Spice Girl Mel B.’s ex-husband is continuing to wage a war against her in court, as their custody battle for their 8-year-old daughter, Madison, progresses. Official legal documents indicate that Stephen has asked the court to grant him full and legal custody of Madison, on the grounds that Mel has allegedly “abandoned” her since permanently moving to the U.K. in recent years. Stephen claimed that he has been Madison’s sole caregiver for most of 2018 and 2019, as Mel resides in the U.K. completely absent from their daughter’s life. Though Stephen has indicated that he would accept supervised visits between Mel and Madison, he insists that they would have to take place in Los Angeles.

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This is just the latest development in Mel and Stephen’s ongoing custody battle over Madison, which has been escalating ever since they settled  This past December, Stephen successfully convinced a judge to prevent Mel from bringing Madison to the U.K. for the holidays, arguing that he wanted to avoid subjecting Madison to  Stephen revealed that, after he couldn’t get a hold of Mel at Thanksgiving, Madison told him that her mother had been interrogating her about him. He claimed that “her mother would make her sit in a dark room and repeatedly question her over and over and demand answers from her,” which made Madison “afraid her mother would hurt her.” Thus, Stephen wants to make all parental decisions about their daughter, including medical care, schooling, etc. The judge has yet to sign off on Stephen’s custody requests.