BRANDY - BRANDY SPLITS FROM FIANCE

R+B singer BRANDY has ended her 15-month engagement with basketball star QUENTIN RICHARDSON.

New York Knicks player Richardson, 25, proposed to the 26-year-old single mother with a $1 million (GBP555,500) engagement ring in July 2004.

After the couple mysteriously split last month (SEP05), Brandy has taken painful steps to have a tattoo of Richardson on her back transformed into a cat.

Brandy divorced her producer husband ROBERT SMITH - the father of her three-year-old daughter SY'RAI - in 2003 after a two-year marriage.

Last year (04), Smith told a New York radio station the couple were never married and pretended to be wed to protect Brandy's reputation when she became pregnant with Sy'Rai out of wedlock.

Brandy said of their union, "We had a non-traditional marriage. I didn't go to city hall, I didn't have a minister. We had a spiritual union and a true commitment to each other."