Melanie Brown opens up about her new warts-and-all book, her past trauma and how she got over it, her upcoming nuptials and a reunion with the Spice Girls
WORD: EVE MACDONALD PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES, REX/SHUTTERSTOCK, WWW.POURMOI.CO.UK
OPEN AND HONEST
When the Spice Girls formed 30 years ago, it was all about Girl Power. Three decades on, for Melanie Brown, aka Scary Spice, it still is.
With a potential reunion with her former bandmates on the cards and planning for her wedding to fiancé Rory McPhee in full swing, when OK! caught up with the star, it was instantly clear that she’s a woman in full control of and loving her own life.
It’s been a roller-coaster journey though, and one she’s now brought bang up to date in a reissue of her warts-and-all biography Brutally Honest. In the book, she details how over the past five years she has risen from the ashes of her former life to forge a new one.
“I want to share what I’ve learned with other survivors and I have the platform to do it. The statistics we hear about domestic abuse aren’t going to go away until we talk about them,” reveals Mel as she chats to us from a London hotel room via Zoom, with the capital’s skyline as a backdrop. “But I also want to start laying down foundations and support.
“It was about getting the words out there that you can get out and things will get better. That’s why it was important to do the other three chapters,” Mel explains.
“I was living a lie for 10 years. On the outside it looked like I had it all, but I didn’t. I want to show other people you can survive – it’s not easy, but you can,” she adds.
Mel isn’t just surviving these days, but thriving, and has a new happiness with Rory. “If you had told me a few years ago that I’d be engaged and getting married, I would’ve laughed my head off,” she says, while glancing towards her finacé, who is seated in the background of our call.
“Love wasn’t on my radar. I told myself I didn’t need it and that I was fine by myself. I was broken and I needed to heal. And then there was Rory...”
Mel, who on the day we meet is wearing a soft cream top but adds a pop of her personality with leopard-print nails (of course!), has been dating the 34-year-old hairdresser since 2018 and it’s clear she seems to have found her soulmate at last. Even the mention of his name sets her eyes alight. “Rory is a family friend – he’s my cousin’s best friend so I immediately
