Stephen Belafonte, Melanie Brown's ex-husband, denied that he had physically abused the former Spice Girl during their marriage.
Speaking to Page Six exclusively, Belafonte claimed that he never laid a hand on the singer.
"Never, not once. We never had a physical argument. We never had anything close to it," the film producer asserted. "and to think that I was this monster ... I'm a goofball."
Belafonte added that because of his childhood, he became a doting father to his and Brown's daughter, Madison. He shared that his actions and behavior as a father were a stark contrast to his own father, who had then abused his mother.
"That's why I'm the way I am as a father. I don't believe in that," Belafonte maintained, "and I'm totally, totally for anybody who does do it for them; they get the maximum extent of [punishment for] whatever they've done."
Belafonte asked Brown not to "try to get out of this one."
"Please do not try to say, 'Oh, he's being abusive and the court system is going to be against me.' Go to court and show the world your evidence,'" Belafonte implored. "Don't try to settle. I ask you, please bring your evidence. Come to court and show the world that everything that you said, the thousand lies out there, you're gonna have to back them all up."
The film producer then issued a four-word invitation to his ex-wife, "See you in court."
Apart from denying his wrongdoings, Belafonte slapped Brown with a $5 million defamation lawsuit for engaging in a "deliberate and wide-ranging campaign to cause him severe emotional distress and destroy his reputation."
"As a result of Ms. Brown's false allegations of rape, illegal gun possession, sex trafficking, production of illegal pornography, domestic battery and child endangerment, Mr. Belafonte lost access to his home and children," the lawsuit read.
In his allegations, Belafonte revealed that despite going to the United States for work, Brown had only visited their daughter "only once" in the past four years. Belafonte submitted the lawsuit in a Florida court on Brown's 49th Birthday, May 29, 2024.
Brown filed for divorce from Belafonte in March 2017, and it was finalized in August 2018. The Spice Girl paid Belafonte $5,000 a month for child support, including $15,000 for spousal support and $350,000 for his attorney fees.
In an interview with BBC in March 2024, Brown revealed that she felt "powerless" after her relationship with Belafonte.
"I wasn't just emotionally and physically abused, there was all the financial abuse, too. I didn't realize that I didn't have as much money as I thought I had," Brown painfully recalled. "So I literally had to eat humble pie, live with my mum."
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