Spice Girl Mel B on domestic abuse

[Music] they'll be mayor brought the world a potent message of girl power but behind the facade of scary spice was a woman who says she lived in fear in her new autobiography the pop star claims she was the victim of domestic violence throughout her 10-year marriage accusations her former husband strenuously denies she's now a patron of the charity woman's aide visiting one of their refuges in Leeds last week abuse she says doesn't discriminate it doesn't matter whether you live in a bedsit or you live in a mansion you know this kind of situation and relationship can happen to anyone you know and I lived it for 10 years with my ex-husband he was very abusive on many different levels and I was led to believe that that was normal and it was all my fault now you say in the book that you're proud northern gun you never lost your roots what was it like I wonder going back to that women's refuge in Leeds ah it was shockingly comfortable for me because for once I could sit in a room with other women that believed me that had the same story as me and I felt empathy and compassion and it just it felt like home I mean it was my home Leeds but to sit down and talk to other women that have been through exactly what I've been through I didn't want to leave who's like do I have to leave now I wanna stay here because these women's their stories are so honest and this saw like my story you know and that's never happened to me before where I can freely talk and not feel ashamed or guilty or embarrassed because their story is my story and vice versa you're scary spice you know you're firing on all cylinders the world saw you in that way did you because of that that public persona feel like you couldn't show vulnerability when all of this was going on in the background you end up in my situation in many women's situations like mine you don't want to admit anything to yourself or to anybody else so you live a lie and you live a facade that this isn't happening to me and apart for me being all my fault I don't want anyone to find out and I don't want anyone to know because I'm married and I want to this marriage work and I'm raising kids and I'm the only breadwinner and I have to go to work tomorrow so I'm just gonna deal with it I didn't know what coercive behavior was and and now I know that it is a crime it was you can put somebody behind bars because of their behavior towards you and since 2015 you know it's been part of the justice system and part of the law which is brilliant gal pal was all about women controlling and owning their own destiny I wonder how you felt about watching the me to movement around you you do feel encouraged by it that was really scary to me to watch that kind of movement because I was living it and I was in breathing and I was that person that was subjected to a lot of abuse so to me it was kind of scary times and do you think it's change because obviously when you started out in popped 20 years ago you know you're a trailblazer there's always going to be sexism I mean there's the massive peer gap between men and women you know there's still things that still need to be sorted out and it's not gonna just happen overnight and there's a black woman white woman skinny woman that woman it's difficult you're gonna have obstacles and you're gonna be faced with people that are just ignorant you know it is what it is and we can't turn a blind eye to it any little more and we don't you've also talked about you know often being the only black person in the room when the Spice Girls were together well it was I still am sometimes actually I am right now what does it feel weird or does it feel why I got born into that's my skin and that's my surroundings but that I'm around on a daily basis but it doesn't bother me because it's not my problem it's a scientist problem you also talk about your sexuality before anybody was talking about now it you know it's much more fashionable to talk about I didn't because why is that somebody else said that to me earlier today they were like you spoke about being with a woman whether that's considered bisexual lesbian gay pan fluid whatever you want to call it however oh really I didn't really think about it like that back in those days you talked about many highs and lows and of course you talked about your suicide attempt you know that was just a few years ago now you're about to go back on tour with the Spice Girls [Music] how does it feel to kind of have this huge tantrum wow it's been a long time coming for both of those situations first what's the word serendipitous so under producer under for this how everything's happened all at once for the right reasons at the right time you

Channel: Channel 4 News

Views: 94,567

Keywords: Channel 4 News, mel, mel b, mel b interview, mel b spice girls, mel b interview 2018, mel b talking, mel b video, scary spice

Id: UaRbipxFz8U

Length: 5min 8sec (308 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 29 2018