Mel B was forced to move back in with her mother Andrea after she had to ‘start all over’ when her marriage to Stephen Belafonte ended.
The singer, 48, said the millions she made as part of the Spice Girls had dwindled down to just £700 after she walked away from her marriage in 2018.
Mel claims during their marriage Stephen, 46, emotionally and physically abused her – something he has always vehemently denied.
Mel moved in with her mother Andrea in Leeds due to her financial troubles and felt like she was in a ‘powerless’ situation.
Speaking to the BBC, she said: ‘I wasn’t just emotionally and physically abused, there was all the financial abuse too. I didn’t realise that I didn’t have as much money as I thought I had. So I literally had to eat humble pie, live with my mum.’
Mel B was forced to move back in with her mother Andrea (pictured) after she had to ‘start all over’ when her marriage to Stephen Belafonte ended
The singer, 48, said the millions she made as part of the Spice Girls had dwindled down to just £700 after she walked away from her marriage in 2018 (pictured with Stephen in 2016)
‘My mum was the kind of person that would say, ‘Oh you’ve left him now, you’re fine’. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
‘Obviously any situation is better than being with your abuser, but when you’ve left that kind of abusive situation, it’s like starting all over again. You have to learn to trust people. You have to learn to trust yourself.’
Mel has since managed to buy her own home again, something she believed would ‘never be on the cards’.
The hitmaker chose to move home during the Spice Girls sold out stadium tour in the UK in 2019.
Although the tour was profitable, Mel had to spend much of her earnings on legal fees and payments to her ex.
It comes after Mel said she would bulk buy on visits to Lidl and Costco and moved into her mother’s bungalow.
It was a far cry from her Los Angeles lifestyle, where she says she completely lost control of her huge fortune.
‘In LA I hadn’t bought a pint of milk in years. But back home I would buy in bulk from Costco and got really into shopping in Lidl and Aldi,’ Melanie told The Sun.
Mel claims during their marriage Stephen, 46, emotionally and physically abused her – something he has always vehemently denied
Mel said: ‘I didn’t realise that I didn’t have as much money as I thought I had. So I literally had to eat humble pie, live with my mum’
‘It was Covid times and I would put on my face mask and no one would recognise me. I stood in a queue for the first time in a long time. No one batted an eyelid.’
The media personality learned to budget for herself once again and spent what money she had more wisely, saying she saw it as taking back her power after being in an abusive relationship.
She said of the dark period in her life which was plagued by financial stress: ‘People will assume, “She’s rich, she’s a Spice Girl”. But I went from performing to thousands at Wembley on the Spice Girls’ 13-date Reunion Tour in 2019 to squeezing into my mum’s with my kids sleeping in bed with me.
‘I didn’t expect that to happen in my 40s after a successful career but I had nowhere else to go because I was so badly affected financially from my relationship, I had to pick up the pieces.’
In addition to her work with the Spice Girls, Mel had built her fortune back up, gaining lucrative jobs on American television shows such as the US version of Strictly Come Dancing – Dancing with the Stars – and a judge on America’s Got Talent while living in Los Angeles.
She also appeared as a judge on The X Factor in the UK prior to moving back home for good.
Mel said: ‘When you’ve left that kind of abusive situation, it’s like starting all over again. You have to learn to trust people. You have to learn to trust yourself’
In 2021, Melanie appeared on The Masked Singer UK, eventually being unveiled as Seahorse, she is a judge on the n version of the programme, and this year she made a return as a judge on America’s Got Talent.
Mel has also told how she and her mother argued a lot when they were living together again.
The singer felt a ‘horrible’ anger towards her mother and even found herself ‘lashing’ out at her when she felt had displayed little sympathy.
‘She didn’t give me a hug and tell me everything was going to be OK, but that was because she didn’t know if things were going to be OK for me.’
Mel was made an MBE in 2022 for services to charitable causes and vulnerable women and is patron for Women’s Aid.
Mel shares Madison, 12, with Stephen along with Phoenix, 25, with Jimmy Gulzar and Angel, 16, with Eddie Murphy
For help call Samaritans on 116 123 at any time or email [email protected]