Mel B admits she felt “powerless” while married to her “abusive” husband Stephen Belafonte despite her Girl Power mantra and reveals she still suffers from panic attacks and PTSD.

Mel B has admitted she felt “powerless” while married to her “abusive” ex-husband Stephen Belafonte, despite her famous Girl Power mantra.

The Spice Girl, 48, revealed that five years after leaving Stephen, she still suffers from panic attacks and PTSD, and had previously tried to end her marriage six or seven times.

Speaking on Thursday’s Loose Women, Mel made an appearance on the show during her Facing It Together campaign, which aims to raise awareness about domestic abuse.

Mel B and American Stephen were married from 2007 to 2017 and share their 12-year-old daughter Madison.

Over the years, Mel B has accused him of physical, emotional and financial abuse, claims he denies.

Mel told the panel she was reluctant to leave Stephen because she had completely excluded herself from her family.

She said: ‘Although I was married for ten years, I tried to leave him six or seven times. I returned out of fear or blackmail.

“You think, ‘What am I going to do if I leave? I haven’t spoken to my mother in weeks, then months, then years.’ It happens very gradually.”

‘You feel like you’re doing everything wrong and they encourage that feeling. I went from living in a mansion in Los Angeles to my mother’s bungalow with my children.’

Mel also appeared on the show to talk about the release of a revised version of her autobiography Brutally Honest.

She said: ‘Writing the book was cathartic. But in 2018 it was a taboo topic and no editor wanted it.’

Speaking about the aftermath of her divorce, she added: “It’s been seven years and I still have PTSD and panic attacks because I don’t trust myself, how could I when I thought that person loved me?” I mean girl power, but I was powerless.”

“They tapped me on the head a lot to relieve the trauma because I didn’t want to talk about it.”

Mel also hinted that another Spice Girls reunion is in the works, adding: “We’re definitely doing something, I’m probably going to get told off, but there I said it.”

The singer previously revealed that after leaving Stephen she only had £700 left to her name and secretly shopped at Lidl to make ends meet.

She said the millions she earned as part of the Spice Girls had dwindled to just a few hundred after she walked out on her marriage to Stephen in 2018.

Mel said she would buy in bulk on her visits to Lidl and Costco and moved into her mother’s bungalow in Leeds as she faced hefty legal fees amid her divorce battle.

It was a far cry from her lifestyle in Los Angeles, where she says she completely lost control of her enormous fortune.

‘In Los Angeles I hadn’t bought a liter of milk in years. But at home I bought in bulk at Costco and I really liked shopping at Lidl and Aldi,” Melanie told The Sun.

‘Those were Covid times and I put on the mask and no one recognized me. For the first time in a long time I stood in line. Nobody flinched.

The media personality learned to budget for herself once again and spent the money she had more wisely, saying she saw it as taking back her power after being in an abusive relationship.

Of the dark period of her life, plagued by financial stress, she said: “People will assume, ‘She’s rich, she’s a Spice Girl.'” But I went from performing to thousands of people at Wembley on the 13-date reunion tour of the Spice Girls in 2019 to go into my mother’s house with my children sleeping in bed with me.

“I didn’t expect that to happen when I was 40 years old after a successful career, but I had nowhere to go because my relationship affected me so badly financially that I had to pick up the pieces.”

Mel spent five years saving and this month moved to a converted farmhouse in West Yorkshire.

In addition to her work with the Spice Girls, Mel had regained her fortune, landing lucrative jobs on American television shows such as the US version of Strictly Come Dancing – Dancing with the Stars – and as a judge on America’s Got Talent while living in Los Angeles.

He also appeared as a judge on The X Factor in the UK before returning home for good.