Stephen Belafonte today breaks his silence over the bitter divorce with Spice Girl Mel B, tears down ‘utterly false’ accusations of domestic violence and challenges the truth behind her damning book Brutally Honest.
Branding the America’s Got Talent judge a ‘narcissistic liar,’ he claims she systematically tried to ‘annihilate’ every aspect of his character with a catalog of ‘horrific’ lies.
Belafonte insists Mel and her legal team ‘concocted’ a cynical plan to drag his name through the mud in a bid to gain a ‘tactical advantage’ in the divorce proceedings, despite having ‘zero proof.’
And he says he has been left heartbroken after losing the right to see his step-daughter Angel, 11, who he helped raise from birth, while also being upset that all his children can now read about his and Mel’s ‘dirty’ and ‘messy’ divorce because of his former wife’s actions.
Speaking exclusively to DailyMailTV in Beverly Hills, Belafonte, 43, said: ‘It was dirty. Melanie came out of the gate with such horrific tall tales – it’s probably the worst divorce that’s ever played out in the media, it was very messy.
His side of the story: Stephen Belafonte has broken his silence over his very public and ‘dirty’ divorce from Mel B, in an exclusive interview with DailyMailTV
Happier times: Belafonte and Mel B, who were married for ten years before splitting last year, have endured a messy divorce involving claims of domestic abuse, cheating, threesomes, and a bitter custody battle (pictured in 2012)
‘She said horrifically bizarre things – that I beat her, I ran a pornography company, I was a sex trafficker, I beat our dog, random things to garner some attention.
‘I could not stop what Melanie started. She made these allegations to get a tactical advantage. She wanted everything, all the money and full custody of Madison.
‘She knows when she goes out and makes these allegations, they’re going to go everywhere, she did it purposefully. She did it to try to bash me so I would have to take her deal.
‘But she doesn’t understand one thing about me – I could lose it all, but I’m never gonna lose my daughter. When she took her away I just had to work harder to get her back.’
Defiant Belafonte, dressed casually in ripped jeans and a white dress shirt, decided to speak out as Mel’s new book Brutally Honest hit the shelves Tuesday.
The main theme of the explosive memoir is the star’s roller coaster ten-year marriage with her ex.
Mel, 43, accuses Belafonte of years of emotional and physical abuse, driving her to the brink.
But Belafonte calls out the book as all ‘lies’ and challenges his ex to produce a single bit of evidence to prove he was violent or abusive.
He doubles down on the challenge by vowing to give his ex wife his share of their $7million marital home – IF she can produce a shred of evidence.
He references the night of December 14, 2014, days before Mel appeared at the UK X Factor grand final with what appeared to be marks or bruises on her body.
He explained: ‘She has said I put her in the hospital and I beat her so bad that she was in there for six or seven days. That’s an open and shut case. You show the hospital records, the judge says wow and then I am the scumbag that she says I am because she has the proof.
‘But what she did was very tricky. She made all these allegations and then she won’t show the hospital records.’
Belafonte has slammed the ‘utterly false’ accusations of domestic violence and challenges the truth behind Mel’s new book Brutally Honest, due in stores Tuesday, November 27. Above she is pictured wearing a silver glittering ‘I Am Not Sorry I Am Not For Sale’ dress during her book launch in London
The 43-year-old claims his ex-wife ‘manufactured’ a whole life of abuse for 10 years with ‘no proof’ in order gain ‘tactical advantage’ in their divorce. Above she is pictured with a bandage on her face, which she initially claimed was for a scrape she suffered from a fall
Mel tweeted a photo of her injury in 2012 , but later alleged in 2017 that her scrape was from Belafonte punching her with a closed fist and pushing her down on the carpet
Belafonte said Mel’s legal team fended off several exhaustive requests from his lawyers to see the records, citing HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) laws.
‘The judge can’t even compel her to do it,’ he said. ‘So what she does is makes the allegations and then pulls back.
‘But I stand behind it 100 million percent. I would give my interest in the house to be sold 100 percent to Melanie – show the hospital records.’
He added firmly: ‘She can’t show them because Melanie went into the hospital that day (Dec 14, 2014) for a drug overdose.
‘Melanie has covered up her drug addiction time and time again and throwing me under the bus is kind of the way that she’s done it.’
In Brutally Honest, Mel admits to being hospitalized after overdosing on 200 aspirins in a failed suicide bid on that 2014 date.
She also admitted to abusing alcohol and cocaine, drinking heavily and snorting six or seven lines of the white powder before her X Factor appearances.
Belafonte reveals he is already planning to sue for defamation
Belafonte adds that in the book, while Mel regularly alludes to violence, she does not include details of several beatings she alleged she received from her ex in court papers during their bitter divorce last year.
In court documents filed in a bid to win a temporary domestic violence restraining order against Belafonte, Mel branded her ex a ‘monster’ and told a horrific story of abuse.
She claimed he tried to choke her and threw her to the ground during one rage in November, 2007, the night of her ‘Dancing with the Stars’ finale, she alleged Belafonte ‘punched her and split her lip’ after becoming jealous while she filmed a segment with Usher for the X Factor back in 2012 and in August the same year, the day after performing at the closing ceremonies for the London Olympics, she alleged Belafonte punched her with a closed fist and pushed her down on the carpet.
Her skin was burned and her face ‘actually scabbed over the rug burns,’ she claimed.
Yet despite this apparent ‘pattern’ of violence not a single one of these allegations is included in the memoir.
Belafonte says the former couple do NOT have a non-disclosure agreement -meaning there’s nothing to stop Mel from telling all.
Regardless, he is already planning to sue the singer for defamation of character over many of the false claims he says she’s made in the book.
‘She claimed some horrific, horrific things.’
So, he says, his question to Melanie is, why didn’t she include what was in her initial deposition now.
‘I don’t know why she’s not telling the world of all the things that she filed (in her deposition). That is very confusing.’
The businessman and movie producer says the past two years have been extremely stressful.
And while he admits he feels vindicated by the courts, he is still upset he wasn’t able to show the mountain of evidence he had compiled proving Mel was lying about him.
He claims to have submitted more than 3,000 exhibits of evidence to the court including text messages, emails, audio recordings and videos.
‘I’m not interested in my version against her version,’ he explained. ‘I’m just interested in the facts presented in court, that Melanie buried.
The producer said he’s been left heartbroken after losing the right to see his step-daughter Angel (right) 11, who he helped raise from birth. He fought in vain to get court-ordered step-parent visitation rights
Belafonte, pictured with step-daughter and daughter, has not seen Angel who he says he raised from birth ‘until she was ripped from me with no explanation’
Belafonte took to Instagram earlier this year doting on his step-daughter Angel of who he has since lost custody
‘She’s manufactured this whole life of abuse for 10 years with no proof, zero proof.
‘We submitted thousands of emails and text messages that contradicted everything that Melanie said, but the whole world never got to see that.’
The warring couple settled the case out of court.
Nevertheless, Belafonte claims Mel changed her story repeatedly during the court case, and the domestic violence restraining order was dismissed the day before the trial after they came to a private settlement.
According to Belafonte, she gagged their former nanny Lorraine Gilles by paying her off.
Mel had been forced to admit she had had a five-year lesbian affair with German-born Gilles despite initially telling the court it was her husband who had the affair and the pair plotted against her.
Belafonte claims Mel paid Lorraine off and settled our case a day before the trial to bury all the evidence in the deposition, ‘so the world didn’t get to know the real Melanie Brown.’
You’re not going to scare me into a bunch of lies. There was no truth. If there was any truth to it, maybe she would have had a point, but it was 100% fabricated to gain a tactical advantage.
Belafonte admits that he was in love with Mel at the beginning of their relationship having met in 2007 and says they were best friends.
‘We very much were in love, we had a lot of amazing times and for some reason, you know, she came out with all of these false allegations,’ he said.
‘After 10 years of our marriage, when we decided to get divorced, it was a mutual decision.
‘Her drinking and cocaine use were out of control and I couldn’t take it anymore.
‘But we were still texting each other, we still saw each other, I was seeing the kids.’
But unbeknownst to Belafonte, Mel had other plans.
She secretly hired high-powered divorce attorneys Larry Bakman and Susan Wiesner and he claims she ‘concocted’ an elaborate game plan to ‘annihilate’ him.
He claims Mel called the ATF – Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Explosives – and alleged Belafonte was hiding guns in their home.
Speaking from Beverly Hills on day of the release of Mel’s new book, Belafonte described the split as ‘probably the worst divorce that’s ever played out in the media’
‘Melanie showed up to my house with ATF, saying that I had guns, they raided my house, they didn’t find anything,’ Belafonte recalls.
‘My ex said she was scared that I had the guns hiding somewhere else.
‘So she was able to get an immediate move out (notice) on me.’
ATF agents raided the couple’s Hollywood Hills house on March 31 looking for firearms and on April 3, Mel secured a temporary restraining order and move out order against her ex, which required that Belafonte steer clear of her, her three children and their house. The restraining order was never made permanent.
Belafonte said his world suddenly crumbled around him.
He was homeless, wasn’t able to see his daughters and video of federal agents swarming around him looking for his guns flashed around the world.
Things would only get worse.
‘I couldn’t see my daughter for eight months, my ex said that I was going to take a knife and physically stab her. I lost a lot of friendships, I lost a lot of business,’ he recalls.
Belafonte said he was ‘dumbfounded’ by his wife’s actions.
He said they had spoken to each other amicably at length about how they would split things up and share custody of the kids.
‘All of our text messages and emails leading up to our separation were normal…it didn’t make any sense,’ he said.
‘Our whole game plan was to have a very smooth transition, where we lived semi-close to each other and the kids would still come over and everything was normal.
‘We agreed that we would have our lawyers talk to each other about money, we didn’t argue about any of it. It’s crazy, it doesn’t even make sense why she did this.’
Then it dawned on him.
Belafonte claims Mel paid nanny Lorraine Gilles (center) off and settled the case a day before the trial to bury all the evidence in the deposition, ‘so the world didn’t get to know the real Melanie Brown’
The messy proceedings forced Mel to admit she had had a five-year lesbian affair with German-born Gilles despite initially telling the court it was her husband who had the affair and the pair plotted against her
‘Melanie and her lawyers contacted me and my lawyers and said, “listen, if you give up any financial rights and you give up any rights in Madison we’ll dismiss all of the allegations,”‘ he claims.
‘Remember, I never had a charge, I had allegations… she was going to dismiss all the allegations if I gave up my daughter and money.
‘And that’s never going to happen. You know, I’m a father who would take ten bullets for my daughter.
‘You’re not going to scare me into a bunch of lies. There was no truth. If there was any truth to it, maybe she would have had a point, but it was 100% fabricated to gain a tactical advantage.’
Belafonte’s attorney Grace Jamra, of Beverly Hills family law firm Jamra & Jamra, told DailyMailTV that Mel set out to ‘destroy’ her client but Belafonte stood firm.
She said: ‘The reality was that she tarnished his name, besmirched him, a man who stood by the principle of fighting for his child, ensuring her safety and of compromising what he otherwise would have been legally entitled to receive in funds. Stephen conceded a lot financially, not because he was guilty, but because he was sick of this and wanted it over.
‘And so what she wanted to do was destroy him, for whatever reason, using her celebrity status. But the most important thing is that he could not be bought to get rid of his child and he could not be bought to cop to something he didn’t do.’
You’d take a bullet for your child any day of the week, but Melanie keeps firing bullets and at the very end my daughters are going to read all of the negative things she’s saying. So I had to. I was forced to come forward to talk to tell people what really happened
Belafonte admits the former couple did occasionally have blazing rows during which they called each other names, but said: ‘It wasn’t a one sided thing that she’s made the world think, that she was just at home shuttered in the house and that I was this big bad wolf.’
He now realizes that he should have known Mel was capable of such a vicious attack.
‘When she was with her first husband, (Jimmy Gulzar) she annihilated him afterwards and took complete control of Phoenix, when she was with Eddie Murphy, she got rid of Eddie Murphy and got complete custody of Angel.
‘I didn’t even rationalize it in our relationship that that could ever happen to me.
‘And when we ended up separating, that’s just what she wanted to do.
‘She was going to bash me, make me give up all my parental rights and I’m not going to do that.’
Belafonte is pragmatic about the future, however.
He was awarded half of the couple’s money by a judge and says he been able to see daughter Madison most of the time.
‘I don’t want to go tell people I’m a good guy or I’m a bad guy. I can tell you want I’m not. I’m not abusive, I’m not controlling.’
The feuding exes have been in and out of court since they first split back in March 2017. Belafonte revealed his disappointment that all his children can now read about his and Mel’s ‘dirty’ and ‘messy’ divorce because of his former wife’s actions
Belafonte has biological daughter Madison (center) seven, with Mel but he also raised Mel’s daughter with Eddie Murphy, Angel, 11, from birth. He also has another daughter Gisele from a previous relationship
But constant attacks in the media at the hands of his ex-wife have been tough, he says: ‘I’m a grown man, I don’t care what people say about me.’
He does care, however, how his children are affected.
Belafonte has biological daughter Madison, seven, with Mel but he also raised Mel’s daughter with Eddie Murphy, Angel, 11, from birth. He also has another daughter Gisele from a previous relationship.
‘I lost my stepdaughter, who I love more than anything, that I had from a brand new baby up until she was ripped from me with no explanation.
‘The last text message I ever got from her was, “Daddy, where are you? Why won’t you call me back?
‘And I was never allowed to talk to her.’
Belafonte hasn’t seen Angel since, despite fighting in vain to get court-ordered step-parent visitation rights.
In the first eight months after the split he was also restricted to seeing Madison twice a week on supervised visits.
‘I had to sit in a room with a person that was staring at me because he was told maybe I would pull a knife out and stab my daughter,’ he said.
‘How would Melanie allow young, amazing women, as this Girl Power person, to be subjected to such craziness. It doesn’t make any sense.’
But he now spends a lot of time with Madison and is looking forward to the future.
‘I’m going to continue to be an amazing father to my daughter, I look forward to the day I can walk up to Angel and show her how hard her step-daddy fought for her.
‘I am just going to go on with my life, work hard and try to forget all the negativity Melanie has created and I’m gonna fight really hard in court to have the truth come out.’
He did feel it was time to defend himself, though.
‘You’d take a bullet for your child any day of the week, but Melanie keeps firing bullets and at the very end my daughters are going to read all of the negative things she’s saying. So I had to. I was forced to come forward to talk to tell people what really happened.’
DailyMail.com has reached out to Mel B’s reps for comment.
Despite their divorce being final in December 2017, trying to settle complicated issues between them mostly over children and money, dragged on for another nine months and the warring couple didn’t settle until August this year.
Earlier this month they finally reached an agreement that brought to an end their vicious battle over money and custody of Madison.
The warring couple have been ordered to stay 200 yards away from each other.
And Mel must cough up $350,000 for Belafonte’s legal fees and pay him an additional $5,000 a month in child support for Madison.
Mel is also being sued for defamation by her former nanny Lorraine Gilles after branding her in court papers a ‘prostitute’ and ‘home-wrecker’.
The singer has lost multiple appeals and the case is expected to go ahead with the first hearing on December 4.
In Brutally Honest the former Spice Girl details how she was drinking heavily and snorting lines of cocaine in between X Factor shoots to deal with depression.
In the eye-popping book Mel also opens up about her love of sex and threesomes, her controversial relationship with Eddie Murphy, her sadness over her father’s death and her fractious relationship with the Spice Girls.