The 35-year-old former Spice Girl – who already has 12-year-old Phoenix Chi and three-year-old Angel Iris from previous relationships – is expecting her first baby with her husband Stephen Belafonte this summer and has revealed the pair are thrilled with the news.

Mel – who has been married to Stephen for three-and-a-half years – said: “We’re really excited. We wouldn’t have planned and waited for four yours to have a baby if we weren’t really excited about it and ready for it. Even though you can never really be truly ready.”

When Mel broke the news to Stephen – who also has a six-year-old daughter, Giselle, from a former partner – he toasted the news with a glass of champagne, the last drink Mel will have before she has the baby.

Stephen said: “I promptly got a bottle of Cristal champagne and said, ‘Baby, enjoy this glass because you can’t drink anymore!’ I must tell you, she really enjoyed that glass of Cristal.”

The singer-and-fitness icon also revealed they are not yet sure if they want to know the sex of the child.

She added to Britain’s HELLO! magazine: “I haven’t fully decided if I want to know or not. I’m over the first trimester, so I’m past the shady three months and on to safe territory. The first three months, I was pretty sick and tired, to be honest, which I’ve never been before.”

Just last week, Mel – who along with Victoria Beckham and Emma Bunton is the third Spice Girl to currently be expecting – revealed she planned to be pregnant by the end of 2011 because she “loves” having kids.

She said: “I’m always broody. Hopefully, I’m going to be pregnant by the end of this year, or, if not, next year. I love kids.”

The former Spice Girls singer – who has been married to the movie producer since 2007 – has claimed seeing a family counselor with her spouse has helped the couple to “work through their frustrations”.

She explained: “Stephen and I have been seeing a family therapist – normally once a week. It’s nice to show your vulnerability sometimes.

“I work through my frustrations by talking. I talk a lot. I’ve always been very open – maybe that’s why I got the name Scary Spice.”

In August, Stephen, 35, said the couple had called time on their four-year relationship, but 35-year-old Mel has insisted they have since patched things up and are as “tight” as ever.

She added: “We’re very tight. You might think we’re volatile but we’re not. We don’t row – we have ‘conversations’. We agree to disagree. We want a baby and plan on having one in the next year.”

The British-born star – who has daughters Phoenix, 11, and Angel Iris, three, from previous relationships – recently revealed her and Stephen, who also has a child, six-year-old Giselle, are keen to expand their brood and would love to have a son.

Mel said: “I love kids. Between me and my husband, we have three. So yeah, we definitely want to have some together, which would be good. It’d be nice to throw a boy in there too because we’ve got three girls. We’ll see.”

Former Spice Girl Melanie Brown has spoken out for the first time to dispel rumors her marriage is in trouble.

The singer has been faced with reports she is heading for a divorce from husband Stephen Belafonte after the filmmaker reportedly told a British tabloid last month that the couple’s union is over.

Brown’s representative later insisted the relationship is “all fine”, but the pair has so far remained tight-lipped about the state of their marriage.

But now the star has slammed the ongoing gossip, insisting she is happy in her relationship.

She says, “We are very tight, these rumours get spread and snowball. We are far from getting divorced.”

Kim Kardashian and Mel B

Stacy Keibler, Kim Kardashian and Lo Bosworth

Is it real or is it a wig? Mel B shows off her new haircolor at a photocall to Launch Glaceau Vitamin Water on October 27, 2009 in London.