It is just a tiny hyphen, but one that will prompt a thousand questions.
The Mail can reveal that the former Spice Girl, once known as Geri Halliwell, then Geri Horner, has taken the decision to double-barrel her surname and will henceforth be known as Geri Halliwell-Horner.
Could it possibly be the final part of her transformation from humble, Watford-born Ginger Spice to lady of the manor since marrying her well-heeled husband, F1 boss Christian Horner, in 2015?
Could it be about a possible relaunch of her career? Or could it be that she is making a statement as a strong, independent woman?
Yesterday, it seemed all three explanations could fit, as she spent the afternoon at Cheltenham to cheer on her racehorse.
The horse, named Lift Me Up after her 1999 solo hit, came 13th in the Hunters’ Chase, ridden by Jack Andrews, the world’s tallest jockey.
Geri, 52, was there alone, with only no-nonsense publicist Matthew Freud for company in the VIP area, where she looked perfectly at ease and at home.
As is customary nowadays, she was dressed top to toe in white, a habit she adopted more than two years ago.
Geri Halliwell, who then became Geri Horner, has now decided to double-barrel her surname
This time it was a £1,095 knit jumper with gold buttons by French label Balmain, while her £675 trousers and coat were both from Max Mara.
To finish off her look, Geri opted for a camel felt fedora hat named Virginie by Maison Michel which is priced at £585.
Notably absent was Christian, 51, usually at his wife’s side as they cheer on their racehorses, but he was 10,500 miles away with his Red Bull team as he turned his attention to the start of the F1 season in Melbourne, Australia.
The timing was poignant because it is only a little over a year ago since he was caught up in an alleged sexting scandal which nearly cost him his job.
The motor-racing guru was accused of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ by a female colleague at the start of February 2024 and the tranche of WhatsApp messages allegedly between him and the woman were leaked to the media, including 149 Formula 1 figures.
Geri staunchly stood by his side but the scandal was a difficult time for the couple, who have a son together, but later Christian was cleared of any wrongdoing after a three-week inquiry conducted by an external lawyer for the F1 team’s parent company Red Bull GmbH.
But 12 months later and the girl power that mum-of-two Geri sang about in her Spice Girls days has become a reality as her own career appears to have become a priority for her. I’m told there are ongoing conversations between London-based television company Blast Films and some of the world’s biggest streaming giants.
Industry sources tell me that the firm has pitched a lifestyle reality show to Amazon and Netflix that apparently has similarities to the Duchess of Sussex’s series With Love, Meghan.
The former Spice Girl, known as Ginger Spice, attends the races in Cheltenham
Geri with her husband, F1 boss Christian Horner, who she married in 2015
One said: ‘It could end up being a real bidding war situation as Geri is fascinating. By the sounds of it the show would very much suit Geri’s new reinvention as a well-heeled, upmarket lady. It all feels very Meghan so let’s see how it all pans out. People are really starting to chatter about it now and there is real hope that it could happen.’
Geri’s PR didn’t respond when I asked her for comment yesterday, while last week sources close to her insisted she was not in talks to do a reality show.
She was catapulted to fame in the mid-1990s with the Spice Girls, but grew up on a council estate in Watford where she was brought up by her single mother, Ana Maria.
She was the first to leave the band and later released three solo albums and has since tried her hand at acting with a role on Gran Turismo, the movie of the computer game.
When it came to romance, Geri had enjoyed high-profile celebrity relationships with singer Robbie Williams and TV presenter and DJ Chris Evans.
She later dated film writer Sacha Gervasi with whom she has her daughter Bluebell Madonna, 18. She also has an eight-year-old son, Monty, with Christian.
The couple have two homes, one in Oxfordshire and another in Hertfordshire.
Geri recently revived her writing career, venturing into the young adult genre with her new Rosie Frost series, a fantasy and adventure series due to be published next month, about an orphaned girl who is sent to a school for extraordinary teenagers which is also a sanctuary for endangered species.
Her promotional tour for the book starts in three weeks in the US, as Christian travels the world to be trackside at the Japanese and Bahrain Grands Prix.
Although Geri has become used to the finer things in life, it’s fair to say that her pitstops on the tour will be far less glamorous than her husband’s.
She will stop off at the St Louis County Library, and the Coral Gables Congressional Church in Miami, as well as a Books-A-Million in Atlanta and Barnes & Noble in both New York and Philadelphia, where she will be welcomed as Geri Halliwell-Horner and will probably be wearing white. One associate of Geri’s said: ‘Those locations are hardly glittering.’
But for the star, coming out of her husband’s shadow is all that seems to matter right now.
