Mel B rose to fame as a member of the girl group Spice Girls. The five girls took the world by storm in the late 90s and became one of the most successful girl groups of all time. Known as Scary Spice, Mel B was famous for her outrageous fashion choices and outspoken personality.

However, she also found herself in situations where she was mistreated.

Mel B has been speaking out about her experience with abuse in an effort to help those in similar situations. She was also at the center of a controversy when footage resurfaced of Mel B getting groped by Louis Walsh on television.

Despite the shocking and uncomfortable incident, Mel B reacted in a way that was true to her outspoken style.

Louis Walsh Groped Mel B On Camera During An Interview And The Internet Called Him Out

One thing Mel B and Louis Walsh have in common is their history as judges in reality singing competitions. Both of them have even been judges on The X-Factor.

In 2014, both judges were being interviewed on the spin-off show The Xtra Factor and something shocking took place on camera. Walsh could be seen grabbing Mel B's backside in a very inappropriate manner.

When Mel B noticed what was happening, she didn't hesitate to call Walsh out for his behavior.

"Why are you grabbing my butt?" Mel B said, interrupting host Sarah-Jane Crawford to call attention to what was happening.

Walsh just laughed off the incident and said, "I'm looking after Mel."

After moving away from Walsh, Mel B told him that his actions were "inappropriate."

While being interviewed by Mario Rosenstock on Today FM, Walsh tried to explain the moment as simply "a joke."

The clip went viral years later when Walsh appeared on Celebrity Big Brother. Social media users branded Walsh "disgusting" for the incident.

• One user wrote, "There’s literally footage of Louis Walsh - ON AN ITV SHOW - sexually harassing Mel B and yet he’s still welcomed and embraced by ITV years later? Be serious, something is rotten to the core there."
• "Louis Walsh, most famous for groping Mel B. Well done ITV for keeping him on your payroll," someone else posted.
• Another user wrote, "Not letting anybody forget Louis Walsh did this to Mel B. Disgusting man."

Mel B Has Been Open About Her Own Experience In An Abusive Relationship

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When Mel B spoke to Kirsty Young for the BBC Radio 4 podcast Young Again, she opened up about her experience in an abusive relationship.

Mel B had just come out of her relationship with Eddie Murphy. She described Murphy as 'the love of my life." The singer said the heartbreak left her in an extremely vulnerable state.

• "I’d just had a baby [Angel, with Eddie Murphy] and not like I wasn't in desperate emotional distress because I now had a baby to look after, I now had to figure out my future," Mel B said. "And don't forget, I've already got Phoenix [her first child], who I've already been single parent to. But I know what I need to do, I need to gather my tribe together and get the support and just be in that love bubble of just having a new baby."
• "But, you know, my emotions are all over the place," she continued. "And that's when this person swooped in, and I'm guessing, which is what always happens: they stalk you online, they find out your weaknesses, they watch you in interviews, and they build up an already pre-made character, and they know how to get into the cracks and that's exactly what he did."

Mel B shared what advice she would give to her younger self from her current perspective.

"When somebody is so over the top and so insistent on love bombing you, it's not really meant to happen like that. That should make somebody go, ‘Let me just hold on a second. I don't even know you properly. Let me just go through the paces.’"

While her closest friends and family tried to warn her, Mel B said this only resulted in them being driven out of her life.

"That's also what they're good at now, knowing that you're going to be told," Mel B said. "It is all a bit too much and very confusing, and it's very controlling... I've spoken to many, many survivors, being patron of Women's Aid, and it's exactly the same steps that they go through. I wish I would have known."

Mel Revealed She Eventually Escaped The Relationship, But It Was Very Difficult

One of the things Mel B explained at length was how difficult it was for her to escape.

"It can happen to anybody. I'm proof of it," Mel B said. "And I think the more outspoken, confident, very successful at what you do or passionate you are for what you do, the more of those traits you have, I think the more that you're a target for abuse, because the thing that they want to do is take that crystal shining person and have it all for themselves, and try and destroy it. That is their goal at the end of the day, just dim your light, take away your passions, your confidence, your money, your self-respect, your dignity. The satisfaction for an abuser is to actually manage to control that person and dim their light."

She added, "And then, as the abuser, you can make that light go on and off because you are fully in control of them, and you become like a robot."

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Mel B also said the love bombing would come back and there was even manipulation of her finances.

"They're very good at sensing when you're pulling away - then the flowers would come," she said. "Or another engagement or wedding ring would come, or a beautiful dinner would happen by surprise. And your friends and family have been invited. So it's like, ‘Oh, no, he does love me.’"

"Or then you're busy and he'll go to the accountant to meet him because you're so busy. ‘Well, that's nice,’ but then when you think about it, ‘No, it's not nice actually, because you're going to be financially abusing me also,’ but you don't think of it at the time because you are literally in flight or fight mode constantly. And when you leave that, you are literally left picking up the pieces and that's why so, so many women go back and it took me about seven times to leave."

"I'm leaving, and I'm going, ‘Where? Where am I going? I haven't spoken to my friends or family. I don't have a credit card. How am I actually gonna go with three kids I've got? Well, then I have to go back. It's the same vicious circle."

Mel B said that it was the death of her father, who had been ill with cancer, which gave her the strength to leave the relationship.

She said that she was whispering to her father "because I could feel that he was going, and I said, ‘Dad, I promise you, if you go peacefully, I'll get back to America, and I'll be done with this marriage. I'll leave that abuser.’ By that point, I'd already flown his mum over from Nevis, and his sister was there, so he was surrounded by family."

"He just looked at me and took his last breath, and I was like, well, that's a promise that I can never go back on. And that's what gave me the strength to leave, because I don't think I would have had the strength just by myself. But my dad gave me that."

Mel B said that she finally feels "calm" and "safe" now after her difficult past.