Mel B husband’s ex-love: I’ll do anything to help her bring him down
A FURIOUS Mel B has teamed up with her estranged husband’s ex-girlfriend with a pledge to ‘take him down’ and protect the former Spice Girl’s £50million fortune, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The pact was agreed after Mel B, 41, made a flurry of ‘tearful and emotional’ phone calls to Nicole Contreras. They both claim that Hollywood producer and director Stephen Belafonte subjected them to a ruthless campaign of emotional and physical abuse.
Ms Contreras, 40, a former model, has a 13-year-old daughter with Belafonte as a result of their six-year relationship, which ended just months before Mel B met him in February 2007. ‘I will do anything I can to help Mel in her fight,’ she said. ‘I know better than anyone what she has gone through because I lived with him for six years and he abused me too. We both went through hell with that man.’
Ms Contreras, now an estate agent in LA, claims she is still ‘terrified’ of Belafonte, 41, who was accused of beating her up in 2003, but vowed: ‘Mel called me asking for help. She was emotional and tearful. We have spoken multiple times this week. I will do whatever it takes to help her.’
A source told this newspaper that Mel B had hired forensic accountants to go through her financial records for the past decade.
‘It’s all about money now,’ the source said. ‘Stephen took control of the finances and Mel believes he siphoned off millions. Mel knows Nicole will be a powerful ally to have in what will undoubtedly be a vicious and nasty fight ahead. Nicole suffered abuse at this man’s hands and she and Mel have vowed to take him down and make sure no other woman is hurt.’
The former Scary Spice revealed horrific allegations of her decade-long marriage in explosive court documents filed in LA last Monday. She won a restraining order against her husband, with whom she has a five-year-old daughter.
The Leeds-born star claimed Belafonte assaulted her at least three times during their marriage. She said he flew into a rage when she was due to film a segment for The X Factor with singer Usher in July 2012, allegedly punching her in the face and splitting her lip while warning her ‘not to flirt and f*** Usher’.
Belafonte allegedly made the family nanny pregnant and forced Mel B to ‘participate in sex with him and random women and would film the encounters’. He then allegedly blackmailed her with the tapes and threatened to ‘destroy’ her career. Belafonte has vehemently denied all claims against him and filed his own court papers in LA seeking alimony. He has also moved out of the couple’s £7 million family home in Hollywood. In a statement, he said he was ‘shocked’ by the abuse allegations, which he called ‘outrageous and unfounded’.
In May 2003, police arrested Belafonte at the Beverly Hills apartment he and Ms Contreras shared after she claimed he had assaulted her. Belafonte pleaded no contest to assault charges and was ordered to do community service and take anger-management courses.
Last night, his lawyers said: ‘He is confident the truth will come out when he has his day in court.’