'Victoria's like Marmite, you either love her or hate her,' admits Geri Halliwell on Piers Morgan

By Simon Cable

Revealing: Geri Halliwell reflects on her days in the Spice Girl on Piers Morgan's Life Stories


After years of hostility, many thought the Spice Girls had finally put their differences behind them.

But Geri Halliwell has risked opening up old wounds after claiming that bandmates Victoria Beckham and Melanie Brown were the least popular members of the group.

Miss Halliwell made a series of catty remarks about the other members of the band during a frank interview with Piers Morgan on his ITV chat show.

She even likened Victoria Beckham to Marmite, claiming 'you either love her or hate her'.


Marmite: Victoria Beckham, pictured in Los Angeles earlier this week, can inspire different emotions in people, according to Halliwell


During the interview with Morgan, due to be shown tomorrow night, Geri, also known as Ginger Spice, was asked how she felt about being voted Britain’s favourite Spice Girl.

She replied that she thought Emma was the most popular and she was the second most popular, with Melanie Chisholm being third on the list.

However, she then refused to say where fellow band-mates Beckham and Melanie Brown were on the popularity list.

She said: 'I never thought I was number one, I actually thought I was always number two.'

Morgan asked: 'To who?' before Halliwell replied: 'To Emma, because I think Emma was much easier to like.

'She doesn’t ever offend anybody and although I think I can communicate well with people and hopefully they identify with me, sometimes I would put my foot in it a little bit more, so that’s very flattering to think that I was the most popular.'

Asking her to elaborate, Morgan added: 'Emma one, you two, who’s three? We now have a pecking order. Who’s third?'

Halliwell then referred to the sales figures of the Spice Girls dolls to help her determine each member's popularity.

'It would be according to what dolls are left on the shelf,' she said. 'I think probably Sporty, (Chisholm). Do you know what, actually I always refer to Victoria…you’d get this very black or white feeling, either


Why I left: Halliwell explains her reason for quitting the Spice Girls in 1998

Morgan added: 'You either love her or hate her. 'Yeah,' replied Halliwell, before swiftly adding: 'I absolutely love her. The girl that I know has got absolutely nothing to do with the one I see in the media.

'Do you know what the funny thing about us that I really learned? When the world was against us we were the tightest, it’s a bit like family, that we were allowed to criticise each other, but nobody else was and if anybody were to attack us, we’d be like a rock and I actually do feel fiercely loyal and I want to defend them.'

The Spice Girls split in 2001 - nearly three years after Halliwell walked out following growing tensions between the women. She went on to pursue a solo career, but the group reunited in June 2007 after unveiling plans for a lucrative world tour.


Reunion: Halliwell and Beckham on stage in Vancouver, Canada in 2007

They made a triumphant start in Vancouver and went on to pocket £10million each, playing to 500,000 fans in Europe and the US.

But as the strain of performing such a gruelling schedule with four performances a week took its toll and the group disbanded a second time, cutting short their comeback tour after a string of rows.

Talking about the moment she left Spice Girls in May 1998, Halliwell, 37, added: 'I was asked to do an interview for Breast Cancer Care and they asked me because I had a scare a long time ago and I was like, "fantastic".

'Sometimes I just wanted to show up as just myself and for some reason it got stopped they [the band] said, "We all want to do it or you’re not doing it."

'I was like, "Do you know what? I haven’t come this far in the game to be told not to do that." So that was the defining moment.

'We were on this tiny private jet flying into London and I was just went, "Bye girls," And I thought, "Maybe you’re going to be happier without me." I didn’t say I was leaving but the next day I said, "I’m not coming back."'

Later she added: 'Slowly, slowly as time went on I was the one that stayed in contact with them all, I went round to see them and would write them letters.

'I think I drove up to her house and just talked it through. I wanted to go round and kind of make amends and say sorry.'

• Piers Morgan's Life Stories: Geri Halliwell is on ITV1 at 9pm on Saturday 3rd April.


source: dailymail