( reuters.com ) - Former Spice Girl Melanie Brown is taking ex-boyfriend Eddie Murphy to court to force him to take a paternity test to prove he is the father of her baby daughter, People magazine's online site reported on Wednesday. Brown, 31, gave birth to her second daughter on April 3 in a California hospital, naming the girl Angel Iris Murphy Brown after the Hollywood comedian who disputes that the child is his. Brown and Murphy split up last December.
"He's not doing a DNA test and he's not signing the birth certificate," Brown, who performed under the name Mel B and was nicknamed Scary Spice, told People magazine. "So it's going to have to go to court so he can be forced to do it, which is strange since he was the one asking for it."
Brown, who has an 8-year-old daughter Phoenix from her ex-husband Jimmy Gulzar, has long maintained that Murphy, 46, is her new baby's father although he told a Dutch TV show in December that he would not be convinced without a DNA test. Brown said Murphy has not been in contact since Angel was born.
"He hasn't seen his daughter. My people have contacted his people and they just had no response to anything," she said. "I just think no woman should have to go through that and no baby should have to go through that. Be responsible. What else can you say?"
Reuters was unable to contact Brown's representative for comment while Murphy's representative Arnold Robinson, contacted by the magazine, declined to comment.