Mel B accuses Stephen Belafonte of stopping Eddie Murphy seeing his daughter

5 April 2017

Mel B has accused her estranged husband Stephen Belafonte of stopping Eddie Murphy from seeing his daughter Angel.

Stephen Belafonte and Mel B

The pop star has claimed Stephen stole her phone and texted the 56-year-old comedian's assistant at 4:30am, pretending to be Mel, in a bid to stop Eddie from seeing Angel, 10.

In a series of court documents, Mel explains: "In February 2017, I had a arranged for a meeting between my daughter, Angel, and her biological father to take place in mid-March. Up to this point, they had not had a relationship. Respondent became aware of this meeting and in an effort to 'derail' the meet, took my phone without my knowledge or consent and texted Angel's father's assistant at 4:30am, impersonating/claiming to be me."

Mel, 41, admitted she never discovered the content of the message, but claimed it led Eddie - who previously disputed whether he was Angel's father - to cancel his scheduled meeting with his daughter.

In the same set of documents, Mel said the name Stephen Belafonte is merely an alias, and that her husband's actual name is Stephan Stansbury.

The singer also rubbished Stephen's claims that he's the son of iconic musician Harry Belafonte, and admitted to being unaware that he had been married once before until their own wedding in 2007.

Mel said: "Respondent's name is Stephan Stansbury, but he often goes by the alias Stephen Belafonte. At the time of our marriage, I was unaware that 'Belafonte' was not Respondent's legal surname, nor was I aware that he had been previously married. Throughout the marriage I was the primary income earner. Respondent held neither steady or gainful employment. Respondent has held himself out to be the son of singer Harry Belafonte, when in reality he is not related."

Mel - who has five-year-old daughter Madison with Stephen - was granted a restraining order against her estranged husband earlier this week, after she claimed he'd beat her, got their nanny pregnant and forced her to have threesomes during their 10-year marriage.

Stephen has denied all the allegations against him and says he has been left "distraught" by her accusations.