Melanie ‘Mel B’ Brown gets restraining order against estranged husband, report says
Stephen Belafonte and wife Melanie "Mel B" Brown arrive at the Los Angeles premiere of "Mother's Day" on April 13, 2016. Court records in Los Angeles show the singer and "America's Got Talent" judge filed for divorce from her husband of nearly 10 years, on Monday, March 20, 2017. Credit: AP / Invision / Richard Shotwell
Singer Melanie “Mel B” Brown, who is divorcing Stephen Belafonte, her film-producer husband of nearly 10 years, has obtained a restraining order against him, citing physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
TMZ.com reported Tuesday that for an order approved by a Los Angeles court the day before, the former Spice Girl provided a declaration that accused Belafonte of having beaten her, urged her to die, forced her to “participate in sexual intercourse with him and random women” and threatened to release sex tapes of those encounters.
Among her allegations, Brown, 41, said that in November 2007, on the night of her “Dancing with the Stars” finale, Belafonte at their home choked her and threw her against their hardwood floors as part of a pattern “to let me know he was in charge.” She said that after she performed at the London Olympics’ closing ceremonies in August 2012, he punched her and threw her against a carpet so hard her face “actually scabbed over the rug burns.” He then forced her to tweet that she had fallen while running in heels, she alleges.
Brown additionally said Belafonte impregnated their nanny, whom he then demanded get an abortion, and paid the nanny more than $300,000 of Brown’s money “for alleged nanny services.” She alleges that in 2014, distraught, she ingested a bottle of aspirin and that when she subsequently tried calling for paramedics, he threw her in a bedroom, locked the door and yelled at her to die. Belafonte “threatened me with violence and threatened to destroy my life in every possible way ... destroy my career and take my kids from me,” she wrote. Brown further said he kept a gun at home in violation of a domestic-violence conviction involving another woman.
“I think someone’s trying to set me up to look like a bad guy,” Belafonte told a TMZ videographer in a brief interview posted Tuesday. “I mean, obviously you saw my house got raided and no one found [a gun]. It’s accusation after accusation. But we’ll have our day in court.” Expressing concern for their children, he asked, “Why do this? We were friends two weeks ago. And now all of a sudden … it’s got to be this? I mean, I guess somebody’s making a lot of money off this, namely the lawyers.”
Brown and Belafonte have a daughter, Madison 5, and Brown has a daughter, 18-year-old Phoenix, with first husband Jimmy Gulzar and another daughter, Angel, who turned 10 on Monday, from a relationship with actor-comedian Eddie Murphy. As well, Belafonte has a daughter, Giselle, 12, with former girlfriend Nicole Contreras.
In December 2014, Brown, a judge on the UK’s “The X Factor” singing competition, was hospitalized and missed an episode, then returned to the show with bruises and minus her wedding ring. Belafonte tweeted at the time, “I don’t usually respond to Twitter msgs but I will respond to comments of hitting my wife which I think are quite disgusting un true! Mel was very ill a bunch of doctors helped her get better if fans can’t just relax B4 being negative they r not real fans of @OfficialMelB.”
Nearly two weeks later, Brown posted on Instagram that “my hubby never would lay a hand on me sorry took so long but any response fuels rumors.”
