Is it wrong that my first thought on hearing that Scary Spice Melanie B was splitting with her husband of a whopping three years, Stephen Belafonte, was “what took them so long?” Several British rags are reporting that the couple is divorcing, although Melanie B has yet to officially comment Stephen has maybe-confirmed that they’re heading in that direction. He’s quoted as supposedly saying “Dude, it’s over. Mel’s coming back to the U.K. soon – but I won’t be coming with her. There’s been problems lately. I don’t know what’s happening.” Only according to The Sun, which is as about as reliable as all the other sources for this story, they’re still together but they have “rows, often fuelled by drink.” I love how Brits phrase things. They make even drunken fights sound fancy. Here’s The Sun’s report, which seems to be true in light of the fact that these two were just papped at dinner. We’ll have more on that in a moment.

FRIENDS of pop star MEL B last night denied her husband’s claims that their marriage had collapsed.
Film producer STEPHEN BELAFONTE, 35, insisted: “It’s over.”

He said she was moving back alone to Britain from the US, adding: “There’s problems. I don’t know what’s happening.”

But a close pal of the 35-year-old ex-Spice Girl said both had been put under stress by fly-on-the-wall TV show The Mel B Project.

The friend added: “Stephen can be a drama queen. There have been lots of rows, often fuelled by drink. But they’ll try and work things out.”

[From The Sun]

Melanie and Stephen have no biological children together but have been coparenting Melanie’s two daughters from previous relationships, Angel Iris Brown, three and a half, from Mel’s drama-filled relationship with Eddie Murphy, and Phoenix Chi, 11, from Mel’s marriage to Dutch dancer Jimmy Gulzar, which ended in 2000.

Melanie has been tweeting a lot but she hasn’t said anything about these rumors, as Contact Music points out. She’s mostly tweeting about her performances. She also has a new reality show on the Style Network coming up called “Mel B: It’s a Scary World.” It premieres this Sunday and I guess the question is whether Melanie and Stephen have fallen victim to the reality show curse before their show has even aired. It looks like Melanie and Stephen are hanging in there, though, as they were just photographed out to dinner at celebrity hangout Katsuya in LA last night. So was this whole breakup story just some publicity for their show? I wouldn’t put it past them.

Photo credit: WENN.com. They’re also shown at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards last weekend.