Mel B: 'I went from living the high life to shopping at Aldi after leaving my ex-husband'

Melanie Brown – also known as Scary Spice – filed for divorce from Hollywood movie producer Stephen Belafonte in March 2017, following allegations of abuse he has repeatedly denied.

In an interview with The Sun, the Leeds spice girl said returning to British soil in 2019 after 15 years in the US was difficult.

“People will assume, ‘She’s rich, she’s a Spice Girl’, but I went from performing to thousands at Wembley on the Spice Girls’ 13-date Reunion Tour in 2019 to squeezing into my mum’s with my kids sleeping in bed with me,” Mel said.

She said all she had to her name was £700 in the bank when she walked out on her ex, who she alleged had also committed financial abuse against her.

Brown told the paper: “I had always taken care of my own money, but over time I didn’t worry about money because in my eyes he was taking care of it.

“But afterwards I realised, ‘Oh my God, I am going to have to start from scratch. Ground Zero’.

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“Luckily, I have always been a hard worker. I thoroughly enjoy my job and have thrown myself into it.”

She told The Sun she would shop at Aldi and Lidl to meet her budget, which she credits as the first step to taking back control of her own life.

The singer, who campaigns for domestic abuse groups, dedicated her MBE for services to charitable causes and vulnerable women in 2022 to “all the other women” who are dealing with domestic violence.

She previously told the Yorkshire Evening Post that receiving the award felt "incredible, surprising, humbling and emotional".

"This award is for Melanie Brown, the working class girl from Leeds, not the Spice Girl," she said.

"It's for who I am, what I’ve been through and the work I do that means so much to me.

"I also feel that this recognition throws a light on all survivors and highlights an issue which needs to be talked about. It has been shrouded in silence, secrecy and shame for way too long."

Brown revealed that she still struggles with anxiety, telling The Sun “I’m a work in progress. But look how far I’ve come.”

She added that her now-fiancé, 36-year-old hairdresser Rory McPhee from Leeds, continues to help in her ongoing healing.

“He is a family friend and I have known him for a long time, so there was a foundation of trust and respect,” she said.

According to Refuge, the largest domestic abuse organisation in the UK, one in four women will experience domestic abuse in her lifetime.

They said, on average, police in the UK receive calls for help every 30 seconds relating to domestic abuse."