Former Spice Girl Mel B has taken out a restraining order against her estranged husband – claiming he beat her, got their nanny pregnant and forced her to take part in threesomes.
Melanie Brown, 41, reportedly made the extraordinary claims about Stephen Belafonte in court documents submitted to a Los Angeles judge on Monday.
Brown, who claims she and her three children fear for their lives, filed for divorce from the US film producer last month citing "irreconcilable differences". Since marrying in 2007, their relationship has been overshadowed by Belafonte’s chequered past and claims he had assaulted his wife.
According to website TMZ, Miss Brown cites three assaults over the past ten years in court documents.
In November 2007, the singer claims Belafonte choked her with both hands around her neck and slammed her to the floor as she got ready for the final of US reality competition Dancing with the Stars.
Miss Brown said a pattern emerged that, whenever she achieved any success, Belafonte would "beat me down to let me know he was in charge". She claims she was also attacked in July 2012 while recording for The X Factor.
According to Miss Brown, Belafonte flew into a jealous rage when he found out she was due to film a segment with US pop star Usher and punched her in the face, splitting her lip.
She claims Belafonte then warned her not to "flirt with and f*** Usher".
Miss Brown has also accused Belafonte of assaulting her in August 2012 after she performed with the Spice Girls at the London Olympics closing ceremony.
The star said Belafonte punched her and pushed her face on to the carpet so hard she suffered burns that later "scabbed over". He then forced her to post on her Twitter account that she had hurt herself when running in 7in Christian Louboutin heels, she claims.
In her court declaration, Miss Brown also says Belafonte, with whom she has five-year-old daughter Madison, got the family nanny pregnant and initially wanted to keep the baby, insisting ‘all three of us live together’.
He later demanded the nanny have an abortion and paid her $300 000 (about R4.2-million) of Brown’s money for "alleged nanny services", the singer said. Miss Brown, worth about £35-million, claims Belafonte forced her to "participate in sexual intercourse with him and random women" and would often film the encounters.
She says that when she tried to resist he would threaten to release the sex tapes.
It follows claims last weekend that the couple had a threesome with socialite Lady Victoria Hervey shortly after they married.
In her court application, Brown also stated she became so "overcome with emotional and physical exhaustion" in 2014 that she overdosed on aspirin. But when she tried to call emergency services, she claims Belafonte locked her in the bedroom and told her to "die, bitch".
When trying to leave Belafonte in the past, Brown claims he "threatened me with violence and threatened to destroy my life in every possible way… destroy my career and take my kids from me".
She also claimed he had a gun at home, even though he was prohibited from carrying firearms.
As part of the restraining order, Belafonte is banned from contacting Miss Brown and her children and has been ordered to leave the family’s Hollywood home.
He denies all allegations against him and says he has been left "distraught" by Brown’s claims.
Belafonte told TMZ: "Why do this? We were friends two weeks ago. And now all of a sudden the team gets around and now it’s got to be this."
Brown, who is a judge on America’s Got Talent, has two other daughters – nine-year-old Angel, from a relationship with actor Eddie Murphy, and 18-year-old, Phoenix, from her first marriage to dancer Jimmy Gulzar.
Belafonte’s questionable past includes prosecutions for handling stolen goods, vandalism, beating a mallard to death and an assault conviction for hitting his then-girlfriend in 2003.
In 2014 Brown missed an episode of the X Factor after being taken to hospital, then appeared on the show without her wedding ring and with what appeared to be scratches. Belafonte said the accusations he assaulted had her were "disgusting" and "untrue".