What matters most to Mr. Belafonte is the safety and well-being of his daughters and step-daughters,” the statement began. “It’s a shame that Ms. brown elected not to proceed in a respectful and amicable fashion in this very private matter.”
“In due course, Mr. Belafonte will be filing his response to the outrageous and unfounded allegations made by Ms. Brown, which allegations he vehemently denies.”
His lawyers go on to say that “When the Court determines the truth, it will become cleat that this entire charade was nothing more than a smear campaign intended to cover up Ms. Brown’s own conduct during the marriage in light of her current involvement with a family television show.”
According to these people, Mel B is also trying to “unfairly gain leverage both financially and with respect to custody of the children,” even though she specifically requested joint custody.
“When the degree to which Ms. Brown has gone to create a false depiction of her marriage to Mr. Belafonte is uncovered, real victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse will be understandably offended, angry and upset.”
“Mr. Belafonte is confident that the truth will come out when he has his day in court at which time he looks forward to being reunited with his children.”
It seems important to note at this point that all the way back in 2014, there were widespread rumors that Stephen was abusive to Mel B.
The rumors began when she showed up to film X Factor with cuts and bruises on her face and arms, and they were bad enough that she felt the need to make a statement about how “my hubby would never lay a hand on me.”
It’s also worth pointing out that Stephen was convicted of domestic violence against a girlfriend in 2003.
Obviously we can’t say who’s telling the truth here — we weren’t there, after all — but let’s hope this thing gets handled quickly, if only for the sake of their little girl.
What a mess.
