Mel B Opens Up About Abuse: 'I Felt Worthless, I'm Facing Huge Fears'

Mel B's short stint in "Special Forces: World's Toughest Test" showed a new and different side of her. The Spice Girls alum revealed the reason behind her joining the show was mostly to gain back a part of her that she lost during her decade-long relationship with Stephen Belafonte.

"This course is all about me gaining back my own power. I ended up being in a very horrible abusive 10-year relationship," she shared.

"I felt worthless. You feel helpless. I'm facing huge fears. I'm just gonna bring out that inner person that I hope isn't dead and gone."

According to reports, Mel B was married to Belafonte from 2007 until 2017, and he had been abusive towards her.

She accused him of abusing her physically as well as emotionally, which were all chronicled in her memoir "Brutally Honest," released in 2018.

The "Special Forces: World's Toughest Test" sneak peek just showed how much of a fighter Mel B really is.

"I dealt with it in bits and pieces, but then the reminder of the self-worthlessness and being called so many names day after day for 10 years," she said "It comes back when I get told, for example, that you've done really well. Because when that happened, I would always go home to something that was just devastatingly bad."

Although the dust has mostly settled, the singer's messy divorce from Belafonte is and will forever be cemented on the Internet.

She even requested a temporary restraining order against him as "He threatened [her] with violence and threatened to destroy [her] life in every possible way...destroy [her] career and take [her] kids from [her]."

With all the hardship that she has gone through, it seems obvious that the show was an easy feat for the tough singer.

In fact, she was appointed MBE in 2022 for her contribution to Women's Aid 2018, as well as her work with vulnerable women.

During her speech, she talked about how abusers can distort one's sense of self and reality.

"I am not here because I am Mel B, Scary Spice from the Spice Girls. I am here because I am Melanie Brown MBE... and you think, 'well, Spice Girls are all about Girl Power'.

"But let me tell you, when these abusers get their hooks into you, there is no way out, really, (or) so you think... I was completely isolated from my friends and family-and it didn't happen overnight. It happened bit by bit by bit. They chip away at you."

Mel B and Belafonte share a daughter, Madison Brown Belafonte; and she has now moved on with her life with her partner Rory McPhee.

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Mel B, Abuse