Mel B: ‘Women come up to me in tears in Aldi and open up about domestic abuse’

Spice Girl Mel B said she has gone from having fans shouting “all right Scary” to her in the street to women opening up to her in supermarkets about their experiences of domestic abuse after she has campaigned on the issue for several years.

The singer, also known as Scary Spice, described the difference in how she is now treated by fans at home in Leeds during a panel in recognition of the 50th anniversary of Women’s Aid on this year’s International Women’s Day.

Brown said: “Before, it was like ‘all right Scary’, now I get women coming up to me literally in tears telling me their story when I’m in Aldi or Sainsbury’s.

“Now, it’s more of a conversation.

“It’s not really the conversation that you want to be having but I’m so glad that I’m experiencing that and I can talk about it.”

The pop star filed for divorce from Hollywood movie producer Stephen Belafonte in March 2017, following allegations of abuse he has repeatedly denied.

Brown, who campaigns for domestic abuse groups, received an MBE in 2022 for services to charitable causes and vulnerable women and became a patron of Women’s Aid, the national charity working to end domestic abuse against women and children in 2018.

The singer was speaking on a panel alongside Women’s Aid chief executive Farah Nazeer and Amanda Cupples, general manager at Airbnb for Northern Europe.

Victoria Newton, editor of The Sun, hosted the panel at a members’ club in London, and they discussed the importance of addressing domestic abuse and creating safe spaces for survivors within the workplace.

Brown claimed her ex was banned from the set of America’s Got Talent by Simon Cowell while she was a judge on the show as she “acted nervous” when he was there.

She said: “Work was my safest place that I could ever be because I knew that he couldn’t get to me at work because Simon Cowell banned him from being on set because he realised when my then-husband was around I acted nervous or wouldn’t be my authentic self.”

Brown said HR teams should learn to look out for signs of domestic abuse to help others.

She told the panel she would stay on set for an hour or two after they had finished filming as she “did not want to go home” and if there was someone at work who could have supported her “there and then, I would’ve probably felt like I could’ve talked about it much sooner”.

Speaking of domestic abuse, she said: “It just needs to stop and it’s not going to stop unless we do something about it.”

Brown added she thinks women do not come forward to report abuse out of fear of not being believed.

She added: “I would never have thought to report anything that happened in my 10-year marriage, because number one, I didn’t have any proof because I never went to the doctor, I covered up all my bruises.”

Asked what it means to her to be a patron of Women’s Aid, Brown said: “I still have to pinch myself.”

She added: “Women are the strongest ever form of a human being because we’re resilient but we’re not that resilient if we’re not believed, heard and supported.”

Brown described feeling “so at home” when she visited a refuge with Women’s Aid, and added that she had therapy there.

Ms Nazeer said, as the charity enters into its sixth decade, they want to “create a society where domestic abuse is not tolerated”.

She said: “It’s no longer society’s dirty little secret, it’s something that is spoken about but it is not tolerated, that it is unacceptable and when people see it, they break the barriers of what should be personal and private.”

Ms Nazeer said employers can “raise awareness, change culture, put in place policies and training that normalise the fact that domestic abuse is not tolerable, it can be spoken about and providing mechanisms for people to seek help”.

Simon Cowell and Stephen Belafonte have been approached for comment.