Geri Horner on being a mum and a Spice Girls reunion

I’m the one who flounced off from the Spice Girls, Geri Horner tells Event – but now I’m the one keeping the gang together. But before we all get really, really excited about a reunion, Ginger Spice (retired) has a more pressing gig… taking on Tom Jones and The Voice with a new Saturday-night talent show 

After five years of under-the-radar domestic bliss, Geri Horner – née Halliwell – is finally returning to the limelight to put a bit of Ginger Spice back into prime-time television. The woman once cheeky enough to pinch Prince Charles’s bum, who was responsible for shifting more than 100 million records as a Spice Girl and solo artist, is to front All Together Now. 

This is the BBC’s Saturday-night replacement for The Voice, which it will now compete against in the ratings, since that show, featuring Tom Jones and Olly Murs, transferred to ITV. 

After five years of under-the-radar domestic bliss, Geri Horner – née Halliwell – is finally returning to the limelight

The new show features wannabe singers performing in front of an audience of 100 experts in an attempt to win a £50,000 prize. It’s hosted by Geri and comedian Rob Beckett, who made his name on I’m A Celebrity… and 8 Out Of 10 Cats. 

The concept, from the makers of Pointless, is a variation on formulaic prime-time talent shows, but here contestants have to get the audience to sing along with them. The more people who stand up and join in, the more votes they score – and the more likely they are to progress. 

‘The way I think of it is that it’s like The Muppet Show,’ says Geri. ‘The Muppets performed in front of that theatre full of other Muppets – like the grumpy duo, Statler and Waldorf. We have our experts in those boxes – people from all walks of musical life, from cruise-ship performers to record producers, West End singers and a drag queen. Rob is the Kermit hosting the show and I’m the Miss Piggy, all glammed up, talking to anyone and throwing myself into everything.’ 

Today, though, in a deconsecrated church in north London, where we’re meeting for an exclusive interview and photo-shoot, all is not well in Geri’s world. She warns everyone from the photographer to the stylist to keep their distance – not just because she has flu, but because of the method she’s chosen to cure it. The only thing she’s eaten this morning is a few crushed cloves of garlic, a trick she learned from her Spice Girls days. 

She either takes them neat or ‘I crush up three cloves with honey and put it in a sandwich’. As remedies go, it’s pretty unconventional, but then if she’s not chewing garlic for breakfast she’s slugging back apple cider vinegar mixed with bicarbonate of soda. ‘It increases the alkaline levels in the body,’ she asserts. 

Since becoming Mrs Horner, Geri has become less Girl Power and more Domestic Goddess

Since becoming Mrs Horner, Geri has become less Girl Power and more Domestic Goddess

So far this is classic kooky Ginger, whose dietary tricks and elevated yoga levels enabled her to wrap her legs around her head a few years back. Clearly the regime works as, aged 45 and Botoxfree, Geri, despite her flu and early-morning wake-ups with one-year-old son Monty, is looking like she could still ‘viva forever’. 

Monty George (named after her close friend, the late George Michael) is part of the reason Geri has recently been out of the public eye. In 2014, she met then married Christian Horner, head of the Red Bull Racing Formula One team, who has become stepfather to Bluebell, her 11-year-old daughter from a previous relationship with screenwriter Sacha Gervasi. 

Since becoming Mrs Horner, Geri has become less Girl Power and more Domestic Goddess, appearing on 2016’s Sport Relief Bake Off (her ginger biscuits ziga-zig-ah-d her all the way to the title) and The One Show, and releasing just one song, Angel In Chains, as a tribute to George Michael. 

The brash red hair has been replaced by a subtle auburn, and the Union Jack skirts by sleek trouser suits or casual French chic. These days, rather than shocking the monarchy, as she did with that bottom pinch, she is outraged on their behalf. ‘I loved the first series of The Crown,’ she says. ‘But I’ve had to stop watching the second series. It’s all about affairs and terrible things going on in their private life. I feel embarrassed watching it because I love the Queen. She’s incredible. But this is her family. Our Royal Family. It’s not Dallas. I can’t watch it until I know what they think of it. It makes me feel unpatriotic. I keep thinking, what is Claire Foy [who plays Elizabeth in the Netflix drama] going to do if she ever has to meet the Queen – or what would the Queen say to her? I want to find out what the Royal Family think about it. If they aren’t watching it, I’m not going to.’ 

Geri, who sensationally quit the Spice Girls in 1998 at the height of their fame, is far less controversial than she used to be. There is no more running naked down hotel corridors, as she used to do with her bandmates Victoria Beckham, Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown and Melanie Chisholm. There’s been much speculation about the band reuniting for their 25th anniversary next year. In 2016, 20 years after the release of their first big hit, Wannabe, Geri teamed up with Bunton and Brown as the splinter group GEM, but they never made it to a tour. 

‘At the time we wanted to do something to mark Wannabe,’ she says. ‘I was totally up for the idea of getting [the band] together because I thought it would be amazing for the fans and just a lot of fun. We all talked about it, but Victoria didn’t want to do it because she has a whole different life now, and Mel C didn’t feel it was right. I was completely cool about that. 

‘Emma, Mel and I still wanted to do something to mark it, and for other reasons. I went to see Fleetwood Mac, and when they played The Chain everyone went berserk because it took them back to hearing it for the first time. That’s something that happens at a reunion. 

‘I remember standing in my kitchen with Emma saying she just wanted her kids to see what she was part of. I saw the pain in her eyes, because it meant something to her to do it for her little boys. We never agreed on the name GEM – it was just our initials that I put up as a domain name and then it got picked up as if we were going to be performing as GEM. Most of 2016 was taken up with talking about it but we never quite managed to get dates, schedules and everything together – we all had other stuff going on. Then I fell pregnant with Monty and it just seemed best to leave it. 

Geriwith the Spice Girls (Victoria Beckham, Melanie Chisholm, Melanie Brown and Emma Bunton) in 1997

Geriwith the Spice Girls (Victoria Beckham, Melanie Chisholm, Melanie Brown and Emma Bunton) in 1997

‘As far as another tour happening, there are no plans. Funnily enough, even though I’m the one who left the Spice Girls, I’m always the one talking to everyone. I’m like Woody from Toy Story, keeping everyone together. I spoke to Emma this morning and texted Mel C and Mel B yesterday, and I sent a message to Victoria a few days ago. They are still my family. We were a pack, which is probably why none of us at that time suffered from the sort of sexual abuse that is being talked about now. We looked out for each other. I care about all of them. I’m there for whatever anyone is going through [though she refuses to speak about Mel B’s recent divorce], and I’m always open to doing something with the girls, but there are no plans at the moment.’ 

She claims that her frenetic lifestyle with the world’s biggest-ever girl band made her take time out after meeting Horner, who also has a daughter, Olivia, four, from a previous relationship. ‘During the Spice Girls I never had time for a relationship, and even when I was a solo artist it was always work, work, work. One year I didn’t have a single day off – not even a Sunday. I was once asked out by a very highprofile, great guy but I just turned him down saying I was too tired. Whatever was going on, I always put my career first.’ 

The experience took its toll on her health, and during her 20s she suffered from bulimia. ‘I was right in the thick of fame. Life was so hectic. People self-medicate, whether it’s alcohol, drugs or relationships, but for me it was food.’ At the age of 29, after her weight dropped from nine stone to seven stone, Geri was advised by Robbie Williams, who she briefly dated in the Nineties, to seek help. She flew to the £500-a-day Cottonwood Clinic in Arizona to deal with her eating disorder. In the past she has credited Williams, who recently revealed that he once hid her in a duffle bag to foil the paparazzi, with saving her life by telling her to seek treatment. 

Geri with her daughter Bluebell on This Morning last year. Geri has now decided to put her family before her career

Geri with her daughter Bluebell on This Morning last year. Geri has now decided to put her family before her career

The Spice Girls meet Prince Charles in 1997. The world we are living in is a very different place from John Major’s Britain when the Spice Girls first got together

The Spice Girls meet Prince Charles in 1997. The world we are living in is a very different place from John Major’s Britain when the Spice Girls first got together

‘I went and it worked,’ she says. ‘I was lucky.’ She no longer suffers from extreme swings in body shape: she is not as curvy as she was during her Spice Girls heyday nor as painfully thin as she appeared in the first stages of her solo career. Having conquered bulimia she looks toned and comfortable in her skin. 

‘In a way, my problems started when I hit my 30s,’ she says. ‘I feel very sorry for women at that age because you feel so much more judged by society. You lose that effervescent bravado of youth. You go to nightclubs, but you’re not sure if you still like being there, and the things you did in your 20s you don’t enjoy so much. The pressure really kicks in – the pressure to be in a relationship, to find Mr Right, to have a baby, to look good, to have a great career – and the pace of life slows down so you feel things so much more. 

‘Once I hit my 40s things changed again. I became a wife, I had another child and I wanted to appreciate what was going on in my life. I’m a late bloomer. I always have been. I was the last one to join the Spice Girls. I missed the first audition because I got so sunburnt on a skiing trip my face exploded. I kept the advert from The Stage and I called to see if they’d picked their girls – I turned up at the final auditions and got in. I got married late, I want to go to Oxford University when I’m 60, I had Monty later in life and I’m old enough to know you have to give yourself to being a mum and a wife.’ 

Geri with George Michael, who was a close friend. After his death Geri recorded a tribute to the popstar

Geri with George Michael, who was a close friend. After his death Geri recorded a tribute to the popstar

Ger with husband Christian Horner and children Monty, Bluebell and Olivia

Ger with husband Christian Horner and children Monty, Bluebell and Olivia

Geri with Robbie Williams and a friend in 2001. All Together Now is Geri’s first major TV venture since she was a judge on Pop Stars: The Rivals in 2002

Geri with Robbie Williams and a friend in 2001. All Together Now is Geri’s first major TV venture since she was a judge on Pop Stars: The Rivals in 2002

It is clear that, despite her return to primetime TV, Geri has now decided to put her family before her career. She says: ‘Christian is brilliant. He changes nappies and we are a big, blended family. But he’s away a lot with Formula 1. My plan was to do an album, but after George died I worked with all his musicians to make that one single and two things happened to me. It liberated me from the grief I felt for the kindest man in the world, who was such a great friend to me, and it showed me that going out there, as a performer in a music industry that has changed so much since I was last in it, wasn’t right for me. 

‘I did one performance where I got back at four in the morning and had Bluebell jumping on me at 8am. I don’t want to be the mother saying leave me alone I need to sleep because I’m putting my career first. I want to do the school run. I want to be up with Monty. I do have a nanny and I have my mum, but I want to have a balance. I didn’t have that for so many years. It would be madness not to cling on to it now.’ 

All Together Now is Geri’s first major TV venture since she was a judge on Pop Stars: The Rivals in 2002. And she’s not shy about her previous achievements in this field. 

‘I’ll tell you what I want…’

Champagne or kale shake? 

‘Neither. Hot water and lemon.’ 

PJs or commando in bed? 

‘PJs. I do still wear army pants but not when I’m in bed.’ 

Bake Off or MasterChef? 

‘Bake Off, of course.’ 

Radio 4 or Radio 1? 

‘Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 and my lovely Emma [Bunton] on Heart FM.’ 

Taxi or Tube? 

‘Both. Keep your options open.’ 

Make-up or the natural look? 

‘Both. Make-up-free in the house and make-up on for TV.’ 

Tiger mum or hippy mum? 

‘I’m a panda mum, which means I try to keep the children safe and happy.’ 

Night in front of the TV or a nightclub? 

‘TV. I loved Blue Planet, and Love Island is my guilty pleasure.’ 

Sports car or Chelsea tractor? 

‘I drive a beaten-up old car that I’ve had for 11 years, but I do get to go in some very nice sports cars thanks to my husband.’

‘I was the one who picked out Cheryl Tweedy. There was something about her. It wasn’t necessarily her singing, it was just her. There was something sassy about her, and I thought, “That’s my girl”.’ So does she get regular thanks for kick-starting Cheryl’s career? 

‘No,’ she says, laughing. ‘It doesn’t work like that. People move on and get on with things. But she’s done brilliantly. She was a good pick. 

‘I did Pop Stars: The Rivals right at the beginning of all these [talent] shows, but after that I never wanted any big commitments. After doing that record for George, I thought it was time to throw my hat back into the showbusiness ring. But I wanted to come back in a show that was about music and entertainment and wasn’t about being cruel or dangling a promise of turning someone into a star.’ 

The world we are living in is a very different place from John Major’s Britain when the Spice Girls first got together. With equal rights and sexual abuse at the front and centre of the social political agenda, how does she feel about the Time’s Up movement? 

‘Changes are happening and that’s amazing. The pendulum is swinging and that makes life exciting. I’d like to think Girl Power had a little to do with it.’ 

‘All Together Now’ begins on January 27 at 7.45pm on BBC1

 

 

 



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