Mel B’s ‘marriage-wrecking’ nanny helps ex Stephen Belafonte buy £1m LA pad as Spice Girl lives in bungalow with mum

THE nanny accused of wrecking Mel B’s marriage has helped the star’s ex-husband buy a £1.1million house in LA — while the Spice Girl lives at her mum’s Leeds bungalow.

Mel, 45, is furious after it emerged that Lorraine Gilles gave Stephen Belafonte £154,000 towards the five-bedroom home.

The cash aid came after Mel was forced to make a payment of £1.8million to German Gilles after labelling her a “prostitute”.

Meanwhile the singer has had to move into mum Andrea’s three-bed bungalow following her costly divorce from Belafonte — who hooked up with Gilles during their marriage.

A source told The Sun last night: “It is extremely galling for Mel to see this when she hasn’t got any money to buy a house of her own.

“Lorraine got a lot of money from her case against Mel – now it is revealed that Lorraine has given hundreds of thousands to Stephen to go towards a house. Mel is aghast at the cheek of it all.

“She’s also paying Stephen a fortune and she’s got so many legal fees to pay. If she could afford to buy her own house she would — but she can’t.”

In March, The Sun pictured Gilles, 29, and Belafonte, 45, together and revealed they had been staying under the same roof at a different property in Los Angeles.

The nanny had also been pictured with Mel’s nine-year-old daughter Madison — which the singer claimed was in breach of a stayaway order.

Sources close to Belafonte insisted he and the nanny were just friends.

But in court documents from her bitter custody battle, Mel claimed Gilles was actually his “girlfriend” and “mistress”.

She alleged Belafonte instructed Madison to refer to Gilles as “Jenny’ to avoid detection.

The  documents, filed last month in California, have also revealed the large payment from Gilles to music producer Belafonte for the LA home.

The papers, seen by The Sun, claim: “Mr Belafonte received a gift in the amount of $200‚000 from Lorraine Giles (sic) to purchase property located (in Los Angeles) on 7/19/19.

“The alleged gift appears to have been a transfer directly into escrow and was not deposited into any of his bank accounts that were produced.”

The Hollywood Hills home is split over three storeys — boasting “gorgeous” views of Los Angeles — and has four bathrooms. It was bought by Belafonte for £1.1million in July 2019, after he took out an £820,000 loan, court documents reveal.

But lawyers for Scary Spice questioned how Belafonte had qualified for the home loan, as he had previously stated on an income declaration form he receives just $1,000 a month.

They claimed, in a court filing, that he said he received the amount for doing “odd jobs and projects”.

Belafonte’s place is currently being renovated and neither he or Gilles are living there. He is said to view it as an “investment” home. Mel admitted last year that she was having to live at her mum’s following her move back to the UK from LA.

Andrea has moved to a cottage in the garden of the property.

In a Q&A in London, Mel said: “Yes, I am living at my bloody mother’s house. She comes over every morning to cook breakfast, nosying, what’s going on in her house.”

But she added: “I’m so grateful and thankful that I can be around my family again and my kids around my family.” Gilles began working for the former X Factor judge Mel and Belafonte in 2009 when she was just an 18-year-old student.

She looked after Mel’s kids at her Hollywood Hills mansion but later became a central character in her bitter divorce.

Mel alleged that Belafonte had got Gilles pregnant during an affair they were having behind her back and paid for her to have an abortion.

Despite initially denying the affair, Gilles later admitted she had sex with him ten to 15 times. But she insisted the sex — as well as threesomes with Mel — were orchestrated by the singer and she had got pregnant during a one-night stand with another man.

Gilles accused Mel of “seducing a naive and a curious 18-year-old foreign exchange student with alcohol, fame and casual sex”.

In April last year Mel was forced to pay the former nanny £1.8million in an out-of-court settlement to a defamation lawsuit, after branding her a “prostitute”. A source close to Belafonte has previously denied that he is dating Gilles and said they are pals.

Mel — who split from Belafonte in 2017 — is still battling to get daughter Madison back in the UK with her eldest child Phoenix, 21, from her marriage to Jimmy Gulzar, and Angel, 13, whose dad is actor Eddie Murphy.

Mel declined to comment last night.

The Sun revealed yesterday that the Spice Girls hope to reshoot the video for their smash-hit debut Wannabe to mark their 25th anniversary. They came up with the money-making idea after coronavirus forced them to forget a final, celebratory tour.

Mel B, Mel C, 46, Emma Bunton, 44, Geri Horner, 47, are said to be looking at the re-make, but Victoria Beckham, 46, is said to be “exceedingly unlikely” to be involved.

Wannabe, which hit No1 in 1996, was the group’s best-selling song. The video was shot at the former Midland Grand Hotel in St Pancras, London.

GOT a story? RING The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL exclusive@the-sun.co.uk