I took two things to George, my men and my music... he would give his verdict on both
Since first meeting 20 years ago, when they bonded over the loss of a parent, George Michael and Geri Horner were each other’s rock. In 2006, after the birth of the former Spice Girl’s first daughter Bluebell, George lent her a place to stay. He gave Geri the keys to his £5million Regent’s Park property for as long as she needed.
And in 1999, he accompanied her to Battersea Dogs and Cats Home to select her first four-legged friend, shi tzu Harry.
There’s no doubt that the Freedom singer was a father figure for Geri, 44, who was still mourning the loss of her dad, during her years as a Spice Girl.
But George had another key role in Geri’s life: her official boyfriend vetter.
As the mum of two prepares to release emotional tribute song Angels in Chains, about losing her close pal in December, Geri reminisces about their happy times together. “I’d always want to get his critique and approval,” she tells us.
“There were two things I used to bring around for him: first, the latest song I’d written, to see what he thought. Sometimes he’d think it was good, and sometimes he wouldn’t.
“I’d also bring around my then boyfriend, to see what he thought of them. He would always give me a debrief afterwards and tell me exactly what he thought of them: music and boyfriends.”
Fortunately, Formula 1 boss Christian Horner, 43 – Geri’s husband of two years – passed the George test; the star was “kind and sweet” about him, Geri says.
She doesn’t disclose what he said about her previous lovers, including BBC Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans – who plays her new single for the first time on Monday.
But she says: “When I got married, I got people to donate to Great Ormond Street Hospital. George gave the biggest donation. Very, very big. I just thought,
It was my daughter who said, ‘Mummy, please don’t give up’ GERI ON BLUEBELL, 11, URGING HER TO HAVE BABY
what a kind, generous person.” Indeed George, who died from natural causes at home in Goring-upon-Thames, Oxon, had given all proceeds from Jesus to a Child – penned for ex-lover Anselmo Feleppa – to Childline, one of his favourite charities.
In George’s memory, Geri is donating all profits from Angels in Chains to the
When I got married, he gave the biggest donation to charity GERI HORNER ON GEORGE’S GENEROSITY
same charity. “I want the world to know what a great man he was, and really focus on that,” she says. Her single is peppered with references to the Wham! star’s catalogue, starting: “Every Young Gun has their fun, the brightest star burns half as long, who knows why the good die young.” It features George’s backing singers and was produced by Chris Porter, his producer of more than 30 years. Geri’s first solo single in 12 years, it was a coping mechanism for her grief – as music was for her in 1994, the year after her dad Laurence died. It led to her auditioning for the Spice Girls. Then, in 1998, the Watfordborn star launched her solo career. Geri’s last single was Desire in 2005.
Though plans for a Spice Girls 20th anniversary reunion were shelved when Mel C and Victoria Beckham rejected it, Geri, who has a fivemonth-old son Monty, says: “Any stage that is laid in front of me will always have room for those wonderful girls.”
Dismissing rumours of any issues between Victoria and the others, she adds: “She’s a beautiful person, she’s kind and she came round to visit Monty.” Now, Geri is back on the pop scene with her track for George.
The pair first sought comfort in one another in 1997, when George lost his beloved mum Lesley. “He lost his mum, and I lost my father, and he was giving a speech at the Capital Radio Awards about his mother,” says Geri. “What struck me was he was just so honest about his mother’s passing, and that honesty, helped me.”
It was her own, half-Spanish mum Ana Maria Hidalgo who thought of the middle name George for Monty.
“It’s poignant, because George died on December 25 and Monty was born on January 21, so in less than a month we lost someone, and then someone else arrived,” Geri says.
When she announced her second pregnancy, Geri’s social media posts credited “mother nature”, but she says: “However a baby is born, it’s all good.
“I know people that had struggled to conceive naturally.” She had nearly given up herself on having a baby with Christian, but Bluebell, 11, insisted her mum and stepdad keep trying.
Geri says: “I had tried, and it didn’t work. It was my daughter who said, ‘Mummy, please don’t give up’. We had a little pray instead, it was really sweet. I prayed and did some acupuncture and then it happened. He’s a little gift.”
Monty, Geri says, is “sitting drooling with his fingers in his mouth” as his mum takes a break from rehearsals for her first solo show in 10 years.
It takes place next Saturday, June 24, on the eve of what would’ve been George’s 54th birthday, at G-A-Y Bar in Soho, London – chosen because George was “a very proud gay man”.
Though she took her husband’s name, she is billed as Geri. She quips: “You guys have known me long enough to be on first name terms. Call me Geri or a silly cow. It’s all good.”
Angels in Chains gets its global release on East West records on Monday, after its first play on BBC Radio 2. Geri is donating her profits from its sale to Childline.