Brown Defends Paternity Battle....

Spice Girl Melanie Brown has been forced to defend her public paternity battle with Eddie Murphy on a U.S. talk show, insisting she's doing it for "all other single parents and mothers out there".The British singer and her lawyer Gloria Allred announced they were filing a paternity suit against the Dreamgirls star earlier this month (Aug07) at a press conference, claiming Murphy "has not paid one penny of child support" for his four-month-old daughter Angel Iris.And while Brown admits she hoped the legal wrangle could be conducted a little more privately, she maintains going public will inspire other people in her position.Speaking to Cnn's Larry King on Thursday (09Aug07), she says, "I wish we could handle it privately. But when my name is thrown out there, when I'm four months pregnant with, you know, the Dna testing and is it mine, I don't know, of course I'm going to stand up for myself. I don't want that to be out there when it's all completely untrue."I want to stand up for all the other single parents/mothers out there that are in the same position as me. I mean this isn't the first time it's happened to a woman. I think it's time for fathers like that to stop and be responsible and be an emotional support to their kids.Allred adds, "You said why are we having a press conference. Because there are millions of fathers out there like Eddie Murphy who, unfortunately, have decided they're not going to be part of their child's life."Because we need a legal determination. It's not enough if her father says it. I would suggest that every mother out there if a father says he is the father of the child and he took a Dna test so he knows he is, then they still need to go to court and make sure that is established legally so that the child is protected. This is all about the baby."

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