Mel B says she is getting help for issues with alcohol and sex after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“The past six months have been incredibly difficult for me. I’ve been working with a writer on my book, ‘Brutally Honest,’ and it has been unbelievably traumatic reliving an emotionally abusive relationship and confronting so many massive issues in my life from the death of my dad to my relationship with men,” the “America’s Got Talent” judge told The Sun on Sunday.
The singer finalized her bitter divorce from Stephen Belafonte earlier this month after more than a year of court battles over custody and spousal support.
“I’ve also been through more than a year of court battles which have left me financially battered and at the mercy of the legal system which is completely weighted against emotionally abused women because it’s very hard to prove how someone took away all your self-respect and self-worth,” Mel, 43, continued. “… Sometimes it is too hard to cope with all the emotions I feel. But the problem has never been about sex or alcohol — it is underneath all that.”
She says she was diagnosed with PTSD on Aug. 9, and, “after trying many different therapies I started a course of therapy called EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), which in a nutshell works on the memory to deal with some of the very painful and traumatic situations I have been through.”
She is entering a “proper therapy program” in the UK in the next few weeks, she said.
During her divorce battle, Mel alleged that Belafonte forced her to have sex with other women and filmed the encounters, then threatened to release the sex videos if she ever tried to leave him. She also accused Belafonte of having an affair with their nanny and forcing her to get an abortion.