Melanie “Mel B” Brown has filed for divorce from her husband Stephen Belafonte after nearly 10 years of marriage.
In divorce papers obtained by PEOPLE, Brown listed the date of separation as December 28 and asked for joint legal and physical custody of their daughter, Madison Brown Belfonte, 5.
She has also requested to terminate the court’s ability to award spousal support.
Brown and Belafonte, 41, married in 2007 after five months of dating. The two have a blended family — including daughter Madison, Brown’s daughters Angel Iris Murphy Brown, 9, and Phoenix Chi Gulzar, 17 (from her relationships with ex-boyfriend Eddie Murphy and ex-husband Jimmy Gulzar, respectively), and Giselle Belafonte, 12 (from his relationship with ex-girlfriend Nicole Contreras).
The America’s Got Talent judge recently took to Instagram to express her love for her husband.
“My baby boo @stephenthinks11,” she wrote in the photo’s caption. “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 [knew] how to really love myself. You are my world, honey…”
She added a joking jab: “Let’s not forget you are a bit of a d—head too.”
In late 2014, the couple’s marriage came under fire after the star was hospitalized with severe stomach pains on Dec. 11 and appeared three days later on the finale of the U.K. version of The X Factor with what appeared to be bruises.
“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,” Belafonte wrote on Twitter later that day. Weeks later, the family celebrated Christmas together as a family, with Brown sharing photos on her Instagram account.
Last January, she defended their marriage on The View. “I like him a lot,” she told Rosie O’Donnell after admitting the duo — who then stepped out holding hands after her TV appearance — don’t have a lot in common.
Source: People.com
