Melanie Brown was grinning from ear-to-ear on Tuesday afternoon as her daughters accompanied her at the Women's Aid 'Love Should Not Hurt' NFT art launch.
The 47-year-old channelled Scary Spice as she arrived at Blacks Club in London wearing a midi-length leopard print dress.
The former Spice Girl previously revealed she was the victim of years of psychological and emotional abuse at the hands of her ex-husband Stephen Belafonte, and vowed to help support other women who are in violent and toxic relationships.
As she posed for photos at the launch event, Mel was joined by two of her daughters; Phoenix Chi, 23, and ten-year-old Madison.
Madison matched her mother in the style stakes and wore a leopard print tracksuit as she cuddled a dog in front of the cameras.
Phoenix Chi looked super cool in black jeans and a long-sleeved monochrome top as she cosied up to her younger sibling.
The Women's Aid "Love Should Not Hurt" NFT Art Launch was part of the Come Together to End Domestic Abuse campaign at swanky private members establishment Blacks Club in London.
Also in attendance and posing for pictures with Mel was was former Love Island contestant Megan Barton Hanson.
Megan, 28, looked glamorous in a satin strappy dress which she paired with cowboy boots and long blonde curls as she pouted for the camera.
Former Celebs Go Dating coach Nadia Essex also attended the event in a polka dot dress which she paired with plain white trainers.
Mel has been a patron for Woman's Aid since 2018 after she made harrowing claims she was an abusive relationship, something Stephen strongly denies.
The mum-of-three said back in February she was in an “emotionally and physically abusive marriage” for 10 years, and she can barely remember what happened to her because of post-abuse trauma, which can “last a lifetime”.
“But nearly five years on I still wake up in the early hours with terrifying fragments of sounds and images flitting into my brain,” Mel said, admitting that some nights she wakes up “drenched in shame, sweat and fear”.
She wanted to speak out to help other women “who are raped and abused within relationships feel powerless and invisible”, amid reports domestic abuse has increased by 60 per cent since the Covid-19 pandemic began in March 2020.
Mel said ex Stephen had convinced her nobody would believe her claims of abuse, but after building her career on the foundations of ‘Girl Power’ with the Spice Girls, she felt she had to “break cover because I knew that what happened to me was happening to millions of others”.
She was left devastated when she found out her daughter Phoenix, who she shares with ex Jimmy Gulzar, had witnessed some of the abuse she faced.
And while writing her book Brutally Honest, which was released in 2018, Mel realised there were many women in her position after thousands reached out to her after reading her book.
She admitted she had turned to drink and drugs in the depths of her depression while in the abusive relationship “to blot out torment, shame and guilt” and as a form of “self-medication”.
Mel said she “put on a front” for years to mask the violence she was facing at home, and wants to help other women who are in the same “ugly situation”.
“We need to talk about it, deal with it and do everything in our power to see justice done,” she stated.
To learn more about Women's Aid, to donate or to receive confidential support, visit their website. To use the new chat service, click here. If you believe you are in danger call 999.
