Mel B Says Husband Stephen Belafonte Beat Me Physically and Beat Me Down Emotionally

Mel B says she was emotionally weak when she married Stephen Belafonte, but it soon became apparent ... whenever she achieved success, he would literally beat her down to maintain control.

Mel B got a restraining order Monday, forcing Belafonte to leave the family home and stay clear of her and her 3 kids. In her declaration, she recounts why she married him. She says, "At the time, I was vulnerable. I was giving birth as a single mother, my self-esteem was very low, and my hormones were out of balance due to the pregnancy."

She says Belafonte "rushed in to help me in every way," saying in the beginning he was nice and supportive.

Shortly after they got married, Mel B says things changed dramatically. She says he would tell her she was "worthless, that he made me 'who I am,' that no one knows how really stupid I am."

She says he destroyed her self-confidence and self-esteem, especially because she was struggling to lose her pregnancy weight.

Mel B says she lived in abject fear he would make good on his threat to release sex tapes of them he recorded, threatening to ruin her career. She also says he threatened to release the videos to Children's Services in an attempt to have the kids taken away.

As we reported, she says it got so bad, in December 2014, she tried committing suicide by swallowing an entire bottle of Aspirin.

She says the final humiliation was when he allegedly began having sex with their nanny, got her pregnant and told her they should all just live together. She says she got up the gumption to fire the nanny and leave him, but he fired back that the nanny would leak damaging stories to the media and Children's Services. She was so scared she re-hired the nanny and stayed with him.

Even after separating from him in December, she began posting messages suggesting she and Belafonte were working things out. She says what finally gave her the push was her father dying last month. She says Belafonte said, "Suck it up. If he's going to die, he's going to die," and that was the final straw.

Belafonte tells TMZ he questions the motives of her accusations.