I hope former Scary Spice finds Girl Power to rebuild her life
Belafonte, to quash the merest hint she was suffering domestic abuse at his hands.
But now after leaving her partner of 10 years, Mel has finally had the courage to speak out about the beating and sexual exploitation she claims to have suffered in her application to stop her alleged abuser ever touching her again.
Her allegations about Belafonte are as explosive as they are disturbing with accusations he repeatedly punched her in the face, degraded her in public and forced her into having sex with other women.
Two of her most damning claims made in a Los Angeles court on Monday, as she was granted a restraining order against Belafonte, accuse him of making their nanny pregnant causing Mel to then try to take her own life.
She claims his response after she swallowed a full bottle of aspirin while on the X Factor in 2014 was to lock her in a room, stop her calling 999 for help and telling her to “die b**ch”. All the alleged abuse took place as he spent “millions of dollars” of her money.
Belafonte has denied her claims saying “someone’s set me up to look like a bad guy”.
Domestic violence is tragically as old as the Hollywood Hills that provide the backdrop to Mel’s marital home in Los Angeles. If her allegations are true, the mother-ofthree joins a long line of alleged celebrity victims.
Their abuse, though, is no less worse than that inflicted on thousands of everyday women throughout the world and in the UK but proves even huge riches do not make it any easier for women to leave their abuser.
If we are honest with ourselves, many of us have known someone who either has been a victim or who is a perpetrator.
We’ve seen the bruises, the heavy make-up, maybe even the black eyes. We’ve seen the tears and the scars, heard the screams, the belittling and some have witnessed the violence.
Sometimes a man will inflict
Domestic violence is tragically as old as the Hollywood Hills that provide the backdrop to Mel’s marital home in LA
harm on his wife. Sometimes it is the other way around. Tragically, sometimes children are the subject of the violence.
Often other than the victim, there is no one to actually witness the emotional, verbal, physical or sexual abuse. And contrary to popular myth, these people who inflict it do not suffer, as they frequently claim, from anger management problems. They manage their anger just fine when there are witnesses around.
Victims often feel trapped or helpless leaving, as in Mel’s case, the abused believing it is their word against their attacker’s.
If any good can come out of Mel’s case it is the hope it will give others the courage to seek help and get out. Let’s hope she can now find the Girl Power she once bestowed on so many to rebuild her own life free from fear.