IMAGE – Mel B and her daughter Phoenix Chi (Image: Wenn)
Mel B’s daughter has claimed Stephen Belafonte called her “ugly and retarded”.
Phoenix Brown – the Spice Girls singer’s 23-year-old child from her marriage to first husband Jimmy Gulzar – has reflected on how her world changed when her mother married the producer in 2007’.
She claims he forced her to stay in her room as much as possible and deprived her of food.
She said;
“I had to stay in my room with the door shut. I wasn’t allowed to go in the fridge but I had 30 minutes to make my packed lunch for school.
“Often in the morning he’d pull it out and eat my sandwiches, laugh at me and tell me to get to school”
“he’d tell me I was ugly and retarded all the time. I had this beautiful Labrador called Lordy who we’d had since I was born. I loved him. He’d laugh at me and tell me I was ugly and retarded
“Stephen picked him up one day and threw him across the garden into the pool – Lordy was old, he was terrified. I couldn’t speak. A few weeks later I came back from school and Stephen told me he’d had him put down.”
“I tried to look after my mom too, but I was a kid. It was a big secret. We were meant to be a happy family.
“You carry on and shut down your emotions. That’s how you deal with it.”
Mel split from Stephen in 2017- She cited “irreconcilable differences”.
Mel B has previously talked about Belafonte’s controlling behavior
She said: ‘It starts with tiny things. ‘Oh, don’t wear that dress – I’ve bought you this dress.’ ‘It wasn’t like: ‘Put this dress on!’ It was: ‘Look what I’ve bought for you! I saw you looking at it on Net-a-Porter.’
“And you think: ‘Oh my God, that’s so sweet!’ when actually they’re starting to take over everything.”