Mel B has confessed to snorting six lines of cocaine a day while working on The X Factor ‘to get her through living’ with her husband of ten-years Stephen Belafonte.
In her autobiography Brutally Honest, serialised in The Sun on Sunday, the Spice Girl, 43, also revealed she tried to take her own life during the live shows when downing nearly 200 painkillers in 2014.
She was replaced for the Saturday semi-final but appeared the next night in a dress which showed off her bruises following her suicide attempt – at the time she blamed a stomach ulcer.
Candid: Mel B has confessed to snorting six lines of cocaine a day while working on The X Factor ‘to get her through living’ with her husband of ten-years Stephen Belafonte
Admitting she started her day with two lines of cocaine during the series, Mel said: ‘I was a sad, pathetic person. I was out of control. I was probably taking five or six lines a day before and after work.
‘It numbed my pain. It lifted me up enough to be ready to fire on all cylinders and forget about everything but the show.’
She wrote: ‘I was so low that two weeks into filming The X Factor I’d started using cocaine to get me through the run of the show. To get me through living with Stephen, which felt like neurotic claustrophobia.’
Troubled times: The Spice Girl, 43, also revealed she tried to take her own life during the live shows when downing nearly 200 painkillers in 2014
Yet the singing sensation believes the drug did not affect her judging performance on the hit ITV programme – where she appeared alongside Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Cheryl – with Mel insisting she never took it during the shows.
The Wannabe hitmaker said she didn’t need to take anything during the programme as she would be laughing along with the judges and the crew.
But as soon as filming finished for the 2014 series, the Leeds-native snorted the drug, revealing that it took ‘less than a minute’ to get her hands on some.
The Spice Girls star revealed she was entering a UK-based therapy centre in September after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as she wants to be a ‘better version’ of herself for her children – Phoenix Chi Gulzar, 19, Angel Iris Murphy Brown, 11, and seven-year-old Madison Brown Belafonte.
Struggles: Mel and Stephen Belafonte (pictured in 2015), 43, married in 2007 before finally splitting in August, with their £10million divorce playing out in public in a Los Angeles court
Mel and film producer Stephen, 43, married in 2007 before finally splitting in August, with their £10million divorce playing out in public in a Los Angeles court.
Belafonte and Brown were finally divorced in December after a long-running battle in which lurid tales of kinky sex, drug and alcohol abuse and allegations of domestic violence made headlines.
Despite their divorce being finalised, the disagreements over children’s custody and finances have dragged on through the summer.
Brutally Honest by Melanie Brown with Louise Gannon (Quadrille, £17.99) is published on November 27. The Brutally Honest audiobook is available exclusively on audible.co.uk.
For confidential support call the Samaritans in the UK on 08457 90 90 90, visit a local Samaritans branch or click here for details.
The reveal: Brutally Honest by Melanie Brown with Louise Gannon (Quadrille, £17.99) is published on November 27