Stephen Belafonte Makes His First Move In Explosive Custody Battle
April 9 2017, Published 3:23 p.m. ET
Stephen Belafonte refuses to let ex Mel B take their 5-year-old daughter away from him, RadarOnline.com has learned. In fact, he's filed the paperwork to crush her demand for sole custody. Keep clicking through to find out why!
The former Spice Girls star was granted a restraining order earlier this month that prohibited the 41-year-old from coming anywhere near Mel B — real name Melanie Brown — and her daughters, as the divorce unfolds.
But according to the The Sunday Mirror, Belafonte isn't going down without a fight, and has full intention of winning custody of their young daughter, Madison. Belafonte is also step-dad to Brown's two other daughters from previous relationships — Phoenix, 18, and Angel, 10.
"They are the only things that matter to me," Belafonte told The Mirror. His bombshell move comes right on the heels of Brown's demand to retrieve the couple's sex tapes.
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The x-rated content is allegedly locked up in Belafonte's storage unit, which is listed under the family's former nanny, Lorraine Gilles.
Reports claimed that Gilles was the couple's nanny for seven years before Brown fired her in 2016 after she allegedly discovered she was having an affair with Belafonte — and even got her pregnant! Brown went on to accuse in the papers how Belafonte "demanded that Lorraine have an abortion."
As RadarOnline.com readers know, Mel B filed for divorce from Belafonte on March 20, noting they had secretly split back in December. Her decision to leave her husband after a decade happened due to years of his alleged mental and physical abuse, she claimed — all beginning just seven months after marrying.
Belafonte is also demanding she cover all his legal fees. "It's a shame that Ms. Brown elected not to proceed in respectful and amicable fashion in this very private matter," Belafonte's lawyers said in their filing this weekend. "In due course, Mr. Belafonte will be filing his response to the outrageous and unfounded allegations made by Ms. Brown, allegations which he vehemently denies."
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