Mel B, also known as Spice Girls' "Scary Spice," is entering treatment to deal with her issues with alcohol and sex after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
āThe past six months have been incredibly difficult for me. Iāve been working with a writer on my book, "Brutally Honest," and it has been unbelievably traumatic reliving an emotionally abusive relationship and confronting so many massive issues in my life from the death of my dad to my relationship with men," she told The Sun.
The singer's decision to seek help comes only weeks after she was ordered to pay her ex-husband, Stephen Belafonte (who, during their bitter divorce battle, alleged that Mel abused alcohol), $5,000 a month in child support and $350,000 for his legal fees.
"I've also been through more than a year of court battles which have left me financially battered and at the mercy of the legal system which is completely weighted against emotionally abused women because it's very hard to prove how someone took away all your self-respect and self-worth," the America's Got Talent host continued. "I am being very honest in my book about drinking to numb my pain but that is just a way a lot of people mask what is really going on. Sometimes it is too hard to cope with all the emotions I feel. But the problem has never been about sex or alcohol ā it is underneath all that."
Mel added that she was diagnosed with PTSD on August 9 and has "made the decision to go into a proper therapy programme [in the UK] in the next few weeks."
"I am still struggling," she admitted. "But if I can shine a light on the issue of pain, PTSD and the things men and women do to mask it, I will do [it]... Iām not perfect, and I have never pretended to be. But I am working on being a better version of myself for my kids, for my family and for all the people who have supported me in my life."
Mel filed for a divorce from Stephen in March 2017, citing verbal, and physical abuse as the cause of their split. A month later, the singer was granted a temporary restraining order against her ex after claiming he "threatened to destroy my life in every possible way." Their divorce was finalized in December 2017.
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