{"id":39844,"date":"2025-09-24T02:39:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T02:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/39844\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T02:39:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T02:39:11","slug":"whats-really-going-on-in-geri-halliwell-and-christian-horners-marriage-how-he-felt-the-flick-of-the-whip-the-public-act-of-fury-everyone-missed-and-the-tactic-she-learned-from-victoria-beckham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/39844\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s REALLY going on in Geri Halliwell and Christian Horner’s marriage: How he felt the ‘flick of the whip’, the public act of fury everyone missed and the tactic she learned from Victoria Beckham. Friends tell all to ALISON BOSHOFF"},"content":{"rendered":"

She made a brutally fast exit from the Spice Girls<\/a> in 1998 \u2013 dumping them in the middle of a world tour, the announcement made, somewhat ruthlessly, by her lawyer.<\/p>\n

But there is no prospect of history repeating itself when it comes to Geri Halliwell<\/a>\u2019s marriage to Christian Horner<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The turbulent events of last year, which include the leak of a tranche of racy messages apparently from Christian to another woman, have been airbrushed from history, leaving the couple to motor on, spotlessly.<\/p>\n

To recap, Christian was ousted from Formula One team Red Bull in the wake of allegations he had behaved \u2018inappropriately\u2019 to a female colleague. He denied the allegations and was cleared by an investigation.<\/p>\n

The colleague appealed, and, after a second investigation, this appeal was dismissed.<\/p>\n

But it didn\u2019t save his spot at the company \u2013 a power struggle at the top and a bad run of results led to Christian being sacked in July.<\/p>\n

This week, it emerged that he\u2019s received a whopping \u00a380million pay off from Red Bull, and, according to the terms of the agreement, may be able to go back to work in the sport as early as next spring.<\/p>\n

Indeed, everyone expects him to roar back once the enforced break is over, and for Geri to once again assume her role as the Queen of Formula One.<\/p>\n

\"Geri <\/p>\n

Geri Halliwell has been married to the former Formula One Red Bull team principal for ten years<\/p>\n

\"Christian <\/p>\n

Christian was ousted from his Formula One team in the wake of allegations he had behaved \u2018inappropriately\u2019 to a female colleague<\/p>\n

So what will he do in the intervening time?<\/p>\n

Well, for now, Christian has taken his wife for a belated honeymoon in Scotland \u2013 a full ten years after their wedding.<\/p>\n

Friends say that these are actually good times for the couple, and that Christian is highly appreciative of his \u2018very supportive wife\u2019.<\/p>\n

There was never a serious possibility that she would dump him, but apparently he felt a \u2018flick of the whip\u2019 from a \u2018very angry\u2019 Ginger Spice when the scandal erupted.<\/p>\n

A source close to Geri says: \u2018She has taken a leaf out of the Victoria Beckham playbook, in which you ignore the scandal and think beautiful thoughts. That\u2019s one of her mantras \u2013 she will actually say: \u201cI am thinking beautiful thoughts.\u201d She shuts out the noise of the world.<\/p>\n

\u2018In private, she flicked the whip, just as Victoria did over the Rebecca Loos scandal; she was very angry. There was a jab to his weak spot, which is about status.<\/p>\n

\u2018Remember that she changed her name to Geri Halliwell for a nanosecond in one social media post. That was the sign.<\/p>\n

\u2018But Geri will never let go of her husband. He has been her introduction to the society she wants to move in and into a new reality.\u2019<\/p>\n

The source adds: \u2018She always seemed to hanker after that world. Look at her romance with [posh banker] Henry Beckwith. He was her serious romance before Christian. She\u2019s a girl from Watford whose dad was a used car dealer and whose mum was a cleaning woman, but she likes Hooray Henrys with lots of money.<\/p>\n

\u2018She\u2019s got what she wanted. The world she lives in now is very Jilly Cooper.\u2019<\/p>\n

This much is true \u2013 only a week ago she and Christian were helping James Matthews, who is married to Pippa Middleton, to celebrate his 50th birthday with a big party at his home in Bucklebury, Berkshire. Pippa\u2019s sister Kate and brother-in-law Prince William were among the guests.<\/p>\n

Home for the Halliwell-Horners is an idyllic 15th century manor house on the Oxfordshire\/Northamptonshire border.<\/p>\n

It boasts a helipad, boating lake, orangery, indoor pool and stables, and certainly measures up to Geri\u2019s desired \u2018lady of the manor\u2019 style. She and Christian own a number of racehorses, which are named after her solo hits. Lift Me Up, for example, ran at Cheltenham this year.<\/p>\n

The cost of keeping, training and racing horses is \u2018enormous\u2019, according to friends of the former Spice Girl. \u2018It is the quintessential rich man\u2019s hobby, and Christian bankrolls it all.\u2019 They seem to greatly enjoy the sport, and the social scene that goes with it.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A source close to Geri says: \u2018She has taken a leaf out of the Victoria Beckham playbook’<\/p>\n

The couple share son Monty, now eight. Geri\u2019s daughter Bluebell, known as Blue, is 19, and at university where she is reading English literature. She was born after Geri\u2019s fleeting romance with writer Sacha Gervasi, but Christian has formally adopted her.<\/p>\n

He also has a daughter, Olivia, by former partner Beverly Allen, who died this year from cancer.<\/p>\n

The flames still burn brightly for the couple after ten years of marriage. I\u2019m told that Geri is in the habit of following Christian from room to room at home, and that the password for the wi-fi is \u2018wonderful husband\u2019. She will gush about how handsome he is.<\/p>\n

Their romance started when perennial romantic disaster-area Geri was 41; they were married when she was 42. She said in an interview: \u2018I was a late developer. I\u2019m incredibly grateful to be in a really loving relationship.\u2019<\/p>\n

Many were surprised when she travelled to Bahrain for the Grand Prix last year just a few days after the allegations of Christian\u2019s inappropriate behaviour broke.<\/p>\n

She looked strained in her trademark cream outfit, but clasped his hand firmly.<\/p>\n

The truth is that Geri has always hung on to him very tightly.<\/p>\n

Former racing driver Christian split from long-term partner Allen in March 2014, six months after the birth of their daughter.<\/p>\n

Allen and Christian had been an item for 14 years and they lived together in Northamptonshire along with Allen\u2019s two children from a previous relationship. They had seemed happily settled, especially once baby Olivia came along.<\/p>\n

Christian started dating Geri soon after the break-up, though they\u2019d been introduced a long time before that \u2013 in 2009, by former F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone.<\/p>\n

In the summer of 2014, Christian\u2019s father Garry and his mother Sara were seen at Wimbledon with Allen, in a clear show of solidarity with her.<\/p>\n

In November, a swift eight months after the split, Geri and Christian announced \u2013 in The Times of course \u2013 that they were to make it official.<\/p>\n

\u2018Mr CEJ Horner OBE and Geri Halliwell. The engagement is announced between Christian, son of Mr and Mrs GM Horner and Geraldine, daughter of the late Mr LF Halliwell and Mrs A Parkinson,\u2019 it ran.<\/p>\n

Things were less pukka behind the scenes among the wider family, and Christian\u2019s parents boycotted the wedding.<\/p>\n

A source said at the time: \u2018They\u2019re very upset by everything that has gone on and feel as though their loyalties are very divided.\u2019 In an interview two years ago, however, Christian said that relations all round were now \u2018totally harmonious\u2019 between his former partner and current wife, and indeed the whole family.<\/p>\n

His parents are often photographed with him and Geri at race meetings.<\/p>\n

Geri\u2019s amazing odyssey from obscurity to fame and fortune began with the sudden death of her father Lawrence, a used car dealer, in 1994.<\/p>\n

Soon afterwards she saw an advert in the journal The Stage for girls who could sing and dance to form a band, and the shock of his death fired the starting gun on her ambitions.<\/p>\n

At the time, Geri wasn\u2019t especially good at either singing or dancing \u2013 she was no graduate of a stage school like Victoria Adams, who\u2019d go onto become Posh \u2013 but was keen to escape the dead end of go-go dancing in nightclubs and occasional bits of glamour modelling, which had thus far been her lot.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s debut single in 1996, Wannabe, reached number one in 37 countries while their debut album, Spice, sold more than 23 million copies worldwide the same year and became the best-selling album by a female group in history.<\/p>\n

But that spell at the top of the pop world didn\u2019t last. Geri, whose fun-loving persona and iconic image seemed to drive so much of the \u2018Girl Power\u2019 juggernaut, left the band in 1998, in the middle of a world tour.<\/p>\n

Away from the spotlight, she was struggling with bulimia. Her one-time boyfriend Robbie Williams urged her to seek help, which she did at a clinic in the US state of Arizona.<\/p>\n

Professionally, she then focused on launching her solo career, indicating her rebirth by emerging from a giant inflatable vagina at the Brit awards. Geri began to reinvent herself with the help of George Michael, a good friend whom she\u2019d once thought she would marry. (\u2018My gaydar was completely off.\u2019) George Michael calmed down her sex-bomb image, guiding her towards Armani clothes and a sleek blonde bob.<\/p>\n

By the time she married Christian in 2015, she was ready for the biggest transformation yet. Wearing a fully white Phillipa Lepley lace dress, she exchanged vows with him at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, with guests including Amanda Holden, Myleene Klass and former bandmate Emma Bunton.<\/p>\n

Since then, she has concentrated mostly on writing children\u2019s books and on her new life as a country lady. She has hopes that her most recent, Rosie Frost And The Falcon Queen, and Rosie Frost: Ice On Fire, will become a TV show or a film.<\/p>\n

\u2018The biggest producer in Hollywood has bought the rights,\u2019 she said this spring. \u2018We are looking at the writer to make the scripts.\u2019 However, nothing has been announced.<\/p>\n

One friend says: \u2018She has a lot of belief in the books, but it feels like she is manifesting the success,\u2019 which is a little unfair, given her latest was a number one bestseller on Amazon.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, negotiations continue over a potential Spice Girls reunion. Victoria Beckham is out for now \u2013 she is firmly in her fashion era.<\/p>\n

Mel B, Mel C and Emma Bunton would all willingly go on the road, for the right money \u2013 but Geri won\u2019t ever think of setting foot on a stage again.<\/p>\n

The idea of performing avatars \u2013 as with Abba \u2013 is still under consideration, with the Spice Girls\u2019 former manager Simon Fuller attempting to make the idea work. Apparently the money to be made from such a project is \u2018huge\u2019, which makes it tempting all round.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m told: \u2018Geri likes to earn money. There have been times when things have been less financially secure than people would imagine, and she likes to have the power that it gives her. She\u2019ll never have as much as Christian, but I imagine that it feels comfortable to have a bit of a balance.\u2019<\/p>\n

Watch this space, therefore. For now, however, the couple will no doubt enjoy the remote Scottish countryside, as far away as possible from the glamour \u2013 and gossip \u2013 of an F1 racetrack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She made a brutally fast exit from the Spice Girls in 1998 \u2013 dumping them in the middle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[539,93,61,60,1489],"class_list":{"0":"post-39844","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-tvshowbiz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}