How Girl Power Geri went from Ginger Spice to the ultimate ‘surrendered wife’

The sight of the former pop star standing by her partner after humiliating allegations of his ‘coercive behaviour’ towards a female colleague and a sexting scandal has been too much for many fans. But those who know her say Geri has a long history of reinvention and she is just doubling down in her latest ‘role’. Polly Dunbar reports

According to some online commentators, it’s like ‘watching the withering of Girl Power in real time’ (Formula 1/Getty)

The timing couldn’t have been more unfortunate. It was the day of the Brits, the awards show for which, back in 1997, Geri Halliwell sewed a Union Jack tea towel onto a black micro-mini dress, creating an image that would remain lodged in the national consciousness forever.

That Geri, the one with her knickers on display and blonde streaks in her flame-red hair, was cheeky, fun, supremely confident: the embodiment of the Girl Power message the Spice Girls promoted everywhere they went. Men were nice, they declared, but women didn’t need them to make their dreams come true. They could achieve that all by themselves – or, better still, in union with their female friends.

Fast forward 27 years, and Geri – now Halliwell-Horner, and aged 51 – has seemingly undergone a transformation so radical she’s barely recognisable as Ginger Spice. In fact, the phrase which more readily springs to mind is “surrendered wife”.