This Monday, AGT judge Melanie Brown – ‘Mel B’ to all her fans – filed for divorce to her husband Stephen Belafonte. The former Spice Girl would have celebrated 10 years of marriage this June 6, which is a record for most celebrity marriages. However, her divorce papers stated that she has been separated from her husband since December 28 last year and cited ‘irreconcilable differences’ as the legal grounds for her decision to divorce Belafonte.
Before the divorce, Mel B experienced serious heartbreak following the death of her father, Martin. For nine years, Mel B has not been in good terms with her family due to the fact that they dislike her husband, Stephen Belafonte. In a heartbreaking photo she shared on Instagram, Mel B and her sister Danielle has finally reconciled and was shown to hold their father’s hand in his deathbed after succumbing to cancer.
The heartbreaking death of her father seemed to be the wake-up call for Mel B to “make amends” to her family and end the nine-year feud they had over her husband, Belfast Telegraph reported. A source from Britain’s Closer magazine via Belfast Telegraph also supported Mel’s decision in a statement.
“Losing her dad has made Mel re-evaluate everything and she has said she doesn’t want to waste any more years missing out on family time.”
The same source explained that Mel B has kept in touch with her family since her father’s death, but meetings have remained tense and pretty emotional. It seems odd that just two weeks after she vowed to make amends to her family, the AGT judge then decided to divorce Stephen Belafonte. Mel B’s father died March 5 and two weeks later, she was in the Los Angeles Superior Court filing her divorce papers.
According to People , the 41-year old judge of America’s Got Talent requested that the ability of the court to award spousal support be terminated – not a problem given that Mel B has an estimated net worth of $33 million. The divorce papers also stated that Mel B is open to joint legal custody of her daughter and Belafonte, Madison, five. However, since Mel B and Belafonte did not sign a prenuptial agreement, her millions can be another problem in the divorce proceedings.
In a span of almost 10 years, Mel B and husband Stephen Belafonte managed to look very much in love when their photos are taken. Mel B’s Instagram post just last month is a testament to their ‘love’ albeit online given that the AGT judge stated that they have been separated since late December last year.
Daily Mail Online also reported the details of the toxic marriage between the AGT judge Mel B and Hollywood film producer Stephen Belafonte. They also quoted from a source that Mel B had been plotting her escape to be free of her controlling husband for two years now. Although the couple claimed that they were so compatible, having sex multiple times a day, they spent half of their marriage life doing therapy.
In a story of a whirlwind romance, Mel B and Stephen Belafonte dated for five months before they secretly tied the knot on June 6, 2007, in Las Vegas. More than a year later, in November 2008, they renewed their vows in Hurghada, Egypt in front of their families. But marriage between Mel B and Belafonte had been far from smooth. In December 2014, Mel B appeared on The X Factor UK with her face and arms bruised and scratched leading to speculations of her husband’s abuse.
The AGT judge also had to defend her husband throughout their marriage on grounds of physical abuse when it was learned that he once battered his common-law wife Nicole Contreras in 2003 during a drunken frenzy. Belafonte and Contreras share a daughter, 12-year-old Giselle. In 2010, Belafonte went into another fight against three men at a luxury hotel where one ended up needing treatment to the hospital.
[Featured Image by Noel Vasquez/Getty Images]