As the Spice Girls celebrate the 30-year anniversary of the audition that first brought them all together (!), Mel B is honoring another big milestone in her life. The singer (real name: Melanie Brown) shared a slideshow of photos on Instagram with a touching caption, revealing that it was 7 years ago when she promised her dad—who died shortly thereafter—that she’d leave her abusive ex.
Brown has been open about the abuse she experienced at the hands of her ex-husband, to whom she was married from 2007 to 2017. Now, she’s looking back on the day she reunited with her estranged father, with her dad giving her “the courage to leave.”
In her caption, she writes, “my dad I loved more than anyone my dad who would be 70 this year my dad who I miss sooo much every single day,” adding, “Everyone’s dad is special but I am who I am cos of my dad.”
She describes her dad as an immigrant who arrived to her hometown in Leeds from Nevis, a small island in the Caribbean, when he was just 9 years old. “He was everything to me,” she writes. “I used to watch him from my window every morning going to work on his bike doing different weeks of long shifts as a copper welder he never moaned never missed a days work.” Her dad also “never complained” about the racism he experienced being a Black man “in 1970s working class Leeds married to a white girl who was just 19 when she got pregnant with me.”
Brown notes that her father gave her a strong work ethic, though she admits he didn’t think “being a singer and dancer would ever be a proper job.” It seems when she landed her spot in the iconic pop group, her dad told her two things: “to eat my vegetables and never forget where I came from. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my dad.”
Now engaged and a mom of three, Brown says she does “everything” with her dad’s spirit in mind, including eating her vegetables. “I love you dad I miss you you will always be my hero I have never forgotten when I come from I am back here in leeds and yes dad im eating all my vegetables.”
Brown previously shared that she’d been estranged from her family because she was ashamed and afraid to tell them the abuse she’d been experiencing. Here’s hoping she never again has to know that feeling in any form. Her candidness will no doubt help other women who have gone through the same in their own lives.
If you or someone you know is struggling with domestic abuse, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline to chat with a trained advocate or call 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788. If you are in crisis and need immediate help, text HOME to 741741.
