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18th Nov 2018

Mel B reveals serious drug addiction she developed during X Factor filming

Orlaith Condon

The Spice Girls star says things got tough during that period.

Mel B has revealed some of the dark secrets she kept when she was a judge on The X Factor in 2014 in a bid to cope with her relationship with ex-husband Stephen Belafonte.

The singer reveals that during the show, she snorted up to six lines of cocaine a day to deal with the pressure in her new autobiography, Brutally Honest.

“I was a sad, pathetic person,” she says. “I was out of control.”

Mel says that she would wake up in the morning and snort two lines of cocaine just to make it through the day.

“Then I would pray, ‘God, I’m sorry for taking cocaine, but please God help me get through this day’.

“It numbed my pain. It lifted me up enough to be ready to fire on all cylinders and forget about everything but the show.”

Things were at there worst for Mel B during her abusive ten-year marriage to Stephen Belafonte but escalated when the heavy work-commitments of the reality show became too much for her.

“On so many levels I felt myself sinking. I had a routine. I was ashamed of what I was doing, but I felt I had to have it.

“I told myself God would understand and forgive me because he could see through all the glitter and the crap.

“He could see me – the mess. And cocaine could help that mess. Just for now. It numbed my pain.”

Mel and Stephen were married in 2007 just a short while after she split from Eddie Murphy.

The pair split in December 2016 with their divorce being finalised just a year later.