Court Denies Mel B’s Sanction Plea Against Ex-Husband In $5 Million Lawsuit

Mel B (real name Melanie Brown) is not backing down in her court case with ex-husband Stephen Belafonte!

The former girl group member is back in court following the court's refusal to sanction her estranged husband for accusing her of lying about claims of abuse in their marriage.

Mel B and Stephen Belafonte were married from 2007-2017 and remained in court hashing out the remnants of their allegedly tumultuous decade-long union.

The pop icon and her legal team are back in court barely a day after her motion to sanction Belafonte for accusing her of giving false accounts of abuse in their marriage got thrown out.

The mother of three, in a new motion, is asking the judge to reconsider the decision as Belafonte insists that Mel B has "spent the better part of the last decade engaging in a deliberate and wide-ranging campaign to cause him severe emotional distress and destroy his reputation."

His lawsuit added that the TV personality's "campaign of abuse has continued to the present day with the 2024 re-publication of her best-selling book about her marriage to [Stephen], wherein [Mel] has leveraged her thirty years of fame to attack [Stephen] in a malicious and vindictive global smear."

He accused his former partner of portraying herself as a domestic abuse victim for commercial purposes and to sell her memoir.

"From lying to the courts and the public about [Stephen] beating her, causing a split lip and swollen face … [Mel] has been profiting off of her public lies as she portrays [Stephen] as a "monster" on global television and media appearances," Belafonte added.

Per In Touch, the celebrity then sought an injunction to prevent Mel B from publicly discussing her memoir or him again and demanded $5 million in damages.

Belafonte's legal team described Mel B's request to sanction their client as a "vexatious tactic calculated to increase the costs of this litigation and waste the court's limited and valuable judicial resources." The attorney continued:

"Contrary to the impression that may have been imparted by [Mel's] motion, this lawsuit is more than simply an action for defamation. [Stephen] initiated this action against [Mel] following [Mel's] near decade-long campaign to cause him severe emotional distress and destroy his reputation."

The estranged couple share a 12-year-old daughter named Madison. She has lived with Belafonte since the former Spice Girl's group member work visa expired in 2019.

The Blast shared that the talent show judge and her legal team urged the court to sanction Belafonte for "blatant abuse of judicial process."

Her attorney described Belafonte's lawsuit as a baseless attempt to silence Mel B, who has stayed vocal about her alleged experiences of "physical and emotional abuse" during their controversial marriage.

"Displeased with [Mel's] exercise of her constitutionally protected freedoms, [Stephen] filed this baseless SLAPP suit to litigate plainly time-barred matters in a foreign forum that lacks personal jurisdiction over Brown," her lawyer continued.

Mel B's legal team explained that she has advocated for vulnerable women globally for years. Belafonte's lawsuit attacks her constitutionally protected right to speech and expression.

The singer’s attorney moved the motion for the case dismissal and demanded he cover her legal fees, adding that the lawsuit lacked substance and showcases his familiar attempt to control her voice despite being divorced.

The battle got messier when Belafonte included a series of text messages between Mel B and her bandmate Geri Halliwell. The content of the texts suggests that the singer's charity works and philanthropic feats may have been influenced by personal and monetary gains.

In the exchange, Mel B allegedly gave off a skeptical tone about the financial rewards of charity work, writing, "Charity doesn't pay the bills," in response to Halliwell's suggestion of organizing a charity gig.

"I hope nobody ever hacks your texts!!!!! I believe we should do something good, and kicking off with a charity gig would be hugely positive. The power of our brand is enormous, and all of our work is off the back of it, including Vikki [Victoria Beckham]!!!!!!," a shocked Halliwell replied.

Despite the chaos going on in her personal life, The Blast reported that the 49-year-old came clean on her eagerness to reunite with the girls for a tour.

She was responsible for setting off the rumor mills about a possible reunion earlier in the year when she announced in an interview that the group was cooking something to please the fans.

"Well, I've been saying this forever, but now we're actually going to be releasing some really good news in about a few weeks that involves all five of us," Mel B noted in the interview.

It is safe to say all love is lost between Mel B and Stephen Belafonte!