Brutally Honest by Melanie Brown

Brutally Honest is the autobiography of Melanie Brown, better known as Mel B or Scary Spice. It was first published in 2018 and has just been reissued with three extra chapters.

I was a HUGE Spice Girls fan back in the day. I was bit ‘old’ to be a Spice Girls fan, being a similar age to them, when most of their fans were kids or young teenagers. But they burst onto the scene at a tough time in my life. Listening to the Spice Girls and seeing them on TV and video really helped me through it. Because they had Girl Power and with Girl Power anything was possible.

Except, it seems, avoiding abusive relationships…

Brutally Honest focuses very largely on the abuse Mel B suffered at the hands of her ex-husband for 10 years. It doesn’t start at the beginning like a normal autobiography, it starts when her life hit rock bottom.

It was 2014 and Mel was a judge on X Factor, when she took a huge overdose. As soon as she’d taken her last pill, she knew she wanted to live for her daughters. I remember the speculation in the media at the time about why she hadn’t turned up to X Factor and then why she looked so dreadful when she finally did turn up.

She had already been a victim of domestic abuse for seven years. She was estranged from her family and most of her friends. She was drinking and taking drugs. Her husband repeatedly told her she was a mess, she was ugly and she was a bad mother.

How did such a strong woman and such a famous woman end up in such a position?

In Brutally Honest, Mel explains how it happened to her and how it can happen to anyone. It is a really tough read and nobody should have to go what she went through. Being famous and having money didn’t make it any easier for her. And her husband, Stephen, wasn’t the first controlling man in her life. He was just the worst.

In between the tough stuff, there are stories about the Spice Girls and Mel’s childhood. While those bits are more fun, there are serious messages there too about sexism and racism in the music industry and in society.

Brutally Honest isn’t an easy read and it made me cry several times. But I’m glad I read it. There is even a list at the end of 15 signs of domestic abuse. The three new chapters are slightly more general, about lasting trauma and recovery and support for women going through domestic abuse.

I don’t know how difficult it would be for someone in a similar situation to read this book. But it is an important read for those of us lucky enough not to be in that situation, to help us to understand what people could be going through and to look out for the signs in our loved ones and those around us.