"I've always been starstruck and followed my heart," says Melanie, who returned from America in 1981 to look after her dying mother.
Shortly afterwards she met Anthony Sharman, now 53, the man she has been with ever since and who helps run the estate agency with her. Together they have two children, Tabitha and Max, now 20 and 19.
Melanie's impulsive spirit surfaced again in 1997 when the couple decided to leave their cottage in Snape, Suffolk, and move to the laidback surfers' town of Tarifa, the most southerly point of Spain overlooking the Moroccan coast.
At first they rented a farmhouse in the hills, while Melanie travelled the world establishing an antiques business. Their children attended school on the beach.
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Melanie's first moment of fame, receiving a prize from Paul McCartney for miming to Brenda Lee on Ready Steady Go! in 1963
"Then in 2002, we bought a farm in Sala Vieja, ten miles from Tarifa, for £40,000, with an old farmhouse and two large stables.
"We had seen a neighbour put up several wooden houses to rent out, so we decided we would build something similar," she says.
The three-bedroom wood-panelled house would have cost about £30,000 but Melanie insisted on building on more solid foundations and spent a further £20,000 reinforcing the structure.
The idea was that she and Anthony would live in the house while they set about making the farmhouse habitable.
But making it more solid meant the wooden house was no longer a movable structure, which raised controversies over planning.
She also failed to realise that her 22,000sq m plot was in a natural park. Before long, the police made a call.
Boy Wonder: Burt Ward, who played Robin in the Sixties TV series Batman, dated Melanie in 1969
"The title deeds didn't show the farm was on parkland. Even the lawyer didn't realise.
"I wouldn't have bought the place if I'd known," says Melanie. "But I didn't think it was important. Back then, everyone was getting away with putting up illegal buildings and the maximum fine was only £5,000."
Nothing happened for four years. Then, in the summer of 2006, she was arrested.
"I was fingerprinted and had mugshots taken. There was mention of an 18-month prison sentence and a £30,000 fine.
"I was also told I would have to demolish the house as it was not built in traditional Andalusian style."
The case went to court but all charges were dropped. "I thought that was the end of it. I heard nothing more for another year until a prospective buyer offered me £300,000 for the farm.
"But their lawyer discovered there was a £140,000 fine on the house because it did not have planning permission.
"I had a week to pay, otherwise the courts had the right to freeze my bank accounts. I didn't have the money."
Melanie came to an agreement with the town hall that if she demolished the house, it would overlook the fine.
In February this year, she gave the structure to a local English teacher so that he could use the materials to rebuild a house for himself elsewhere.
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Out of the woods: Rather than pay a £140,000 fine for illegally building her wood-panelled home Melanie agreed to dismantle it, below
"Now there's just a great big hole in the garden," says Melanie, who still owns the farmhouse.
In Tarifa, properties are in short supply - prices have risen threefold in the past five years.
In its present state Melanie's farmhouse is worth £250,000.
"There are hundreds of illegally built homes in Tarifa, many of them now worth a lot of money as wealthier Spaniards bought second homes here," says Melanie.
As a result of her experiences in confronting the planners, the police and facing jail, Melanie has become something of an expert on Spanish planning law and lawyers approach her for advice.
Wiser: Now Melanie has set up a property company
During a lull in her court case, she began buying and converting old townhouses in Olvera, further inland to Ronda, which is one of the so-called "white towns' of Andalusia because of the whitewashed architecture. This led to her setting up Olvera Properties.
"Five years ago houses here could be bought for £10,000. I sold several to friends, then friends of friends, then realised I should go into business," says Melanie.
"Olvera is the Spain that was. It's the image we have before tourism took over. It's still cheap, friendly and neighbourly."
But when it comes to advising on property, her honesty gets the better of her.
"Because of what I've been through, I always ask clients who want to buy rural properties, 'Are you sure you want to do this?'
"I warn them that to do it legally, they will need plenty of money."
There is, at least, a ray of hope for Melanie's renovation project, as she has been told she will get permission at last to convert her farmhouse in Sala Vieja.
That means she may be leaving home one more time - to move into a house that's here to stay.
• Olvera Properties, 0844 734 3358, www.olveraproperties.com.
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