*The judge in Melanie “Mel B” Brown’s bitter custody battle with ex-husband Stephen Belafonte has ordered the former Spice Girl singer to undergo random drug and alcohol testing.
Judge Mark Juhas ordered a “full-scale evaluation” of Brown and Belafonte’s joint custody arrangement for their 7-year-old daughter Madison, Sky News reported.
According to Page Six, Mel will have to undergo random drug and alcohol testing for four months. She and Belafonte will also not be allowed to drink alcohol or take drugs at least eight hours before taking custody of their daughter.
Brown told The Sun last month that she’s entering rehab and later appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” to clarify her statement.
“I’ve been in therapy since my father got diagnosed with cancer nine years ago,” she said on the show. “My therapy changed a little bit because I was in a very intense relationship, which you can all read about in my book.”
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Mel B also revealed that she has PTSD, but denied being a sex addict and an alcoholic.
“You know, I was with the same person for 10 years and that was quite a turmoil, very intense. That’s all I can say about it. I’d like to say a lot more, but we’re on this show — let’s keep it P.C.,” Mel B said. “But yeah, I address a lot of those issues [in the book] and I did kind of have to ease my pain … I do suffer a lot from PTSD.”
However, Russell Updegraff, a former caretaker for Mel’s children— said in a recent custody hearing that the singer started drinking beer around 10 a.m., later moving on to wine and liquor. He also alleges that she couldn’t take care of her kids on her own — because she got blackout drunk nearly every day, The Blast reported.
Updegraff claims that Mel B is a coke freak. He says she often asked him to get her cocaine but does not say he saw her do cocaine during his employment. He does say that she used to do cocaine in the past, even saying:
“I recall that Melanie asked me if I could get her cocaine when she was in the hospital on the day she gave birth to Angel.”
According to his deposition, Updegraff claims her drinking leads to aggressive behavior towards the children. He describes one incident, saying, “Angel came running into my room, claiming that her mother grabbed her, shook her and dug her nails into her.”
He added:
“Melanie will become mean and belligerent, or she will be completely off the rails in terms of her behavior,” the Blast quoted him as saying. “Melanie slurs her words and speaks incoherently about random topics and subjects, and jumps from one story to the next, unable to finish one conversation or one task, jumping from one thing to the next.”
Updegraff stated in LA court that Brown regularly “brings strange men home,” and he described one alleged incident in which he claimed one of them told him “that he was taking Madison to the bathroom to ‘shower her off’ after they had been in the pool together.”
He also claimed that “Aside from the obvious alcohol addiction and her addiction to multiple partners that she brings around the children, I truly believe that Melanie is mentally and/or psychologically unstable, and is suffering from some form of mental-health issue. I do not believe the children are safe in her custody without supervision or monitoring.”
Mel B reportedly fired back and denied Updegraff’s allegations.
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