SHE breathed a huge sigh of relief when husband Christian Horner was cleared over allegations of inappropriate behaviour, earlier this week.
But just 24 hours later Geri Horner’s nightmare returned – when a series of sexually suggestive WhatsApp messages, apparently from the Red Bull boss to a female colleague, were leaked to journalists.
The fresh blow came as the former Spice Girl flew in to Bahrain to join her husband in a show of unity, ahead of tomorrow’s Grand Prix.
That trip has now been rocked as friends say the 51-year-old is taking a fresh look at their nine-year marriage after standing by him throughout the internal probe into his conduct.
After the latest leak, Horner once again denied wrongdoing, saying: “I won’t comment on anonymous speculation but to reiterate I have always denied the allegations, I respected the integrity of the independent investigation and fully cooperated with it every step of the way.”
Since their lavish 2015 wedding Geri, who had a string of flings with popstars and TV celebrities before settling down, has cultivated a “country set” lifestyle, posting pictures from their sprawling estates in Oxfordshire and Hertfordshire.
Read More on Horners
But relationship expert Jo Hemmings believes “humiliated” mum-of-two is now facing “marriage D-day” in Bahrain.
“This latest leak of messages to other women must be the mother of all public humiliations for Geri,” she says.
“She may well decide to dodge the racetrack altogether and avoid the glare of the press, public and his F1 colleagues.
“If she has sense she will go from the airport to somewhere private and call up her closest friends to get their support and reassurance.
Most read in Motorsport
“To let him stew in the knowledge that she knows and is in the country but is avoiding him.
“That means he will be obliged to make the approach to her and grovel to get to see her to discuss.”
Whirlwind start
The couple’s relationship, which began in 2013, got off to a scandalous start – with coming just six months after the birth of Christian’s daughter, Olivia, with his ex Beverley Allen.
Geri and Christian are thought to have briefly split while he attempted to repair his 14-year relationship with Beverley.
But in 2014, after a romance of just nine months, the couple announced their engagement with a notice in the Times.
They tied the knot at St Mary’s Church in Woburn, Bedfordshire, the following May with British designer Phillipa Lepley.
Geri has described Christian as her best friend, saying: “He knows me inside out. I don’t edit myself with him. It was a big learning curve.”
Geri came to the realisation that things weren’t going to work with Henry. The age gap meant he had a wandering eye
The former pop star, who already had daughter Bluebell, 17, from a brief relationship with screenwriter Sacha Gervasi, welcomed her their son Montague George Hector Horner, in 2017.
She set about shedding the image of feisty Ginger Spice, who grew up on a Watford council estate, and became the epitome of the country wife, living in lavish surroundings at the family homes – with one boasting its own duck pond and farm, housing miniature donkeys, goats and stable for 14 horses.
But the latest news threatens to rock her new county set life.
“Having had a controversial start to her marriage to Christian and keen to escape forever being known as ‘Ginger Spice’, Geri seemingly had everything she wanted in life,” says Jo.
“She had a devoted and successful husband who had nothing to do with the music industry, a gorgeous son with him, Monty, and a lavish country pile where she could live out her role as the picture-perfect wife and mother in luxurious, rural surroundings.”
She adds Christian’s track record, having left Beverley so soon after his daughter was born, could be haunting the star now.
“When the allegation of her husband’s ‘inappropriate behaviour’ first surfaced early last month, she must have felt hurt, distressed and extremely anxious,” says Jo.
“Could she trust Christian, who has had a pretty chequered relationship history, and dismiss it as nonsense?
“She would certainly have been rocked by these allegations, whether she believed them or not, as they threatened to tear apart all that she had worked for and to destroy her hard sought-after life as a loving wife and mother living in beautiful surroundings.
“But it seems like she chose to stand by her man as she was still planning to join him in Bahrain, in a show of solidarity.
“However, with the latest leaks, it would seem that even though he was cleared of the original allegation, there is now no denying that he has a case to answer to Geri.”
Old wounds
The leaks, which surfaced yesterday, will also open the old wounds of trust issues in previous romances, including her split from toff Lord Henry Beckwith.
The couple split in 2012 after almost three years, amid reports of rows over Henry’s flirty behaviour.
It was also thought Henry, who was seven years her junior, wasn’t ready to commit to marriage and children.
A source told The Sun: “Geri came to the realisation that things weren’t going to work with Henry.
Geri will feel so emotionally bruised now and wonder why she was oblivious to the signs or refused to acknowledge them
Jo Hemmings
“The age gap meant he had a wandering eye when it came to other women and he was interested in partying. She doesn’t trust him.”
Henry was her longest relationship, before meeting Christian, after a series of flings with famous names and high society figures.
She dated polo player Jamie Morrison, the son of a pop publishing tycoon who also owns the Royal Berkshire Polo Club, in 1998, but they split because they had “nothing in common.”
She moved on to DJ Chris Evans, after meeting him on Comic Relief in 1999 and she was left devastated when they split after two weeks, when he began dating Anna Friel.
“It was as authentic as relationships go, in my shabby experience of relationships,” she said.
How Christian Horner’s shock text were leaked
By Ben Hunt
IT was an anonymous email sent and designed for maximum impact.
It landed in my inbox almost 24 hours to the minute since Christian Horner was cleared of any wrongdoing following Red Bull’s internal investigation.
Other names included Liberty Media chief Greg Maffei, who owns the rights to F1. The FIA president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem and F1 CEO Stefano Dominacali.
The F1 team bosses were also included for good measure. As was Max Verstappen’s father, Jos.
It was from an anonymous sender, the title was simply the date – ‘Feb Twenty Nine’.
Inside it was a Google Drive link containing 79 files claiming to be the evidence from the independent investigation.
There is no way of knowing if they were real or fake yet irrespectively it sent another shockwave through the F1 paddock before this season had even started.
Horner was sitting on the team’s pitwall during second practice in Bahrain when the email dropped.
After the session, he walked out of the team’s garage and into the hospitality unit where he remained as the nuclear fallout began.
He’d survived the outcome of the internal investigation into improper conduct following a complaint from a female colleague.
One wonders whether he will survive this time after this very public humiliation – again, irrespective if they were indeed real or fake.
Just hours earlier, McLaren’s CEO Zak Brown and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, called on the sport’s governing body, the FIA, demanding transparency.
“I just read the statement, which was pretty basic,” said Wolff. “My personal opinion is we can’t really look behind the curtain.
“There is a lady in an organisation that has spoken to HR and said there was an issue and it was investigated and yesterday the sport has received the message that it’s all fine, we’ve looked at it.
“I believe with the aspiration as a global sport, on such critical topics, it needs more transparency and I wonder what the sport’s position is?
“We’re competitors, we’re a team and we can have our own personal opinions or not. But it’s more like a general reaction or action that we as a sport need to assess, what is right in that situation and what is wrong.
“Are we talking with the right moral approach, with the values based on the speculation that is out there? As a sport, we cannot afford to leave things vague and opaque on critical topics like this, because this is going to catch us out.”
Brown added: “It’s the responsibility ultimately of the organisers of Formula One, the owners of Formula One, to make sure that all the racing teams and the personnel and the drivers and everyone else involved in the sport are operating in a manner in which we all live by.
“I don’t think it’s the teams’ roles and responsibilities. That’s up to FIA and Formula One to ultimately decide and ask what they feel gives them the level of transparency they need to ultimately come to their conclusion and we just have to count on them that they fulfil that obligation to all of us.”
The emailed file will only increase that pressure in the form of scrutiny on Horner – who has always denied the accusations.
It does also put Red Bull in a tricky position.
Should the emailed file be legitimate and have made up elements from the initial report, which had been thoroughly examined and presented by the independent KC, then surely this is nothing new to them and their decision to stick with their team principal remains.
To perform a u-turn on that simply now they have become public would possibly see criticism that they intended to keep their report private to save face.
Whatever the outcome, it is a mess for the world champions.
Reports of a wedge driven between Horner and Verstappen’s father have grown in recent weeks.
So it was interesting that Jos Verstappen was in the paddock and wearing a team jacket and seemed unmoved to the chaos happening around him.
Robbie Williams dated the singer for six months, in 2000 and later said: “It was fun, and we were just a little gang that were sharing a very magical moment, in a magical place.”
Other romances included Bobby Hashemi, millionaire Iranian-born founder of the Coffee Republic, Duncan James and Blue bandmate Lee Ryan, and David Walliams.
A six week summer fling with Sacha Gervasi in 2006, resulted in her becoming a single mum to Bluebell.
Two years later she announced her engagement to Italian shipping mogul Fabrizio Politi, who proposed with a £150,000 ring.
They split in 2009 with Fabrizio saying Geri suddenly got cold feet about marriage. He said: “Out of nowhere there was a very bad situation between us.”
Still, he called the liaison “the happiest three months of my life”.
Jo says her previous romances, particularly with Henry, will now come back to haunt her.
“Henry Beckwith made it clear – much to her disappointment – that he didn’t want the kind of commitment that marriage and children bring with it, so although he too destroyed her trust, it’s nowhere near the level of betrayal from Christian, who had made that commitment to her.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
“She will feel so emotionally bruised now and wonder why she was oblivious to the signs or refused to acknowledge them.
“She’ll need a period of unconditional emotional support from her friends and family, and probably counselling to talk through and help her process her hurt and self-esteem and re-establish trust in another relationship in the future, as it will be seriously depleted and damaged.
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
