Diva Spice
Branching out when you’ve been part of the biggest-selling girlband in pop
history isn’t easy, but, in a post-Spice-Girls age, Mel B has done a pretty
nifty job of reinventing herself.
Relocating to Australia after bagging a plum gig judging their version of The
X Factor and, more recently, being named as host of Down Under’s Dancing
With The Stars, the loudmouth Leeds girl formerly known as Scary Spice has
taken telly by storm.
Now married to American Stephen Belafonte, 37, and with a clutch of kids –
Phoenix Chi, 13, Angel, four, and six-month-old Madison – she’s shed her
latest load of baby weight, looks toned, taut and is living what at first
glance seems a very charmed life indeed.
But it is impossible to ignore that she’s also in the midst of a very public
and bitter wider family fallout. Her heartbroken mum Andrea, 56, claims
she’s been frozen out for the last three-and-a-half years after she raised
concerns about Stephen’s relationship with Phoenix, Mel’s daughter by first
husband Jimmy Gulzar, 44.
Little sister Danielle, 31, and dad Martin have told similar stories. Danielle
has attempted to make contact via Twitter, pleading with Mel for a meeting
(minus Stephen). Her stream of pained messages have so far been ignored.
So in her first interview since the drama, we were hoping that 36-year-old Mel
would shed some light on what’s become a desperately sad, sorry mess.
Mel insists she’s fine. That the kids are fine. That Stephen is fine.
It’s a gutsy reaction, which is typical of Mel, who’s always been a feisty
little devil – it’s what we loved about her – but boy has she taken that
ballsiness to new levels of divadom.
It’s the day of our photo shoot and Mel’s first words when she finally
graces us with her presence, four-and-a-half hours after originally planned,
are: “You’d better make this quick, because I’m bouncing. As in bouncing
right back out of here.”
Lovely to see you too, Melanie.
When we eventually get to sit down with her one-to-one two days later to delve
a little deeper into the hostilities, she uses the opportunity to launch a
passionate defence of Stephen.
“I think it’s terrible,” she says of the public feud.
“I love my family – simple as that – but my own family come first,
completely. Stephen comes first with my kids, completely. People are always
going to judge what they don’t understand or know about, and I think you
[her family] are obviously very unhappy and I feel sorry for you.
“Stephen is a great husband and a great father. I’ve always been very
self-sufficient – in high times and low times. The difference is that I am
reliant on Stephen and he’s reliant on me and I’ve never been like that
before. I trust him 100 per cent with my life.”
So is happiness the best form of revenge? “To me, the best form of
revenge is looking f*****g hot.”
Which she absolutely does. She’s dropped 2½st since Madison’s birth
and is fighting fit. It’s just a shame her behaviour doesn’t match her model
looks, but then again, maybe we should have learned our lesson.
Perhaps past experience (when Fabulous last interviewed Mel in October 2010 we
were left thumb-twiddling for three hours waiting for her to show) should
have told us to prepare for some seriously shoddy timekeeping.
Sure enough, and true to form, it’s knocking on for 4pm before she eventually
turns up for what should have been an 11.30am start.
Just like the last time, there’s no apology. Not even the merest hint of an
acknowledgement that her lateness has caused so many people to have a
panic-ridden and exasperating day. Instead we get a diva masterclass.
“You,” she demands of the first poor sap she claps eyes on, “need to call the
driver, right, and tell him to go back to the hotel to collect my diamonds
because I’m going to a premiere tonight¿ Is there no sparkling water?
Where’s the food? I’m starving.”
The food, as it happens, has long since been eaten and cleared away. Not that
Mel would have tucked into our fodder anyway. Because 20 minutes before she
arrives, we receive an email asking us to make sure that (and honestly, this
is verbatim): “grilled chicken with NO SALT OR OIL very super healthy
steamed broccoli and THIN sliced salmon sashimi and albacore tuna” is laid
on.
Without these specific luxury foods in the studio (and no, we’d never heard of
“albacore” either), we have dispatched our picture assistant in a car to
Westfield shopping centre three miles away to source Mel’s requests.
“Has someone called that driver?!” Oh dear.
Events unravelled
Our photo shoot saga kicked off shortly before 11am with a call informing us
that Mel is feeling unwell and therefore running at least an hour behind
schedule.
Not to worry, we replied. We’ll hang on.
Ah, and one more thing. Mel’s husband Stephen had decided she can’t do our
Flashdance-inspired shoot we’d agreed upon (so much flesh would potentially
scupper an exclusive deal with an Australian mag) so can we come up with an
entirely new wardrobe? In the next 10 minutes?
To me, the best form of revenge is looking f*****g hot
Er…
Eager to rescue the shoot, we do exactly as we’re told and so begins ever such
a jolly game of “will she, won’t she turn up?”. At one point, hopes are
raised when we hear that Mel has got into the car we’ve laid on to bring her
to our shoot (hurrah!) only to discover she’s diverted it to a Park Lane
hotel (oh…) where she remains holed up. Helpfully, she then stops
responding to emails and phone calls.
It’s not until 2pm that we manage to make contact with her again. Apparently,
if we get the car back to her hotel pronto, she’ll make her way to us.
Only, she doesn’t get in the car until gone 3pm.
By the time she gets to our East End location, the studio we’ve hired is no
longer available and we’re forced to squeeze into a much smaller space. And
once her team of hair and make-up artists and her spray tanner have dolled
her up, Mel informs us we have just 20 minutes to get the shots because
there’s a red carpet she’s due to pose on and an episode of
Celebrity Juice to record. (She subsequently arrives at the ITV2 show three
hours late, where host Keith Lemon isn’t quite as welcoming as Fabulous. On
the show he greeted her with the line: “Where the f**k have you
been?”.)
Back at our place and with a shoot (of sorts) in the bag, the day ends with
stiff vodkas all round.
Mel appears oblivious to the chaos she leaves in her wake.
“As far as I see it, professionally I’m a solid worker and I
expect the people around me to be on their A game. If you are not on your A
game you get fired. Simple as that.”
Drama queen
Two days after our photo shoot we pin Mel down at ITV HQ, where we’re due to
interview her in between appearances on Lorraine and Loose Women. Only
there’s a problem – quite a big one. She has no clothes. She is due on
Loose Women in under two hours and her stylist – with all her outfits – is a
no-show.
The air is thick with tension. All she has on is a dressing gown. “Someone,”
she says in her still-broad Yorkshire accent, audible even behind a closed
door, “needs to sort this.”
Her husband, Stephen, is in crisis-management mode bellowing orders from his
hotel room across town.
“There’s always a bloody drama,” she says. “I’m not going to panic about
it, but I want someone to get me some clothes.”
If Mel wants something, she asks for it. If she’s not happy, she says so and
she accepts that she rubs a lot of people up the wrong way. She nods: “I
think the biggest misconception is that I’m a bitch. Lots of people think I
am, but it doesn’t actually bother me.
“I’m always a diva, I think it’s a lot of fun. I have gone
into a room and asked for it to be changed, but only because I think that’s
how it should be. If something is horrid or not right, get it changed. My
problem is I am always completely honest. If I don’t like someone, I just
say so, I come right out with it and that can upset people. But I believe in
saying what you think.
“I have high expectations of myself and people around me. But I am always
unbelievably professional.”
Yes, she admits, there were problems on the day of the Fabulous shoot. But she
insists none of it was her fault. Honest.
“I was late because I had no idea till an hour beforehand that it was
happening. We got it done in super-fast time and the results were amazing.
Lots of people think I’m a bitch, but it doesn’t actually bother
me
“I’m not constantly making demands. I’ll do whatever it takes to make
something work. After that shoot I had a film premiere and an appearance on
Celebrity Juice, I was running so behind and I was totally panicking because
I didn’t want to let them down.
“I was sitting in traffic in my car, I got out of my car and got on to the
Tube to get to the TV station on time. That’s the sort of person I am. I’m a
diva when I have to be, but I’m a worker 100 per cent of the time.”
She’s certainly always been headstrong. It was “Scary” who led the Spice Girls
back from the brink of a split after Geri Halliwell quit the band in 1998.
It was Mel who stood firm after getting pregnant by Eddie Murphy, who went
on to very publicly and unforgivably abandon and humiliate her, and Mel who
continued to carve out a career for herself and her family in America – and
now Australia.
There have been reports that Stephen’s domineering personality has left Mel’s
self-esteem at rock bottom. The family have all cited him as the reason
behind the feud, the cause of Mel’s isolation from her loved ones.
Did he, for example, bully her into losing weight after giving birth to
Madison, as was claimed?
“Not at all,” says Mel. “He always says it’s been like having three different
women with me – he’s been with me when I was totally ripped, when I was huge
and when I’m just a bit more curvy like I am now.
“He liked me being ripped, but he complained my bum disappeared. Now I’ve got
my bum back, but I’m definitely not ripped with a six-pack. I’m trying to
get more toned, but I tell him he can’t have everything.”
It’s a fascinating insight into their relationship, and one which brings us
neatly to Mel’s amazing post-baby body. The frenzy of the last three days
has rather overshadowed all this until now.
“I put on 2½st when I was pregnant with Madison because I just ate
what I wanted,” she says.
“Pizza, burgers, whatever I felt like. I thought: ‘I’m pregnant, I’ll
have what I like’. It’s taken six months to get it off and I’ve got a little
way to go yet.”
She adds: “I was very focused. I had a plan and I stuck to it. I’ve never been a
skinny minny and never will be, I just want to look good.”
Mel claims the move to Australia has been a much-needed fresh start for the
family. Angel (her daughter by Eddie Murphy) turns five on Tuesday, while
Phoenix has just become a teenager.
“Phoenix loves it in Oz. We’re very close and having Madison has really bonded
us as a family. Angel is in heaven because on The X Factor, [fellow judge]
Ronan Keating and I have a crèche backstage and Angel is always running
around in something sparkly and singing into a hairbrush. She thinks it’s
heaven.”
A Spice Girl in the making, perhaps…
“I always want a Spice Girls reunion, but it’s not up to me,” says Mel. “We’re
getting together for the Spice Girls musical so we’ll just see.”
Clothes crisis averted (thanks to an emergency dash around Selfridges by one
of Mel’s team), she’s almost due on air.
“I always have this attitude,” she says, “that everything can be taken away
from you at any moment, so you have to always be true to yourself.
“The X Factor, Dancing With The Stars, and beautiful homes are wonderful, but
if I had all these things but my kids were unhappy, it just wouldn’t be
worth it. None of it means anything if you haven’t got a happy family.”
- Mel is an ambassador for Fitness First (Fitnessfirst.co.uk).
To Mel and back
The Scary one’s life is certainly full of spice…
Left: Sporty, Posh, Scary, Baby and Ginger back when they were the
biggest band around in 1996
Middle: Mel performing with the Spice Girls at the Brit Awards in 1997
Right: Melanie steps out with her now ex-husband Jimmy Gulzar back in
August 1999
Left: The surprising love match: Mel and Eddie Murphy in September 2006
Middle: At a red-carpet event with her husband Stephen Belafonte in LA
in July 2007
Right: Mel showing off her dance moves with Maksim Chmerkovsky on
Dancing With The Stars in 2007
Left: The Spice Girls announce they are reuniting at a press conference
at the 02 Arena in June 2007
Middle: With that ripped body in 2009
Right: Mel and Stephen with baby Madison in September 2011
