Mel B's Spice secret

Aug 10, 2007, 11:00 GMT

Melanie \'Scary Spice\' Brown EPA/ANDREW GOMBERT

Mel B didn't tell her Spice Girls bandmates about her secret wedding.

The 32-year-old singer - who married her film producer lover Stephen Belafonte in a Las Vegas ceremony on June 6 - kept quiet because she wanted to avoid being criticised for marrying while simultaneously fighting a paternity battle with ex-lover Eddie Murphy.

A source said: "Mel didn't want to tell anyone about her wedding. I don't think even her daughter Phoenix knew about it.

"Mel didn't tell the other girls and she hadn't told her family.

"She thought the timing looked bad giving she is in the middle of a paternity battle with Eddie Murphy."

Mel - who tied the knot with Stephen just one month after reports surfaced they were dating - is expected to invite bandmates Victoria Beckham, Mel C, Geri Halliwell and Emma Bunton to a big wedding bash later in the year.

The couple - who have been friends for seven years - paid just $59 for their nuptials at the 'drive-thru' Special Memory Wedding Chapel.

Mel - who has a four-month-old daughter Angel Iris with Eddie - protected her fortune by making Stephen sign a pre-nuptial agreement.

The singer is being more cautious in her second marriage, after she had to pay out £1.25 million to her ex-husband Dutch dancer Jimmy Gulzar - the father of her eight-year-old daughter, Phoenix - in their divorce settlement.

(C) BANG Media International