Melanie Brown has had an interesting life, and as she becomes more open with the behind-the-scenes details, many of us are left a little bit confused.
Her time in the Spice Girls made her a household name, but now Brown is sharing more about her life and the struggles she has faces.
Brown has been dealing with the aftermath of her breakup with Stephen Belafonte, and some of the things she has done to move on from the abusive relationship have stunned some people.
In a recent episode of the panel show Loose Women, Brown revealed that to start fresh after leaving Belafonte, she took a drastic surgical approach to removing a tattoo she had in his honor.
Instead of getting the more common laser removal of the tattoo she had on her rib cage, Brown was able to convince her doctor to remove the skin surgically.
She said that her former husband had actually "forced" her to get the tattoo. "This one particular tattoo that my ex had forced me to have was 'Stephen until death do us part, you own my heart.'"
"A lot of my surgery was to do with getting out of my abusive relationship," Brown explained. "It was almost like a cleanse. I just wanted to feel fresh and new again and untouched by that person."
"I just thought I can't go through the pain of getting it lasered so I convinced a doctor to cut it off my body," Brown said of her unconventional methods. "It sounds horrific, but what I went through was so horrific."
Brown did one more thing that might make a few people feel a little bit grossed out. She took the piece of skin with the tattoo on it and put it in a jar, and still has it to this day.
"I've saved it in a jar, which sounds a bit strange, I know," she said. "It's at the top of my wardrobe. Nobody can see it, but I know it's there and it's off my body."
While the surgery may seem drastic to some, the abuse she endured was severe enough that she needed that freedom. "It's like if you're a rape victim the first thing you want to do is get in a bath and wash everything off you," she said. "I didn't want to have any remnants of him on me."
She admitted that the relationship took a toll on her confidence. "When you've given your power to somebody and they just really badly abuse it "” and your trust and your honesty and respect "” that takes so long to gain that confidence back."
Brown credits her father's passing as the event that gave her the courage to leave her abusive husband.
"It took the passing of my father to give me the strength to go, "˜Okay, my dad's now dead, and now I have to have the strength to carry on in a positive way and stop living in this lie and pretending nothing's happening and it's all a facade.' I wanted for it to just stop," she continued. "I wanted to have one night where I could just go to sleep peacefully and safely."
After her father's death, she filed for divorce and now she is free to make her own choices.
While keeping her own skin in a jar is not something a lot of people could relate to, at least she's safe, happy, and taking control of her own life.
For even more secrets about the pop star's life, you can read her new memoir called Brutally Honest. You can get it on Amazon here.
Have you ever gotten a tattoo as a tribute to a romantic partner?
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