By Jessica Wedemeyer
12:38pm PDT, May 3, 2017
Melanie Brown has been an international star for more than two decades, but that doesn't mean life has always been easy for the former Spice Girl — especially not when it comes to love. Wonderwall.com is taking a look back at the timeline of Mel B's relationships. Keep reading to relive the most dramatic moments…
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When the Spice Girls first arrived on the scene with their 1996 album "Spice," Mel B was involved with Icelandic former boxer Fjolnir Thorgeirsson. The duo got engaged in early 1998 after three years as a couple, but it wasn't meant to be: They called it quits not long after he popped the question.
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Just weeks after Mel B and Fjolnir Thorgeirsson parted ways, the Spice Girl moved on with dancer Jimmy Gulzar, who performed with the Spice Girls on their 1998 Spiceworld tour. They met in February 1998 and by that April, the singer had publicly confirmed they were a couple. "He's a good one, really lovely," she reportedly said during a press conference. The following month, he proposed during dinner at the Buddha Bar in Paris. By that time, Mel was already pregnant with their first child.
Mel B wed Jimmy Gulzar on Sept. 13, 1998 — and briefly changed her name to Melanie G. Their daughter, Phoenix Chi, was born five months later, in February 1999. But baby didn't make three for long: Mel and Jimmy separated in January 2000 and officially divorced just five months later. According to People magazine, she accused him of "neglecting her in bed," and he accused her of having her breasts augmented against his wishes, which prevented her from breastfeeding their baby girl. ("I was too angry with Mel to even contemplate making love with her," the Dutch dancer told The Sun.) After a contentious custody battle, Mel won primary custody of their daughter, while Jimmy reportedly scored a major payday as part of their divorce settlement. But that wasn't the end of the drama: In August 2000, the dancer was arrested for assaulting Mel's sister, Danielle, when she attempted to pick up an 18-month-old Phoenix for the singer following a visitation with Jimmy. (Danielle said Jimmy lifted her off the ground by the throat and spat in her face, but he maintained he was simply defending his daughter.) A court found Jimmy guilty of assault but he was later cleared of the charges due to "inconsistencies and improbabilities" with Danielle's evidence.
Mel B moved on with Max Beesley during her breakup from first husband Jimmy Gulzar. They parted ways in early 2002 when the glare of the spotlight on their relationship became too much for the "Glitter" actor. "It made the front pages wherever we went," he told the Daily Mail in 2008. "It wasn't a particularly nice situation to be in and, as far as I could see, it had no benefits and plenty of disadvantages. … It damaged my career 100 percent. I was getting painted with the same celebrity brush as her, and nobody was paying any attention to my work, which was really unfortunate."
From 2002 to 2006, Mel B reportedly romanced filmmaker Christine Crokos. Another woman who claims to have been romantic with the Spice Girl, Christa Parker, alleged to The Sun in 2014 that Mel told her the relationship ended when Christine "got too possessive."
An American mother of two named Christa Parker claims she had an "intense" two-year affair with Mel B from 2005 to 2007. The duo allegedly met through their kids, who were school friends. Christa claims they even involved a third woman, a friend of Christa's named Elizabeth Rodriguez, in their relationship. According to Christa, their romance cooled when the Spice Girl met Eddie Murphy in 2006 and then ended for good in 2007 when she started dating Stephen Belafonte. But a rep for the singer called the allegations "fabrication" and asserted that Mel "has never been in a relationship with Christa."
Mel B first met Eddie Murphy in June 2006. Three months later, they vacationed together with their children. In December 2006, the Spice Girl, who was pregnant with her second child, learned that she and the comedian were no longer a couple when he said during a TV interview, "We're not together anymore… And I don't know whose child that is, until it comes out and has a blood test. You shouldn't jump to conclusions." Around the same time, Eddie stepped out with Tracey Edmonds, who told People magazine she'd been dating the funnyman for a month and a half. But Mel insisted in a statement that "there is absolutely no question that Eddie is the father." On April 3, 2007, she gave birth to a baby girl, Angel Iris. In June 2007, a DNA test confirmed that Eddie was Angel's father.
Mel B first met Stephen Belafonte in early 2007. They secretly tied the knot in Las Vegas on June 6, 2007, after a whirlwind romance of just four months.
Former Playboy centerfold Luann Lee (pictured in 2012) claims she hooked up with Mel B in a bathroom stall during a night of hard partying at a hotel in Los Angeles in 2008, a year after the Spice Girl wed Stephen Belafonte. Luann claims she was relegated to a one-night stand because of Stephen: "He would often answer her phone and ask me what I was doing. I got the impression he wanted to get involved, but there was no way I was having a threesome," she told The Sun. "[Mel] would text me all the time and we did manage to meet up a couple of times, but it was difficult as she was so busy. Also I think Stephen could see that Mel had feelings for me and he felt threatened by it. After a while, I got frustrated with him always answering her phone and that was pretty much the end of it. She was married and wasn't looking for a full-time girlfriend and neither was I."
After eloping in Las Vegas in 2007, Mel B and Stephen Belafonte renewed their wedding vows in front of friends and family in Hurghada, Egypt, in November 2008. "We decided to do it for the kids and we only want it to be a real intimate affair with the 10 closest people in our lives," she told OK! magazine.
Mel B gave birth to daughter Madison, her third child and first with Stephen Belafonte, in September 2011.
There appeared to be trouble in paradise for Mel B and Stephen Belafonte in late 2014 when the Spice Girl was hospitalized with severe stomach pains and then appeared on the finale of the U.K. version of "The X Factor" covered in mysterious bruises. (According to TMZ, back in 2003, Stephen was charged with — and then pleaded no contest to — domestic violence against his first wife, Nicole Contreras.) "I don't usually respond to Twitter msgs but I will respond to comments of hitting my wife which I think are quite disgusting un true," he tweeted as the whispers that he'd abused his missus grew louder. The gossip blew over as he and Mel presented a united front during the holidays that year: "[F]or the record my hubby never would lay a hand on me sorry took so long but any response fuels rumors #lovemyfamily #lovemyfans," the singer wrote on Instagram around Christmas.
Mel B and Stephen Belafonte finally separated in December 2016 after nine years of marriage. She filed for divorce in March 2017, less than a month after she took to Instagram to share a photo of herself pecking him on the cheek, which she captioned, "My baby boo @stephenthinks11 we have been through everything that would normally tear couples apart and we have come out on the other side stronger,you loved me before I even new how to really love myself,you are my world honey and let's not forget you are abit of a d—head too xxxx #tenyearsmarried #fightfortheineyoulove #theysaiditwouldntlast #b——wishtheyhadthis #nowtalkaboutme."
In March 2017, TMZ reported that Mel B and estranged husband Stephen Belfante were undergoing family therapy with their children, but then things took a turn for the worse. On April 1, 2017, federal agents served a search warrant to Stephen to look for firearms he might have illegally had in his possession. (He can't own firearms due to his prior domestic violence charge.)
On April 4, 2017, Mel B requested a restraining order against Stephen Belafonte. Here are some of the most shocking accusations she made about her ex: He frequently physically and emotionally abused her. He extorted her into having group sex with other women. He threatened to release sex tapes in which she appeared. He mismanaged her money. He locked her in a room and blocked her from calling an ambulance when she once took an entire bottle of Aspirin in an attempt to kill herself during a bout of emotional and physical exhaustion. He threatened to destroy her career and take away her children. And he got their children's nanny pregnant and then coerced her into getting an abortion. According to TMZ, members of the Spice Girl's inner circle were aware that her husband had been abusing her for nearly a decade but failed to alert authorities out of fear that he'd retaliate. Stephen has called the accusations lies.
In early April 2017, Mel B claimed that Lorraine Gilles, the former nanny whom Stephen Belafonte allegedly got pregnant, was working with her ex to extort her and was in possession of sex tapes, Spice Girls memorabilia and photos of Mel's recently deceased father that her husband had stolen from her. The singer then obtained a restraining order against her former employee. Not long after, Lorraine sued Mel for defamation for allegedly lying about her in her divorce suit. Per TMZ, the former nanny claims Mel told her that she and Stephen had an open relationship and then seduced her when she was just an 18-year-old foreign exchange student. According to Lorraine, their sexual relationship lasted for seven years. Mel fessed up to her history with Lorraine but maintains that she and Stephen crossed a line when they had sex separately without her — which Lorraine denies. "[A]t no point did Gilles and Belafonte engage in any sexual acts without Brown's knowledge or participation and at no point did Gilles and Belafonte represent to Brown that Gilles was pregnant with Belafonte's child," her defamation lawsuit stated.
