Controversial Red Bull team boss Christian Horner shared photos of his wife Geri Halliwell to mark Mother’s Day, despite the furore surrounding his sex messaging scandal.
The 50-year-old Red Bull boss was cleared of charges of ‘coercive conduct’ but is 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, attended both the Bahrain and Saudi Grand Prix to show her support for her husband amid the controversy.
Horner shared two photos of Geri with the couple’s seven-year-old son Monty, as well as another photo with his own mother Sara.
“Happy Mother’s Day – I am so grateful to the mothers in our family for all they do,” Horner wrote. “We are always grateful, today and every day.”
Horner, who has won 13 world championships since taking charge of 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 mixed in social circles before striking up a romance, having first met at the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix.
“(Geri) was a guest of (former Formula One Group CEO) Bernie Ecclestone in Monaco for a year and came into the pit lane,” Horner previously told The Telegraph. ‘I remember (McLaren boss) Ron Dennis was 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, ‘Okay, I’m going to get a kiss on the cheek here!’ And I went to give her one and she reached out to me.”
However, their relationship got off to a rocky start and came under fire after the Red Bull chief 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, he announced his engagement to Ginger Spice just nine months later in an advert in The Times in 2014.
It read: ‘The engagement has been announced between Christian, son of Mr and Mrs GM Horner and Geraldine, daughter of the late Mr LF Halliwell and Mrs A Parkinson.’
The former Spice Girl and Red Bull boss tied the knot in 2015 at St Mary’s Church in Woburn, Bedfordshire.
Halliwell’s A-line lace wedding dress was designed by British designer Phillipa Lepley.
Her nine-year-old daughter Bluebell, whom she had with screenwriter Sacha Gervasi in 2005, was also present at 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 devastated when the sports professional left Mrs Allen to be with the chart-topping star and therefore opted not to see the duo tie the knot.
A source close to the couple previously said: ‘Geri and Christian are disappointed his parents are not coming.’
Halliwell last year recalled the lonely experience of being a single mother to her daughter Bluebell, comparing it to raising her son Monty at Horner.
The singer shares Bluebell, 17, with her screenwriter ex Sacha Gervasi, who she dated in 2005. They separated before her birth.
Halliwell said she needed “broad shoulders” to raise Bluebell as a single parent and later struggled with “learning how to be a team.”
Geri told Giovanna, “I’ve been through both and I can tell you that, yes, I had my mom to help me with Blue. So I’m very grateful. And her grandpa is beautiful, so he was a great role model for her.
“He takes her to soccer, which is great and I think you know they both have their blessings and their challenges.
‘As a single parent, mother, you don’t have to answer to anyone, but it’s all on you. And that can be quite stressful and you have to take responsibility. All responsibilities are yours in every respect.
‘Broad shoulders are necessary and sometimes it is lonely. So that’s what I experienced. And then, you know, having the blessing of having a lovely spouse or partner, which is what I experienced. That is amazing.
‘So it’s not just you, but then you have to compromise. Maybe we, you know, we’re all different in the way we think things should be done. So learning to be a team was a challenge for me.”