Eddie Murphy’s Saintly Dad Act Was ‘Unbearable’ for Mel B to Watch After He Plunged Them Into Vicious Paternity Battle and Years of Estrangement

Eddie Murphy‘s new boasts he is a dream dad have been “unbearable” for Mel B to watch, according to sources who tell OK! the star’s self-proclaimed saintly father persona has reopened old wounds from the former couple’s bitter paternity battle.

Murphy, 64, has bragged about being a perfect dad to his 10 kids while relentlessly promoting his new Netflix documentary Being Eddie, which was unveiled at the Tudum Theater in Los Angeles on November 12.

The comedian first became a father in 1989 with the birth of Eric, now 35, whom he shares with his ex Paulette McNeely.

He also shares Bria, 35, Myles, 32, Shayne, 30, Zola, 25, and Bella, 23, with ex-wife Nicole Murphy.

Completing Eddie’s massive brood is Christian, 34, whom he had with ex Tamara Hood, and he has 9-year-old Izzy and 6-year-old Max with second wife Paige Butcher. But while the film on his career and life highlights his devotion to family, insiders say Mel B, 50, found his commentary painful given their long estrangement over their daughter Angel, now 18 and living as a trans man.

Eddie said at the premiere of his documentary: “My superpower is that I am always, always present. Talk to one of my kids anytime of day and ask, ‘Where’s your dad right now?’ and they can look at their watch and tell you literally what part of the house I’m in. Dad is always present and always has been.”

He added during the event about his wife: “Oh, she’s at the center of it. She pulled it all together. I got a winner with Paige.”

In Being Eddie, the actor reflects on fatherhood and how his life changed after meeting Paige.

He says: “My kids are the center of everything – before kids it’s just about you, once you have kids, it’s all about them.”

Eddie added about how his domestic set-up has recently changed: “I used to stay up two days sometimes before going to bed, when I met (second wife Paige Butcher.).”

“I got more on her schedule and now we watch two episodes of Seinfeld and go to bed,” he added.

One source close to Mel B said the documentary and his claim at the premiere initially left her reeling. “When Eddie started talking like he’d always been the perfect father, it was a slap in the face,” the source said. “For years, Mel lived with the pain of him denying Angel, and hearing him describe himself as ‘always present’ felt like he was trying to rewrite history just to promote his film.”

Another source added: “She struggled with it at first, but she’s learned she has to live with Eddie’s version of things to keep their relationship afloat. She wants peace for Angel, even when some of Eddie’s remarks feel like they ignore everything she went through.”

Mel B has previously spoken about the warmer relationship that eventually developed between Eddie and their child.

She said: “(Angel and Eddie) spend time together, they go on holiday together. He has 10 kids – he’s a proper father.”

Mel B said her own circumstances, including what she described as an “abusive” marriage to Stephen Belafonte, had made co-parenting difficult, but that her friendship with Eddie has “flourished even more” as Angel has grown older.

Sources say despite the hurt, Mel B has decided not to challenge Eddie’s portrayal of himself as a dad from heaven. “She felt he was sanitizing the past,” one insider said. “But in the end she let it go. Angel loves his dad, and that matters more to Mel now than dredging up a painful past between her and Eddie.”

Mel first met Eddie at a party at his Beverly Hills mansion in 2006, and he planned a huge dinner party to meet her. The singer said she initially considered him her “soulmate,” and she and Eddie were branded one of showbiz’s oddest couples when they got together.

Their relationship rapidly ended before Mel – already then mom to daughter Phoenix, now 26, with her ex Jimmy Gulzar – announced she was pregnant with Eddie’s child.

According to Mel, their bond soured after she fell pregnant and fled to her homeland of Britain in the hope the comic would chase her down and beg to win her back.

Instead, he said in a TV interview he questioned if he was the father to Mel’s baby and would need a paternity test.

Despite sources saying the experience left Mel “traumatized and furious,” in 2019, she spoke forgivingly about Eddie.

She said on a 2019 episode of Piers Morgan’s Life Stories: “(Eddie) apologizes to this day about (the paternity test issue.) He wishes he never said it because that baby was planned – we planned that baby together, and we were madly in love, and it just went wrong… dramatically went wrong.”

In her 2018 memoir Brutally Honest, Mel said she and Eddie’s relationship lasted longer than people thought. She also claimed it was her who forced Eddie to take the DNA test in order for him to acknowledge their child.