
From the years of 2007 to 2017, ex Spice Girl, Mel B was married to Stephen Belafonte, the man she would later claim was physically and psychologically abusive.
Their eight-month divorce trial came to a close in September 2018, after the formerX Factormentor was required to pay Belafonte £270,000 ($480,000 AUD) in legal fees and child support after the judge dissolved her restraining order and sole custody request.
She’s now documented their relationship in her upcoming book,Brutally Honest(available now) in which she writes:
“I felt helpless because I’d allowed this man into my life, and, little by little, insult by insult, indignity by indignity, deal by deal, sex tape by sex tape, I had allowed him to completely take over,” reports The Sun .
However, appearing live onGood Morning Britain,Mel B said sharing her “unfortunate 10-year-marriage” gave her closure.
“I wanted to address all these situations that I’ve been in due to living such a lie for 10 years,” she said.
“I wanted to own it and take power.”
Despite this, their relationship is still clearly a sore point and at one point she snapped at presenters Susanna Reid and Piers Morgan.
As the interview was coming to its conclusion, Reid read out a right of reply from her ex-husband, something which the broadcasters were technically ethically bound to do.
“Mr Belafonte has told us there is a new litigation plan and he will be answering the allegations in full, which he denies,” she said, to which Mel B objected.
“Oh god. I don’t want to hear that,” she said.
“You shouldn’t do the right of reply,” Mel B continued, before jokingly hitting Reid on the shoulder.
“He shouldn’t have a platform to do that.”
To which Morgan replied with, “Well when he replies, you can reply again,” something she disagreed with.
“No! Why would I? Why would I get into a spat like that?” she said.
“Unfortunately we had to do that, whether we want to or not and I didn’t want to. I’m with you on this,” said Morgan.
You can their on-air spat right here:
Although the Spice Girl might have been annoyed at the inclusion, under UK Ofcom Broadcasting Codes,Good Morning Britainwere obligated to approach Stephen Belafonte for a right of reply to accompany the segment.
As explained in the BBC Editorial Guidelines this is especially important when the subject is under “significant criticism or allegations of wrongdoing,” like Mel B accusing her ex-husband of domestic violence and psychological abuse.
Do you think Mel B’s reaction was warranted? Tell us in a comment below.
Jessica Wang
Lifestyle Writer
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