Psychiatrist flies in after Mel B’s hospital drama
MEL B’s favourite US psychiatrist flew into London after a mystery illness forced the X Factor judge to pull out of the first half of the show’s grand final last month, I can reveal.
Prominent Los Angeles practitioner Charles Sophy – who Mel has previously praised for being ‘there for me’ – arrived just before Christmas, a week after Mel was treated in a private hospital, a source tells me. And, with remarkable coincidence, he checked into the same London hotel where Mel was later ensconced after her unexplained hospitalisation. Within a few days, she felt well enough to fly to LA for Christmas.
Mel B has never provided any reason for her absence from the X Factor and told her fans only that she was ‘very polly’ [sic].
Speculation was rife that domestic violence was behind her X Factor pull-out, and her film producer husband Stephen Belafonte, 39, was forced to deny that he had hit her. Dr Charles Sophy, who is championed by Sharon Stone and has treated Paris Hilton, was filmed giving Mel therapy sessions on her US reality TV show, It’s A Scary World.
She subsequently praised him in an interview, saying: ‘I could email him or call him right now, and he’d been on the phone in five minutes... If I’m having a difficult time, no matter where he is in the world, no matter where I am, he’s there for me.’
After Dr Sophy’s visit, Mel flew to LA to spend Christmas with Belafonte and their daughter Madison, three, her seven-yearold girl Angel Iris – whose father is Hollywood star Eddie Murphy – and Phoenix Chi, 15, her daughter by dancer Jimmy Gulzar.
Mel B has had a hectic workload over the past two years and a number of setbacks.
In 2013 she had to withdraw from judging the Australian X Factor due to visa problems and was forced to pull out of another show, Australia’s Got Talent, after a legal wrangle.
Later that year, she flew between LA and London to be a judge on the TV dance show Stepping Out while working on America’s Got Talent. She then won the job as a judge on the UK X Factor and moved back to London.