One might think that Geri Halliwell has a lot to be grateful for. After a tumultuous few years, it appears her husband Christian Horner has taken home the biggest payout in the history of sports management.
According to reports this week, the former CEO of Red Bull F1 Racing has banked a massive £76 million – some £67 million is believed to be for ‘loss of office’ – of his remaining salary after being forced out of his role last summer, 18 months after allegations of inappropriate behavior were made against him by a female colleague.
Horner, who won 14 world championships with the team, was acquitted of wrongdoing in two internal investigations, but office politics, an alleged decline in team performance and leaked screenshots of 79 WhatsApp messages between him and the woman effectively sealed his fate. Horner always denied the claims made.
Even Gerry, dressed in a trademark white dress and in an air of forced casualness – she was racing by her husband’s side at the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix when the scandal broke – couldn’t distract from the uproar.
It was a reversal of fortunes that would test the toughest of couples.
But despite the adversity, it appears the Halliwell-Horners have weathered the storm.
Horner, whose payday will undoubtedly be complemented by the publication of his autobiography Drive later this month, also plans a score-settling return to motorsport with Red Bull rivals Ferrari.
Surely popping a champagne cork or two at Horner Towers and reviving the former Spice Girl’s dreams of becoming Queen of the Cotswolds is enough?
Sadly, I think, such notions are premature.
Geri Halliwell met Christian Horner at the 2009 Grand Prix, but the pair became romantically involved in 2014 before marrying in May the following year.
Geri arrived at her husband’s side wearing a trademark white dress at the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix when the texting scandal broke.
According to a source who knows Geri well, ‘She has all the money in the world but what she wants now is social acceptance. She intends to rise to the top of the most posh social sets.’
And the first step in that strategy is finding a home that matches her ambitions.
According to friends, the couple’s current residence – a multimillion-pound Grade II-listed home near the Cotswolds – is no longer considered so lavish.
Bought by Christian in the 2000s for around £2 million, it has undergone several renovations since his marriage to Gerry in 2015 and now has indoor and outdoor swimming pools and a kitchen with only the Aga belonging to the previous owner having survived the makeover.
There is also space for Gerry to train his beloved racehorses. West Northamptonshire District Council have recently given them permission to build a larger horse walker exercise pen and Gerry has recently set up two new companies that will look at training his horses as a business.
It’s a new hobby which, by happy coincidence, seems to be strengthening its position in the affluent countryside.
Yet Gerry has many more ambitions.
A colleague told me: ‘What she wants most is a big house – a very big house – and an hour.’
And if it’s reminiscent of what another member of the Spice Girls did – Victoria Beckham – it’s not a chance comparison.
‘She also wants a house that’s much bigger than the Beckhams,’ I’m told.
Sir David and Lady Beckham have a luxurious home at Great Tew in the Cotswolds, and earlier this summer the Halliwell-Horners thought they had found a property to beat it. Edgecote House in Northamptonshire – on the market for £45 million, set in 1,704 acres, with 1,149 acres of commercial arable farmland and ‘renowned equestrian facilities’ including two professional racing yards with ‘significant sporting potential’ – appeared to tick all its boxes.
It is believed the pair made an offer on it in June, but an unnamed entrepreneur ‘blew it away’ by making a bid of £52million and securing the sale from right under their noses in August. The property has now disappeared from the website of estate agents Savills.
However, one detail would not have been forgotten by Gerry.
As if the house wasn’t perfect enough, it also featured as the home of Mr. Darcy’s rival Charles Bingley in the BBC’s famous 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
Geri, an author of children’s books, has considerable literary interests and has ‘moved on’ from her singing career.
A friend told me: ‘Gerry has no interest in the world of the Spice Girls or pop music. Instead she likes to talk about literature and acting, and is very socially active.’
One of the few aspects of his old life that Gerry is open to is his competition with Victoria, reportedly wanting ‘Christian to get a knighthood like David Beckham’.
According to friends, the couple’s current residence – a palatial Grade II-listed home near the Cotswolds – is no longer considered as grand
Sir David Beckham with his wife Victoria after receiving a knighthood at Windsor Castle in November 2025
Another believes that she believed she could have studied literature at Oxford University if her father, Lawrence, had not died when she was a teenager and put her on racketeering courses in dancing and glamor modelling.
In fact one of the few aspects of her old life that she remains connected to is her competition with Victoria.
As well as her property aspirations, Gerry would like the ‘gong’ to match that of her former Spice Girl partner. ‘At the very least she would like to get an MBE like Victoria and Christian to get a knighthood like David Beckham. It may seem unlikely but just look at how David Beckham rehabilitated himself after his sex scandal [an affair he has always denied with Rebecca Loos, his PA while in Spain playing for Real Madrid],’ says my source.
Perhaps Gerry has been inspired by Beckham’s friendship with the King – the pair share a passion for the countryside and organic farming – because she has also developed an unexpected bond with Queen Camilla. According to one: ‘You should hear his speaking voice now. She looks more posh than the queen. Both women have certainly spent a lot of time with Gerry supporting the Queen’s reading initiative and supporting her at various events associated with Maggie’s Cancer Centres. Obviously there is a deep friendship between them.
A friend said, ‘Gerry is very good at being charming.’ ‘He’s the most incredible networker.’ She is also an exemplary wife in every sense. Some have even dubbed them ‘tradwives’, following the trend in the 1950s for women to take on supporting roles and subordinate their careers to their husbands.
As well as being mother to her nine-year-old son Monty, Geri also has a 20-year-old daughter, Bluebell, from a short-lived relationship with film producer Sascha Gervasi. She is also stepmother to Horner’s teenage daughter, Olivia, who he had with his long-term partner Beverly Allen, who died of eye cancer last year at the age of 58.
In his upcoming book, Horner speaks warmly of his former partner and says that they managed to remain friends. He is buried in a churchyard near his home.
Reputable sources say Geri remains deeply committed to Horner, whom she first met at the 2009 Grand Prix – when she and her then-boyfriend Bernie Ecclestone were guests – and became romantically involved with him in 2014 and married the following year. At the height of the inappropriate messaging scandal, Gerry – I’m told – ‘chose to trust him’ and has remained loyal to Horner ever since. The situation behind closed doors was at times, understandably, rather different. In an interview last month to promote his upcoming book, Horner said the revelations left his wife ‘furious’ and he ‘read the riot act’ over the situation.
While he said he could not discuss the ‘truth’ of what happened to the woman due to his agreement with Red Bull, he told Drive how he found out about the allegations. A lawyer called him and asked if he was sitting down. Gerry was in the kitchen getting the children ready for school. When everyone packed up for the day, he told her about the breaking scandal.
He says Gerry responded, ‘Just tell your truth.’
He added, ‘I was never given any clear explanation (for being sacked) other than that they felt performance had dropped a bit… They wanted to go in a different direction. I was told it was more Christian Horner Racing than Red Bull Racing.
He said his huge payout – dwarfing the £3 million allegedly paid to the woman at the center of the claims – proved his innocence. ‘It shows that you haven’t done anything wrong, they just don’t want you anymore. If someone is willing to pay that much money for you not to be there? And I think if you look at that team over the last 12 months, it has lost its charm, its presence, its vibrancy.
He remains a divisive figure in Formula 1 and was originally the villain of the piece in Netflix’s popular documentary series Drive to Survive.
Gerry smiles with Queen Camilla and Dame Laura Lee – chair of cancer charity Maggie’s – during an anniversary event at Maggie’s Cancer Center
King Charles speaks to Sir David and Lady Beckham during a gala dinner at Highgrove House
As he admitted in his book: ‘I have always pushed boundaries. Because if it’s vanilla, you’ll get vanilla. You have to try and take people on the journey with you.
Elsewhere he says of his approach to life: ‘It is better and easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask permission.’
Horner says he has learned a lot from wife Geri about dealing with the media.
He says Gerry has really helped him deal with the public scrutiny. ‘Before I met him, I was well known in Formula 1. But after meeting him, I went from the back page to the front page. In the world I worked in, you had a relationship with the media where we both needed each other – a working relationship. Suddenly, this whole new world, it was terrifying.’
It seems that Gerry’s advice is mostly just to look at the pictures and not read the words.
‘She’ll see photos in an article; She’ll never read that article,’ he said recently with undisguised admiration.
Describing her as an ‘incredibly strong character’ he says that when she was criticized at a recent event she told him: ‘They only criticize if they care.’
Of course, brickbats never bothered Gerry. Growing up on a council estate in Watford, her father was a car dealer and he started banger racing in her early childhood, instilling a love of motorsport in her.
Today, she shows no signs that she is ready to give up her marriage or her ambitions.
Although she can no longer sing and dance, she has honed her acting abilities and landed a role in the upcoming TV series Only Murders in the Building.
And in her husband she has found someone who matches her willpower.
Horner is now ready to return to a version of public life, and is willing to take a new job if he can find one he wants.
‘You need a reason to get out of bed in the morning,’ he says.
Geri also has her eye on a future in which she will be the cream-clad mistress of the social scene – preferably with a title.
Horner said: ‘I have a beautiful wife and a wonderful family who I love very much. But, you know, Beverly, lying in the cemetery just up the road shows that in life, you’ve got a chance. And you can either go for it or cruise.’
Despite having £76 million in the bank, it looks like there is little risk of a slow down.