Geri Halliwell remains supportive of husband Christian Horner despite the sexting scandal and his dismissal by Red Bull. Photo / Getty Images
Are the wheels about to come off another celebrity marriage? These are testing times for former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell and her husband, Christian Horner, after the latter was sacked yesterday by Formula One team Red Bull.
Horner had been the all-powerful team principal since 2005, but his position was called into question after he was involved in a sexting scandal with a female member of staff.
In February last year, Red Bull said it had begun an investigation into Horner, 51, who denied the woman’s allegations of “inappropriate, controlling behaviour”. Later that month, it announced that the investigation was complete and “the grievance has been dismissed”.
A subsequent appeal by the woman was rejected in August. Screenshots of the alleged WhatsApp messages between her and Horner were then leaked. However, he seemed to have survived.
But yesterday, everything changed. Suddenly, Horner is out, replaced as chief executive by Laurent Mekies.
Is this related to Red Bull’s recent disappointing performance on the track? And, despite being previously cleared of wrongdoing, has the stress of the allegations about his behaviour taken its toll?
The answer to those questions is key to what another powerful figure decides to do next – Horner’s wife of 10 years, Geri Halliwell, aka Ginger Spice.
Halliwell, 52, has already endured the mortifying experience of standing by her man at the height of his scandal: in March 2024, at the Bahrain Grand Prix, she pasted on a rictus grin and, in the glare of the cameras, she and her husband held hands and shared a kiss. Her newfound dedication to all-white clothing fitted the occasion perfectly, the colour seeming to denote innocence and serenity amid the firestorm.
“It was definitely a performance,” says publicist Mark Borkowski. But the fact that Halliwell was willing to endure such humiliation and put on a show was telling, he thinks. “I’m pretty sure she’ll stick with him. She’s very resourceful and strong – she’s been through the ups and downs of toxic fame, so she knows how to handle it. Someone who hasn’t had that experience might struggle.”
An insider who has met the couple says: “There was a lot of scepticism when they first got together. But they’ve been together a long time now, they have a close-knit family, and they seem genuinely in love. Geri is very sweet with Olivia [Horner’s daughter with previous partner Beverley Allen]. She threw Christian an incredible 50th birthday party [in 2023] – Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood and Gary Barlow were there.
“From what I’m hearing today, she remains very supportive of him. She’s pretty battle-hardened after dealing with the paparazzi for years. She maintains a stiff upper lip when times get hard.”
Horner told The Telegraph in 2023: “Geri has been in the public eye for 25 to 30 years now. She’s seen the good side of the press and the bad. So when there’s some big flashpoint or controversy […] she’s excellent at putting things in perspective.”
In that interview, Halliwell said of Horner: “I still call him out sometimes, as any wife does.” But in 2024, speaking about the scandal, Horner praised his “unbelievable, fantastic” spouse for being “absolutely outstanding and hugely supportive”.
Will that support continue? It depends on what exactly happened at Red Bull, notes Borkowski. “If more details have emerged about what led to his sacking that she finds intolerable, then she’ll have a big decision.” The Telegraph has contacted Halliwell’s representatives for comment.
Halliwell relished being the glamorous first lady of the racing circuit, especially as the sport’s popularity rocketed thanks to the hit Netflix series Formula 1: Drive to Survive and this year’s movie, F1, starring Brad Pitt. Rachel Richardson, who writes the culture and trends newsletter Highly Flammable, thinks Halliwell will be gutted about that loss of status. “She seemed to love that role.”
The insider adds: “I do think she enjoyed the profile that came with being with one of Formula One’s biggest personalities. Although, notably, she’s continued turning up to lots of races in the past year to support Christian. I think she’s shown her true colours.”
It’s hard to get an entirely clear read on Halliwell, who regularly waxes lyrical about her domestic bliss, and yet has maintained a separate career. She returned to using her maiden name in an Instagram video for Dior in June 2024. She introduced herself by saying, “C’est moi, Geri – Geri Halliwell.”
Speaking to The Sunday Times in March, she rejected the suggestion that it might be a sign of marital tension. “That’s a load of c**p. It’s my writing name. I haven’t legally changed anything – Horner is the name on my passport.”
Still, it does seem as if she’s keeping her options open. The first two novels in her Rosie Frost series, published in 2023 and 2025, are under the name “Geri Halliwell-Horner”. Her brand remains extremely robust.
But it would be a big upheaval if she were to divorce Horner. On the personal side of the equation, there is the couple’s harmoniously blended family: they share one son, 8-year-old Monty, and each has a child from a previous relationship, 18-year-old Bluebell (Halliwell’s daughter with screenwriter Sacha Gervasi) and 11-year-old Olivia.
Halliwell loves painting an idyllic picture of their Cotswolds family life: the lady-of-the-manor act is a key part of her image. The couple own a mansion complete with acres of land, a swimming pool, a boating lake, a vintage car collection and a veritable menagerie: dogs, cats, donkeys, chickens, and stables for their racehorses.
The only drama has been neighbours raising objections to their building plans, such as installing an exercise pen for the horses, but that’s a far cry from Halliwell’s raucous Spice Girls days, when she donned a Union Jack micro-dress and pinched the then-Prince Charles’s bottom.
These days, she considers herself more of a writer than a performer, according to a Grazia interview in February. She told The Telegraph in 2023 that she was having numerous meetings in New York about a possible screen adaptation of her young adult historical fantasy books, which feature a feisty ginger heroine guided through a Hunger Games-like trial by the ghost of Anne Boleyn.
There were rumours of a Halliwell-centred reality show, following the mammoth success of the Beckhams’ Netflix documentary, though Borkowski reckons that’s now highly unlikely. “If she and Horner do stay together, I don’t think they’d take the gamble. They’ll need a period of stability while the eyes of the world are on them and their relationship. That’s a hell of a pressure.”
But if Halliwell did decide to separate from Horner, a documentary could be an opportunity to take back control of the story and tell it on her terms. “She’s an independent woman – she wouldn’t be frightened of striking out alone and leaving everything behind,” says Borkowski. “Plus, she’s already proved she’s the queen of reinvention.”
That’s certainly true. The 90s wild child, who grew up on a council estate in Watford, north of London, has turned herself into a Cotswolds landowner, a UN Goodwill Ambassador and a potential political force: she reportedly encouraged Liz Truss to “go for” the Conservative leadership. She also said in 2023 that she’d like to study history and English at Oxford University.
What about the oft-rumoured Spice Girls reunion to mark the 30th anniversary of the band’s breakout hit Wannabe in 2026? If Halliwell did agree to it, that would increase the level of press scrutiny, which might put her off. But Borkowski suggests a potentially considerable motivation. “We’ve seen in the past that reunions can happen when men have big legal bills to pay after a divorce!”
Whatever Halliwell decides to do next, there’s no doubt she will want to take control of her fate. In her 1999 autobiography If Only, she wrote that she was someone who refused “to accept the cards they are dealt in life can’t be changed. Let’s redeal”. Christian Horner will have to hope he’s still the ace in her pack.