Red Bull team principal Christian Horner shared pictures of his wife Geri Halliwell to mark Mother’s Day, despite the furore surrounding his sex-text scandal.
The Red Bull boss, 50, had been cleared of allegations of ‘coercive behaviour’ but has been fighting for his future after flirtatious text messages apparently exchanged between him and the female complainant were revealed to 149 F1 figures.
Halliwell, the former Spice Girl, has been in attendance at both the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix to show her support for her husband amid the controversy.
Horner shared two pictures of Geri with the couple’s seven-year-old son Monty, as well as another snap with her own mother Sara.
“Happy Mother’s Day – so grateful to the moms in our family for all they do,” Horner wrote. ‘We are always grateful, today and every day.’
Christian Horner, 50, shared pictures of his wife Geri Halliwell, 51, in a Mother’s Day message
Horner shared photos of Halliwell with the couple’s seven-year-old son on Instagram
The under-fire Red Bull boss said the family are ‘grateful, today and every day’ in the Mother’s Day message as Halliwell continues to show his public support amid his sex-text scandal
Horner, who has won 13 World Cups since leading the team as a 31-year-old in 2005, had previously thanked his ‘very supportive wife’ for her support during the allegations.
Halliwell and Horner mingled in social circles before beginning a romance after meeting at the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix.
“(Geri) was a guest of (former Formula One Group CEO) Bernie Ecclestone’s in Monaco one year and came down the pit lane,” Horner previously told The Telegraph. ‘I remember (McLaren boss) Ron Dennis standing next to me and Eddie Jordan was there too.
‘She gave Ron a kiss on the cheek and she gave Eddie a kiss on the cheek. So I was like, ‘OK, I want a kiss on the cheek here!’ And I went over to give her one and she threw her hand out at me.’
However, their relationship got off to a rocky start and came under fire after the Red Bull boss left his long-term partner Beverley Allen six months after she gave birth to their daughter Olivia.
While the couple took a short break to see if Horner could salvage his relationship with the mother of his child, just nine months later he announced his engagement to Ginger Spice in an ad in The Times in 2014.
It said: “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.”
Horner also shared a photo of his mother Sara as he said he was “thankful to the mothers in our family for everything they do”
Spice Girl Halliwell and Horner are pictured on their wedding day in Woburn on May 15, 2015
Horner and Geri Halliwell at Larkhill Royal Artillery Point to Point
Friends close to the Spice Girl said she ‘has the meltdown of all meltdowns over the leak’
The former Spice Girl and Red Bull boss tied the knot at St Mary’s Church in Woburn, Bedfordshire, in 2015.
Halliwell’s A-line lace wedding dress was designed by British designer Phillipa Lepley.
Bluebell, who she dated screenwriter Sacha Gervasi in 2005, also attended the wedding.
Guests included Geri’s former Spice Girls co-star Emma Bunton, radio presenter and singer Myleene Klass and TV presenter Amanda Holden.
Christian’s parents were reportedly left devastated when the sports professional ditched Ms Allen to be with the rising star and therefore chose not to see the duo tie the knot.
A source close to the couple previously said: ‘Geri and Christian are disappointed that his parents are not coming.’
Halliwell last year recalled the lonely experience of being a single mother to her daughter Bluebell and compared it to raising her son Monty with Horner.
The singer shares Bluebell 17 with her screenwriter ex Gervasi. They separated before her birth.
Halliwell said she needed ‘broad shoulders’ to raise Bluebell as a single parent and later struggled as she ‘learned to be a team’.
Halliwell last year recalled her ‘lonely’ experience of being a single mum to her daughter Bluebell (pictured)
Geri told Giovanna: ‘I’ve experienced both and I can tell you, yes, I had my mum help me with Blue. So I am very grateful. And her grandfather is handsome, so that was a great role model for her.
‘He takes her to football, which is great, and I think you know they both have their blessings and their challenges.
‘Being a single parent, mum, you don’t have to answer to anyone, but it’s all up to you. And it can be quite stressful and you have to take responsibility. All responsibility lies with you in every way.
‘Broad shoulders are needed and sometimes it’s lonely. So I have experienced that. And then, you know, having the blessing of having a wonderful husband or partner that I’ve experienced. It is fantastic.
‘So it’s not all up to you, but then you have to compromise, we might have, you know, we’re all different in the way we think things should be done. So learning to be a team, which has been a challenge for me.’
The star’s friends say it would “break her heart” to end her marriage to Christian – the man she sees as the “Prince Charming” she has longed for since she was a little girl.
It is believed that the scandal has thrown the couple’s marriage ‘in doubt for the first time’.
Friends close to Halliwell, who has resolutely stood by her husband of nine years throughout the internal investigation, revealed she is ‘having a meltdown to end all meltdowns over the leak’.
Horner and Halliwell in a holiday photo taken on an unidentified beach over Christmas
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and Spice Girl Geri Halliwell pose after the Italian F1 Grand Prix at Autodromo di Monza on September 7, 2014
Miss Halliwell threw her husband Horner a surprise 50th birthday party last December
The mum-of-two has been left ‘feeling humiliated’ after the messages were spread ‘so far out there’, a friend added.
Hundreds of intimate WhatsApp exchanges, allegedly between Horner and the colleague, were released via an anonymous email account.
Halliwell had told friends she was ‘relieved and elated’ that the claims against her partner, with whom she shares seven-year-old son Monty, had finally been dropped.
Friends of the Spice Girl told the Mail she thought the scandal had ‘finally gone away’ but have warned the intimate messages – of which there are 79 screenshots – could ‘destroy’ her.
One said: ‘Christian kept promising there was nothing to it.’
Another said he now fears how the star, who has been horrified by the embarrassing fall, will be able to understand such public humiliation.
He said: ‘Geri has been living in this happy happy bubble for so many years now, she thought she had her prince and her knight in shining armour, but now this.
Horner and Halliwell meet then-Prince Charles at a Prince’s Trust event in London in 2019
Ginger Spice and Horner are pictured at the world premiere of ‘The Moonwalkers’ last December
Christian and Geri’s relationship came under fire after the Formula 1 boss left his long-term partner Beverley Allen (pictured) six months after the birth of their daughter, Olivia
Halliwell and Horner attend the gala dinner for the F1 Grand Prix of Monaco on 28 May 2023
‘She thought it had all disappeared, she was happy and overjoyed when she found out that Christian had been cleansed.
‘Geri was robbed when she got together with Christian because he had just had another child with another woman, but she has worked hard to remove that image of herself and Christian, and especially that she is a homeless person.
‘Now it’s all collapsed. The tears stopped when the verdict came down on Wednesday, now they will definitely have started again.
‘This will destroy her. Christian promised all the time that there was nothing in it.’