Mel B Has Nightmares About Ex-Husband’s Abuse: “I dreamt he cut my finger off!”
Mel B Has Nightmares About Ex-Husband’s Abuse: “I dreamt he cut my finger off!”
Melanie “Mel B” Brown‘s journey to healing after years of alleged abuse at the hands of her ex-husband, Stephen Belafonte, is an ongoing one. Before their divorce in 2016, the Spice Girl says that their ten-year marriage was full of both physical and emotional abuse.
Unfortunately, she is still haunted by memories and terrifying nightmares about Stephen – triggered by a PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) diagnosis. In the most prominent nightmare, Stephen cuts her finger off. The 44-year-old singer told The Sun:
“I came running down the stairs because I thought my ex had cut my finger off, I thought it had actually happened because he was threatening to do that. I was convinced my finger was gone and my mum had to reassure me it was still there.”
Mel B continued:
“I have to remind myself that I’m living in the present and that the flashback is my brain playing tricks on me.”
She once revealed that she contemplated committing suicide days before hosting the 2014 “X-Factor” finale:
“There is a statistic that every week three women take their own lives to flee that kind of relationship. That’s exactly what I did in 2014. Luckily, I was one of the lucky ones and I did come through the other side and I am here to tell my own story. It’s important to get the therapy, be nice to yourself…I am building myself and healing myself. I have a lot of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy for my PTSD and anxiety. It’s just a working journey that I am going to be always working on.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1 (800) 787-3224 or visit thehotline.org.
Written by Miata Shanay