Mel B Recalls ‘Embarrassing’ Moment With Prince William

Spice Girls singer Mel B was honored as a Member of the Order of the British Empire last year during a ceremony with Prince William at Buckingham Palace. The former America’s Got Talent judge wore a risque dress to the event, which put William in an awkward position. She thinks her fellow former Spice Girls member, Victoria Beckham, may have set her up for an “embarrassing” moment.

“Prince William gave me my medal and it was quite embarrassing,” Mel B, whose full name is Melanie Brown, said on the Jan. 18 episode of Live with Kelly and Ryan. “I didn’t realize the medal actually goes here on your chest, and Victoria [Beckham] designed my dress – me and my mom’s dress – for the occasion and she put a big slit [across the bodice] and I was like, ‘Oh, sorry!’ [to William].”

The vibrant red mini dress included a small opening below her neckline, which meant Prince William had to pin the medal near her cleavage. Mel B jokingly said she thought Beckham knew it would be awkward for the now-Prince of Wales. “She did a number on me,” Mel B, 47, said. Beckham, 48, received her own MBE in 2017 in recognition of her work in the fashion industry.

Mel B attended the ceremony with her mother, Andrea Brown. Afterward, Beckham joined Mel B at a party celebrating her honor. Mel B shared a photo of the two at the party, hugging behind a cake marking the occasion.

“My spice sister Vic, I can’t thank you enough for your enormous generosity,” Mel B wrote. “Not only did you dress me and my mum but you surprised me by actually being there to fit us… it was just soooooooo special thanks to YOU and your fabulousness. Honestly what a perfect ending to a magical day you booked a [lovely] dinner together with both our families Wowza 25 years of friendship and we still like each other haha I love you lots.”

While Mel B is known around the world for her work with the Spice Girls, her OBE honored her work for raising awareness of domestic abuse. She is a patron of Women’s Aid, a British charity that seeks to end violence against women and children, notes Us Weekly. The cause is personal for the singer, who accused her ex-husband Stephen Belafonte of physical, sexual, and financial abuse in her memoir Brutally Honest. Mel B and Belafonte are parents to daughter Madison, 11, and she is now engaged to Rory McPhee.

“This is me smiling to myself looking at my MBE but what you don’t see in this post is the huge army of women that are holding me up, giving me strength to keep going because my story is their story and their story is mine,” Mel B wrote on Instagram after the ceremony. “Understand this MBE is YOURS… OURS together. We did this not to just highlight this epidemic but to bring hope back in our lives that we are important and what happened to us is a crime so please don’t give up.”

“I pray the justice system will hear and see each and every one of us,” she continued. “That’s my mission and I will not stop talking about it sharing our stories freeing ourselves of guilt and shame still I must point out that still to this day more than 1 woman every week is killed by a former or current partner STILL STILL shockingly.”