Inside Mel B's chequered love life as she gets hitched for third time
Scary Spice star, Mel B, is tying the knot today - despite swearing she'd never get married again. Since shooting to stratospheric fame with the Spice Girls, Mel, 49, has had a chequered love life, including two failed marriages and a bitter break-up with Hollywood A-lister, Eddie Murphy, who the singer shares daughter Angel Iris, 18, with.
Today, the mum-of-three is walking down the aisle at St Paul's cathedral in London with hairstylist, Rory McPhee, and celebrate at The Shard afterwards in a bash said to have cost £28,000. A whole host of stars will be in attendance - apart from apart from Victoria Beckham and Geri Horner-Halliwel and Geri Horner-Halliwell - as Mel's pals wish the couple the best for the future.
The Spice Up Your Life star, who not so long go insisted "I'm fine by myself", is certainly due some luck in love as we look back at her rocky romances, starting with Dutch dancer, Jimmy Gulzar...
READ MORE: Inside Mel B and Victoria Beckham feud as Posh Spice swerves Scary's wedding
Jimmy Gulzar
Mel first tied the knot with Dutch dancer Jimmy Gulzar in 1998, donning a flamboyant Vegas showgirl feathered headdress and a white-and-gold frock.
The couple met when Jimmy was strutting around on stage as a back-up dancer for the Spice Girls during the Spiceworld tour in 1998. They married a short time later and welcomed daughter Phoenix, now 26, together. However, their relationship wasn't to last and they split in 2000, citing irreconcilable differences in the divorce courts.
Speaking to the Mirror after the breakup, Mel said: "My friends did try and warn me not to take things so fast, and in hindsight it's easy to see I made a mistake.
"Marrying someone I'd only just met on tour was not the smartest thing I've ever done. When the relationship broke down it was a complete nightmare. We both really wanted to be a proper happy family but it seemed destined not to work."There was a lot of pain and even with my friends and family around me I often felt isolated and alone. But you have to find the inner strength to carry on. Somehow I did it but it nearly killed me."She added: "What I'm basically saying is that he didn't love me and to be honest I now don't give a s*** any more. It's a sad situation but that's the reality."
However, talking to The Sun, Jimmy said: "I always think about Goliath facing David – that story is pretty much how I have always felt."
Mel B later won custody over Phoenix Chi, however Jimmy followed them to the US to be close to his daughter.
Eddie Murphy
Mel B and Eddie Murphy shocked the world when they began dating in 2006, but after a whirlwind nine-month relationship, the pair parted ways.
They then ended up in a bitter paternity battle after the Hollywood actor refused to believe daughter, Angel Iris, now 18, was his child. Following DNA testing, it was confirmed that Angel was his daughter and since then, the former lovers have remained amicable as they co-parent their child.
Mel revealed it was her who chose to end the relationship and walk away from the actor. Writing in her memoir, Brutally Honest, she said: "You know, he's Eddie Murphy. And I'm like, 'Well, I'm Mel B!
"If something doesn't feel right, if it isn't equal, then what's the point? Yes, Eddie Murphy's a massive star. In my eyes — Spice Girls — so am I. I have my own house, my own car, my own credit card. I don't need to fall in line and be Pretty Woman, because I have my own life.
"He almost wanted to just go like that. But I have a career. I'm not just going to give that up for love... to be a housewife."
She continued: "But that wasn't my path. It probably didn't make sense to anybody at that time — why I would leave a relationship so full of love and giving, and almost nurturing.
"But I'm a strong independent woman, and it wasn't coming together as equal as I wanted."
Stephen Belafonte
In 2007, Mel married US film producer, Stephen Belafonte, in a Las Vegas ceremony and renewed their vows in Egypt a year later.
The former America's Got Talent judge met her husband on the set of film Talk, and they were friends for years before embarking on a romantic relationship.
The pair tied the knot after just four months of dating, and Stephen – who also has a daughter, Giselle, from a previous relationship – insisted that he had "never connected" with someone the way that he did with Mel, and that knowing her as a friend beforehand had made the dating process easier.
However, after welcoming their daughter Madison into the world, the couple separated in 2016 amid accusations of emotional and physical abuse from Mel, which Stephen denies. Last year, he announced he was suing Mel for defamation over claims she made about him being abusive and controlling during their time together, which she detailed in interviews and her autobiography, Brutally Honest.
On his £3.9m libel suit in Florida, he said: 'I am ready to prove Melanie's statements about me are false.' Stephen added that authorities investigated the claims and no charges were brought.
Mel's legal team asked for the case to be thrown out last year.
In their filing to have the case dismissed, Mel's lawyers said: 'Brown should have never been dragged through the courts because of an exercise of [her] constitutional rights.' But this was denied in October.
Rory McPhee
After years of heartache, Mel says she has finally found her happily ever after with fiancé Rory McPhee, who she has known for years and who is the best friend of her cousin.
As she gets set to wed today, she conceded she'd ever walk down the aisle again, insisting she was 'fine by herself'.
Speaking to People magazine, she said: "I was like, 'I'm never going to get married again. Never, never, never. I'm never having a relationship. I'm fine by myself. I want to raise my kids, put my head down and work, and that's it. And then… never can say never, can you?'
Affirming she still believed in love, Mel continued: 'I believe in love, and clearly the other two marriages turned out to be not love, from their angle. So I feel like I've really missed out, and now I've got this opportunity to be properly in love with a really good guy who I know loves me for me."
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