Mel B'S Brutally Honest Confessions

- Grace Henry

There’s no question she’s had a difficult year – filing for divorce from her exhusband Stephen Belafonte and losing her dad Martin Brown to cancer. In her new autobiography Brutally Honest, Mel B, 43, bravely lifts the lid on her troubled life, admitting, ‘behind the glitter of fame, I felt emotionally battered.’ Here, from extracts of the book, we look at some of her most shocking confessions...

Kids

Described by her mum as her ‘best friend’ and ‘sister’, Phoenix, 19, is Mel’s first child, with dancer Jimmy Gulzar. In a section of the book written by Phoenix herself, she talks about her relationship with her stepfather – Mel’s second husband Stephen Belafonte – referring to him as ‘bully Stephen’ and saying he called her ‘retarded and ugly’.

And Mel reveals the teen was ‘dragged in’ by Stephen after Mel’s drug and alcohol binges ‘to see her mother in a state’.

However, Mel – who also has daughters Angel, 11, with actor Eddie Murphy, and Madison, seven, with Stephen – writes, ‘I genuinely believed my children were protected from the toxicity of [Stephen’s and my] relationship.’

My ‘abusive’ 10 -year marriage