‘I would have died’: Mel B reveals how she felt ‘suffocated’ at the thought she could have been with her ex during Covid lockdown and admits she may have taken her own life in pandemic as she speaks at Tory conference event
- Mel B ‘felt ‘suffocated’ at thought she could have been with ex during lockdown
- She tells Tory conference audience she ‘would have died’ in Covid pandemic
- Spice Girl appears at a panel event as a patron of the Women’s Aid charity
Mel B today revealed how she ‘felt suffocated’ at the thought she could have spent the Covid lockdown with her ex-husband and admitted she may have taken her own life.
Speaking at a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, the Spice Girl told an audience how she ‘would have died’ if she had still been with her former spouse during the pandemic.
The 47-year-old pop star is a patron of the Women’s Aid charity, which campaigns on behalf of domestic abuse survivors.
Mel B finalised her divorce from TV producer Stephen Belafonte in 2017 after leaving what she has described as an abusive relationship.
He has strongly denied allegations he subjected the singer to physical and emotional abuse during their 10-year marriage.
Mel B this afternoon appeared at a panel event at the Tory conference, during which she described how a promise to her dying father saw her finally leave her marriage.
She also admitted she had feared how speaking about her experience would ‘ruin my career’.
‘As a Spice Girl, I’m the embodiment of girl power,’ she said. ‘And for 10 years, I was completely powerless over this man and the situation I found myself in.’
Mel B spoke at a fringe event on domestic abuse at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham
The 47-year-old pop star is a patron of the Women’s Aid charity, which campaigns on behalf of domestic abuse survivors
The Spice Girl told an audience how she ‘would have died’ if she had still been with her former spouse during the pandemic
Mel B finalised her divorce from TV producer Stephen Belafonte in 2017 after leaving what she has described as an abusive relationship.
At one point during the Covid lockdown, Women’s Aid had 21,000 women waiting on their helpline.
Sharing her own feelings about the impact of the pandemic on those suffering domestic abuse, Mel B said: ‘I had this horrible feeling during lockdown for women that were in abusive relationships.
‘I literally felt suffocated at the thought, if I was with my ex then, I think I would have died.
‘If it wouldn’t have been from me taking my own life, or from him killing me.
‘Because that was literally lockdown, not just in my every day, but I wouldn’t have even been able to go out to work.’
Mel B revealed how, after leaving her relationship, she had a form of hypnotherapy in order to be able to talk about her experience.
‘For months, when I’d left that relationship, if I door slammed I would just jump out of my skin,’ she added.
Mel B, who has appeared as a judge on a string of TV talent shows in recent years, received an MBE from Prince William earlier this year for her services to charitable causes and vulnerable women.
She has also released a book, titled ‘Brutally Honest’, which details her relationship.
Mel B told the Tory conference audience how a conversation with her dying father gave her ‘the strength’ to leave her marriage.
‘Whilst I was saying to him, “don’t you worry Dad, I will leave him” he took his last breath,’ she said.
‘I thought “damn, that’s a really heavy thing you’ve just put on me now I really do have to leave”.
‘So it took it out of it being about me and doing if for my Dad, and that’s what gave me the strength.’
But the singer – who recounted how she once tried to take her own life – admitted she was ‘fortunate’, adding: ‘I know so many other men and women didn’t make it out alive.
‘You’ve got thousands and thousands of women and men on a daily basis that go back to their abusers because they have children, they can’t survive financially.’
Mel B appeared on the panel with Women’s Aid chief executive Farah Nazeer, as well as safeguarding minister Mims Davies and Maggie Blyth, the first national police lead for violence against women and girls.
She pressured the Government to improve the record of judges and the courts in dealing with domestic abuse cases and the ‘traumatic’ experience survivors have to face in going through the legal system.
‘It’s a boy’s club’, she said of the ‘old-fashioned’ judiciary and the Family Court.
Mel B acknowledged she was ‘the last person you would expect to find at Tory party conference’, adding: ‘I can’t quite believe I’m here myself!’
But she said she wanted to appear as she does not want the ‘massive’ issue of domestic abuse to ‘slip down the political agenda’ during ‘these times of absolute economic chaos’.
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