Geri “Ginger Spice” Halliwell spent Thursday night weighing up whether she really, really wants to stay in her marriage to Formula 1 boss Christina Horner after a #MeToo data drop had the world agog.
The Spice Girl, 51, was left “extremely humiliated,” the Daily Mail reported, after a tranche of intimate messages, allegedly sent by Horner, the principal of Red Bull Racing, to a female colleague, were leaked.
The texts were sent to nearly 200 people — among them, journalists and motor racing bosses including FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem and F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali — in a large Google document.
The file was quickly shared.
By late Thursday night it seemed the document had, embarrassingly, been seen by most of Britain and was making its way around the world.
In it: Nearly 80 images of screenshots which revealed schoolboy demands to know what a woman was wearing.
“I keep thinking about Spanx,” the woman is asked in one message. Another says, “What’s underneath at the moment?”
Told that she looks “very attractive” in Spanx, the woman replies they are just leggings — prompting the man to say it’s what in them that counts.
Included are several pictures of Horner, as well as a photo that had Britain debating whether it was a penis or a misshapen finger. There is also a reference to a solo sex act in an airplane bathroom.
“Your wife would not be happy of you asking me for pictures in what I’m wearing,” reads a message from the alleged colleague.
“I always say would you like Geri doing this to her [personal assistant],” the woman asks.
She also points out that she “has to act in front of Geri.”
There are multiple requests, allegedly from Horner, for messages to be deleted.
“I am not going to comment on anonymous speculation from unknown sources,” Horner said Friday when asked about the leaked messages.
The situation had already caused huge stress for Halliwell, who has a seven-year-old son, Monty, with Horner.
She was said to have fallen out with fellow bandmate Victoria Beckham — even unfollowing all the Beckhams on Instagram — because Posh Spice had not been supportive enough.
It all began in early February, when reports claimed that a Red Bull female employee had made serious allegations about Horner to the team’s owner, Red Bull GmbH. The Times of London said Horner, who reportedly earns $10 million a year, had been accused of “inappropriate, controlling behavior.”
The woman in question reportedly worked with Horner at Red Bull Racing’s headquarters in Milton Keynes, England.
Red Bull then announced an independent investigation, which caused a media firestorm in the UK. Even the team’s rivals got in on the action, with Toto Wolff, head of Mercedes’ team, demanding “transparency from Red Bull over the investigation.” Ford, which partners with Red Bull, expressed a lack of frustration over how long it was taking to reach any conclusion.
That investigation reportedly led to Horner being questioned for eight hours by a barrister.
Horner has said he “fully denies any accusations.” On Wednesday, he was cleared of wrongdoing.
There were said to be celebrations at the Horner and Halliwell household, an $11.6million mansion in Oxfordshire, where the sofas are decorated with cushions that read: “Mr. and Mrs. Horner, est. 2015.”
Horner, one of the biggest stars of the Formula 1 circuit, is known to millions as one of the faces of Netflix show “Drive to Survive” which started its sixth season on Feb. 23.
He was already in Bahrain, where Formula 1 will race Saturday, when the leak happened — as Halliwell was said to be on a jet, flying to him.
That Horner could have a roving eye may not come as a massive surprise. He was in a long-term relationship with another woman when he met Halliwell.
“Geri just sort of appeared — I mean appeared everywhere,” an F1 crew member told the Daily Mail at the time.
A few months after Horner’s girlfriend gave birth to his daughter Olivia, now 10, Horner and Halliwell officially became an item. Tellingly, his parents refused their invitation to the 2015 wedding.
Since their marriage, Halliwell has mainly resigned herself to being a homemaker, and is said to have felt tarnished by allegations of being a “homewrecker.”
While the Bahrain Grand Prix always attracts a big crowd — it is the opening race of the F1 season — all eyes will be on the grid beside the track to see whether the former Spice Girl makes one of the hardest appearances of her life next to her husband.