THE RESURRECTION OF MEL B
Marie Claire Australia|March 2024
She's a Spice Girl, a talentshow star and asurvivor. Mel Bisa force to be reckoned with, and she’s finding new strength in brutal honesty and vulnerability.
Alley Pascoe
THE RESURRECTION OF MEL B

T here was a moment in 2019 when Melanie Brown – Mel B – felt truly, completely free. It happened in Bristol; she was standing on stage wearing a pair of handmade leopardprint platform boots, in front of a crowd of 34,000 adoring Spice Girls fans, alongside her fellow band members Geri Halliwell, Melanie Chisholm (Mel C) and Emma Bunton. It was raining heavily, and the stage was slippery. Brown saw the opportunity and ran with it, quite literally. She raced across the drenched stage, throwing her hands in the air and splashing through puddles in her handmade boots. “I feel like I’m flying, completely free,” she said, describing the liberating moment.

It had been a long time in the making. For the Spice Girls, their 2019 shows came more than a decade after their last tour in 2008. For Mel B personally, the band reunion came after the end of an abusive marriage, a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) diagnosis and the release of her powerful memoir, Brutally Honest. Her dramatic run across the water-logged stage wasn’t just a moment of spontaneity, it was a message. “I did it. I’m free,” she said.

The moment of triumph would have made for a happy ending, but Brown’s story was far from over. She may have won the battle for her freedom, but the war was still raging. What came next, no-one could have predicted.

In the British autumn of 2023, Brown hit rock bottom. She’d been there before, but this time was different. She was scrunched into a shaking ball in the upstairs room of her Leeds home; crying uncontrollably, desperate and distressed. “Please, Melanie, you have to have proper help,” pleaded her supportive fiancé, Rory McPhee.

This story is from the March 2024 edition of Marie Claire Australia.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the March 2024 edition of Marie Claire Australia.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM MARIE CLAIRE AUSTRALIAView All
Annie LENNOX
Marie Claire Australia

Annie LENNOX

She's been called the voice of her generation - not just for her singing career, but also for her staunch activism. In honour of the Eurythmics' frontwoman's 70th birthday in December, we pay tribute to a living legend.

time-read
7 mins  |
January 2025
Garden SECRETS
Marie Claire Australia

Garden SECRETS

Richard Christiansen's Flamingo Estate has given Los Angeles a new appreciation of farm-inspired bath, body and pantry produce. Now the Australian is giving gardening advice that's actually about harvesting more joy from life.

time-read
4 mins  |
January 2025
JASMINE Chilcott
Marie Claire Australia

JASMINE Chilcott

Solution-based supplement brand FixBIOME prides itself having an education-first platform and a natural approach to gut health

time-read
2 mins  |
January 2025
BIG LOVE
Marie Claire Australia

BIG LOVE

One photographer seeks to dispel vulva stigma with a book that busts open the very real issue of body shame and turns it into self love.

time-read
3 mins  |
January 2025
Time out
Marie Claire Australia

Time out

Skincare that focuses on inner peace is changing attitudes to ageing

time-read
3 mins  |
January 2025
LOVE YOUR LIPS
Marie Claire Australia

LOVE YOUR LIPS

There's never a wrong time to wear a statement lipstick. marie claire puts the most-wanted lip colours under the spotlight to prove their pulling power, whatever the climate

time-read
2 mins  |
January 2025
JULIA
Marie Claire Australia

JULIA

Hollywood's quiet achiever Julia Garner is making a career of defying genre

time-read
10+ mins  |
January 2025
Club wellness
Marie Claire Australia

Club wellness

People are swapping happy hour for hyperbaric chambers and picking up potential partners in the sauna. Private wellness clubs, writes Kathryn Madden, are the new third places- if you're lucky enough to get in the door

time-read
6 mins  |
January 2025
LIFE in COLOUR
Marie Claire Australia

LIFE in COLOUR

The world's most successful living artist, Yayoi Kusama, will have eight decades of art on display in a blockbuster Australian exhibition.

time-read
3 mins  |
January 2025
So you want to be a stay-at-home mum?
Marie Claire Australia

So you want to be a stay-at-home mum?

As the fourth wave of feminism rolls over social media’s tradwives’, can you still admit you might want to leave your career to raise a family? Adrienne Tam reports on the latest motherhood taboo

time-read
8 mins  |
January 2025