Melanie Brown stands by her man

"Spice Girls" singer Melanie Brown has defended her new husband, Stephen Belafonte, by categorically denying reports that he's a "wife beater".

Brown secretly married Stephen Belafonte, a film producer in June this year in a quiet ceremony - and soon after, it emerged that Belafonte has a criminal record for beating up his ex-partner and the mother of his child, Nicole Contreras.

Belafonte admitted attacking Contreras at her Beverly Hills home in May 2003 but escaped jail with probation and a suspended sentence.

But Melanie Brown has insisted that everyone has the wrong idea about her new husband.

She said: "Everything I stand for is about being a strong, independent woman, so for him to be seen as a wife beater is devastating for me because he's not - he never has been.

"They're trying to make him out to be this aggressive, violent, woman batterer and he's not".