Mel B turns to Eddie Murphy for advice

Singer Mel B's former husband Eddie Murphy has advised her to "stay classy" following her split from Stephen Belafonte.

According to a source, the 39-year-old has turned to her first husband for some advice on how to handle the situation and Murphy has told her to keep quiet, reports dailystar.co.uk.

"Eddie has told her to keep a lid on her feelings publicly. Stephen is the one doing all the talking and all the begging for her to go back to him. But Eddie has told her to keep quiet, stay classy and only talk when she has something to say," the source said.

Eddie and Mel split in 2006, with Murphy demanding a paternity test to prove that he was the father of her daughter Angel, seven.

But since then they have slowly patched things up and are again now firm friends.

Meanwhile, it has been a turbulent couple of weeks for Mel, after rumours about problems in her marriage surfaced, which led to a split over the weekend.

Controversy has swirled around the "X Factor" judge, who married Belafonte in 2007, after she recently split from him in the midst of rumours that he had abused her, which Belafonte has denied.