Mel was forced to submit drug and alcohol tests for weeks after former friend and 'manny' made a damning declaration claiming she was an unfit mum. Photo / Getty Images
Mel was forced to submit drug and alcohol tests for weeks after former friend and 'manny' made a damning declaration claiming she was an unfit mum. Photo / Getty Images
Mel B has claimed she was left with less than £800 (NZ$1493) in the bank after her ex-husband Stephen Belafonte took control of her £80 million (NZ$149m) fortune.
The Spice Girl, who has accused Belafonte of abusing her, said her luxury properties and collections of art and furniture were reducedto a paltry bank account and "suitcases full of clothes" after the end of her marriage, reports Daily Mail.
It comes as the 43-year-old finally reached an agreement in a California court with Belafonte over the custody of their seven-year-old daughter, Madison.
But the former couple have been ordered to stay 200 yards away from each other and Mel B will have to pay her ex-partner $5000 a month in child support.
The singer has made her latest claims in a new autobiography called Brutally Honest, according to The Sun.
She said: "In the past 20-something years of my life, I have made more than £80million.
"When I met my second husband [Belafonte], I had a house and a loft apartment in LA and a good career. When I left him I walked away with $936 in a bank."
Describing his alleged controlling abuse, she said: "I became a woman who didn't have her own computer, didn't drive herself, didn't know her bank details, didn't make decisions."
She said she hoped her book would "expose" her ex-partner for any other women he took an interest in.
Mel B and Belafonte, who have been at each other's throats since their divorce became final almost a year ago, have been ordered to stay 200 yards away from each other.
The former Spice Girl will still have to cough up $350,000 for Belafonte's legal fees and pay him an additional $5000 a month in child support for Madison.
The conclusion of their long-running dispute came this week when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark Juhas issued a 45-page judgment reaffirming that they keep joint custody of Madison - but included a string of strict stipulations.
Under "Personal Conduct Orders", the judge decreed that neither Mel - real name Melanie Brown - or Belafonte "shall harass, attack, strike, threaten, assault (sexually or otherwise), hit, follow, stalk, molest destroy property, disturb the peace, keep under surveillance (on the Internet, electronically or otherwise) or block the movements of the other party."
Judge Juhas also ordered that Mel must stay 200 yards away from Belafonte, also 43, and his daughter Giselle from a previous relationship, while Belafonte has to keep 200 yards away from Mel and her daughter by comic Eddie Murphy, Angel, 11 - whom Belafonte tried unsuccessfully to get court-ordered step-parent visitation with.
The judgment splits up property that remained in dispute. Belafonte gets the 2015 Cadillac Escalade; Brown gets the two 2017 Subaru Outbacks and the two Range Rovers. They split the gym equipment from their former marital home, while Mel alone gets the studio equipment from the house.
America's Got Talent star Mel also gets a Spice Girls video game console that's particularly precious to her - but she has to pay Belafonte $2500 for it.
The final judgment allowing Mel to keep joint custody of Madison with her ex, was issued after Mel submitted records to the court showing that she had undergone - and passed - several weeks of drug and alcohol testing.
Judge Juhas mandated the tests after Brown's former friend and "manny" Rusty Updegraff made a damning declaration claiming she was unfit to look after Madison or her sister Angel because her drinking was out of control, she used drugs and often brought home random men to satisfy her ferocious appetite for sex.
Mel was forced to submit drug and alcohol tests for weeks after former friend and 'manny' made a damning declaration claiming she was an unfit mum. Photo / Getty Images
Updegraff, 59 - who told DailyMail.com that Mel is "the world's number one bad mother" - claimed she slept with dozens of men since divorcing Belafonte, including her children's piano teacher, a driver, a hairdresser, a "surfer kid" and a guy she picked up at SoHo House, who the kids nicknamed "smelly feet".
He also accused Mel of sometimes leaving her children unsupervised with some of the men she brought home for sex.
Mel - who claim she's been undergoing therapy for problems with alcohol and post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by her messy divorce from Belafonte - denied Updegraff's claims, calling them "nonsense".
Belafonte and Mel - who split up in March 2017 - were divorced last December after a long-running battle in which lurid tales of kinky sex, drug and alcohol abuse and allegations of domestic violence made headlines.
Belafonte always denied the allegations and the courts sided with him throwing out a temporary domestic violence restraining order.
Despite their divorce being final for almost a year, trying to settle complicated issues between them, mostly over children and money dragged on through this summer, with Mel estimating that she's spent more than $1 million in legal fees and owes another $800,000 to attorneys and accountants.
Mel - who also has to pay Belafonte $15,000 a month in spousal support until 2020 - claims the long-drawn-out split with him has ruined her financially, she's more than $3 million in the red and the IRS has started garnishing her America's Got Talent salary to pay off hundreds of thousand of dollars in back taxes she owes.
The couple were also ordered to set aside $1.1 million - $550,000 each - when they sell their $8 million former marital home, to pay back taxes they owe.
