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Home · Celebrity

Court Denies Mel B's Request to Recover Alleged Sex Tapes From Estranged Husband Stephen Belafonte

Mel B Divorce: Request to Recover Alleged Sex Tapes From Ex Denied
Court Denies Mel B’s Request to Recover Alleged Sex Tapes From Estranged Husband Stephen Belafonte
Albert L. Ortega
By Daniel Goldblatt · Updated October 26, 2020

This story originally appeared on People.

Melanie “Mel B” Brown‘s attempt to regain possession of alleged sex tapes in possession of her estranged husband Stephen Belafonte was shot down in court on Friday.

The former Spice Girls star, 41, was seeking a court order demanding Belafonte, 41, turn over any “electronic media in his possession” that depicted Brown “in either a sexual situation and/or other compromising situation.”

The judge denied Brown’s request, but the temporary restraining order she was granted against Belafonte earlier this week prevents him from disseminating the videos in any way.

Brown maintains that Belafonte has the tapes — along with other personal items of hers, including Spice Girls memorabilia and photos of her recently deceased father — in a storage facility that she claims is under the name of Lorraine Gilles, the couple’s former nanny. Brown earlier claimed Belafonte impregnated the nanny during their marriage and Gilles later had an abortion.

Brown’s efforts to gain access to the alleged storage facility was also denied.

A court hearing on the original temporary restraining order is scheduled for April 24.

Belafonte has been ordered by authorities to leave the family’s Los Angeles home and to stay away from Brown and her three daughters: Phoenix, 18, Angel, 10, and 5-year-old Madison.

In documents related to the order, Brown details the years of their troubled relationship, with the first alleged incident occurring five months into their marriage.

Brown claimed that before a TV appearance following her Dancing with the Stars finale in November 2007, Belafonte choked and slammed her against the floor while she got ready at home. She said he would abuse her whenever she saw career success in any way, noting that “when something good would happen for me, he would beat me down to let me know that he was in charge.”

In July 2012, Belafonte allegedly accused Brown of flirting with R&B singer Usher while she taped X Factor. Brown claimed Belafonte “flew into a rage,” punching her in the face and splitting her lip.

To cover up the injury when she returned to set, Brown says she told people who questioned her that she’d had an allergic reaction to shellfish. The crew then had a doctor give her an unnecessary steroid injection intended to treat an allergic reaction.

The couple’s marriage came under fire in late 2014 after the star was hospitalized for two days, then appeared three days later on the finale of the U.K. version of The X Factor with what appeared to be bruises.

X Factor producer Simon Cowell attempted to procure legal and financial advice for Brown at the time, a source tells PEOPLE.

Brown tried to leave Belafonte several times, she said in the documents. But he allegedly threatened to destroy her career by releasing sex tapes and take her children.

“I have lived the past decade in fear that [Belafonte] would release intimate videos of me that would embarrass me and damage my reputation and my career,” she claims in the filing. “Once [he] made the threat of releasing videos, it became impossible to say no to him, giving him complete control.”

In divorce papers filed on March 20, Brown listed their date of separation as Dec. 28.

TOPICS:  Mel B
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