For youthful Gen X’ers and elder Millennials, there was arguably no better Nineties cultural touchstone than the Spice Women. And when you’re of a sure age, you keep in mind precisely the place you have been when the earth-shattering information entered your tween ears that Geri Halliwell, “Ginger Spice” herself, was leaving the band without end.
The remaining 4 Spice Women members, Melanie “Scary Spice” Brown aka Mel B, Melanie “Sporty Spice” Chisholm aka Mel C, Emma “Child Spice” Bunton and Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham, tried to soldier on as a foursome. However the magic was simply not fairly there, and after making 2000’s criminally underrated — and inaptly titled — album “Endlessly” collectively, the quartet disbanded for good.
On the time, the break-up was chalked as much as all the pieces from private rifts and contract disputes to Halliwell’s want for a solo profession. Nevertheless it turns on the market was seemingly extra to the story, and a break-up of a distinct sort was really accountable.
Many followers assume a love affair between Mel B and Geri Halliwell is what really broke up the Spice Women.
To be honest, this isn’t precisely new info — it has been circulating for years. However when lesbian TikToker @sapphicunderground jokingly talked about the story in a TikTok video not too long ago, the refrain of gazillions of TikTok customers collectively shrieking “WHAT?!,” recommended that not everybody has heard the story — this author included, regardless of being a fan from the very starting who took a time off work to purchase tickets to the Spice Women’ 2008 reunion tour.
Mel B has publicly alluded to a love affair with Geri Halliwell in interviews.
“If we’re being sincere, neither of them have ever been refined about the truth that they’re fruity or refined about their emotions for one another,” the TikToker mentioned in her first video laying out the proof, which incorporates clips of the 2 girls joking about having “a very good tongue on you” and desirous to “shag” one another again within the 90s.
“The proof suggests,” the TikToker says, “that Mel B and Geri very a lot began out as a friends-with-benefits state of affairs, however it shortly developed right into a romantic relationship. And when that relationship broke down, Geri was so heartbroken it resulted in her leaving the Spice Women, not so coincidentally round Mel B’s birthday.” Drama!
However the largest piece of proof of all is a 2019 interview with Piers Morgan through which Mel B all however brazenly admitted to having had a sexual relationship with Halliwell.
“She did not elaborate an excessive amount of,” the TikToker mentioned, “however she just about confirmed what a variety of us had been figuring out for years.” The TikToker additionally cited an interview with Mel B’s ex-husband through which he mentioned the “deep connection between Geri and Mel B” in a method that appears clearly euphemistic by in the present day’s requirements.
Picture: @sapphicunderground / TikTok
However lengthy earlier than that, there have been loads of indicators that Halliwell and Mel B have been way over simply mates and that their entanglement spelled the tip of the band.
Geri Halliwell additionally cryptically wrote about an affair with Mel B in her memoir, ‘Geri-Simply For The Document’
“Only for the document, she says the explanation that she left the band was particularly due to a relationship breakdown,” the TikToker says of Halliwell’s 2002 memoir. She then supplied a passage from the guide through which Halliwell describes herself as having determined, “‘I’ve cherished and misplaced. I surrender. My coronary heart is breaking.'”
Picture: @sapphicunderground / TikTok
“There is not any proof of Geri having any form of severe long-term boyfriend through the Spice Women,” the TikToker provides — however she and Mel B have been inseparable. “They constantly traveled and went on a mess of adventures with one another, simply the 2 of them, quite a bit… Mel was the long-term boyfriend.”
The Spice Women’ closing track as a fivesome is a couple of secret love affair — and it dropped simply earlier than Mel B obtained engaged and Geri Halliwell left the band.
“Then now we have the track lyrics in ‘Viva Endlessly,'” @sapphicunderground mentioned in her follow-up video in regards to the affair. The 1997 hit was primarily written by Halliwell, and, tellingly, it was the ultimate single the Spice Women launched as a full fivesome.
The lyrics middle on a secret romance, and as @sapphicunderground notes, they “don’t comprise any male pronouns” however a lot of secretive imagery. Because the TikTok put it, citing the lyrics, “’emotions unfold, they may by no means be offered and the secrets and techniques secure with me’ — these lyrics are fairly clearly referring to their secret romance and it being saved away fromthe tabloids as a result of, in fact, if individuals knew, they’d have completely offered them out.”
The timing of all the pieces is revealing too. Shortly after “Viva Endlessly’s” launch, Mel B obtained engaged to the aforementioned husband who spoke of her deep reference to Halliwell. And shortly after that’s when Halliwell made her exit.
“I consider the engagement completely contributed to why Geri was feeling so heartbroken,” the TikToker says. Halliwell herself has likened her response to Mel B’s engagement to throwing a child-like mood tantrum, which she adopted with leaving the band proper round Mel B’s birthday. “
The story of the alleged love affair between Mel B and Geri Halliwell reveals how a lot instances have modified relating to LGBTQ+ points.
Are you able to think about this form of factor being that massive of a deal these days — and even saved hush-hush within the first place? These days, artists would most likely push the story out themselves to spice up their album gross sales. “There is not any such factor as unhealthy publicity,” in spite of everything.
However even when they hadn’t gone that far, it is laborious to think about this complete factor happening fairly prefer it did within the 90s. As @sapphicunderground put it, “the 90s have been a distinct time.That form of scandal would have completely broken their profession.”
Picture: @sapphicunderground / TikTok
Right this moment’s resurgent right-wing homophobia and transphobia apart, it is laborious to think about that being true these days, particularly as attitudes towards bisexuality and the thought of sexual orientation present on a spectrum are an increasing number of accepted.
Heck, these days, these “Viva Endlessly” lyrics alone would most likely set off homosexual alarms identical to many the tales of many historic and historic literary figures do in the present day. As @sapphicunderground put it, “will [Mel B and Geri] ever come out and discuss explicitly about what occurred intimately? In all probability not, however I do not assume they should.”
John Sundholm is a information and leisure author who covers popular culture, social justice and human curiosity matters.
