Stephen Belafonte was reportedly seen downing neat vodkas at a restaurant in Los Angeles shortly after his estranged wife Mel B announced her decision to divorce before he burst into a foul-mouthed rant in front of stunned diners.
The former Spice Girl requested to end their 10-year marriage on Monday (20.03.17) but, despite rumours their romance had been on the rocks for some time, the news hasn’t sat well with the 41-year-old film producer and he was spotted having a booze-infused meltdown at their restaurant Serafina Sunset.
An onlooker told The Sun newspaper: "Stephen turned up at 9pm and headed straight for the bar with a friend.
"The barman was filling him up with glass after glass of neat vodka and he was swearing his head off, while in a very loud conversation.
"A lot of customers nearby looked shocked and uncomfortable but he just looked like he couldn’t care less. When someone then approached him to ask how he was, he said: ‘I’ve been f***ing better!’ When another complimented him on the restaurant, he bowled up to them and said: ‘Go buy yourself a f***ing drink then.’
"One customer was spoken to so rudely that a waitress apologised for Stephen’s behaviour and said he had been drowning his sorrows for weeks, and since news of the divorce broke his temper had become twice as bad."
Stephen left the venue, which he and Mel opened last year, at around 11:30pm but, according to another source, he was absolutely "obliterated."
Although Mel’s decision to permanently end their turbulent marriage hasn’t gone down well with Stephen, it’s believed they’d recently mutually decided to split because they were having "blow-out arguments non-stop".
A source said recently: "They started from the beginning when they realised they were very different people, who would argue and row. Their personalities were like fire and ice, one minute it was pure adoration and the next it was an all-out war.
"It led to them having blow-out arguments non-stop."
And the tragic death of Mel’s father Martin is said to have given the 41-year-old singer – who has daughter Madison, five, with Stephen – "a moment of complete clarity" and helped her make the decision to file for divorce.