Christian Horner’s high-profile relationship with Geri Halliwell has been thrust even further into the spotlight since allegations of inappropriate behaviour were brought against the Red Bull boss, and the pair remain joined at the hip as the saga rumbles on. Here, Express Sport takes you through a brief history of Horner’s love life before and after tying the knot with the former Spice Girl…
Before Halliwell entered the picture, Horner was in a 14-year relationship with Beverley Allen, a former pub landlady six years his senior. The pair were together from 1999 to 2013, during which time the ex-racer had worked his way up from a newcomer in F3000 to fully-fledged F1 team principal who had overseen all four of Sebastian Vettel’s world titles.
Horner and Allen kept chickens, ducks and miniature ponies together on the Oxfordshire farm they called home. Allen had two sons from a previous relationship, who are now in their 30s, and she gave birth to Horner’s first child in 2013.
They divorced only months later as Horner began a relationship with Halliwell the very next year, getting engaged to the former pop star before the end of 2014.
Horner and Halliwell had crossed paths several times before, with the Red Bull boss shedding light on their first meeting at the Monaco Grand Prix in 2009. “I remember Ron Dennis was standing next to me and Eddie Jordan was there as well,” he explained. “She gave Ron a kiss on the cheek, and she gave Eddie a kiss on the cheek. So I thought, ‘OK, I’m on for a kiss on the cheek here!’ And I went to give her one and she shoved her hand out at me!”
Halliwell also attended the Monaco Grand Prix in 2013, where she gatecrashed one of Horner’s TV interviews. There are no suggestions that the pair’s association became romantic until after the Red Bull boss split from his first wife.
They got married in a 2015 ceremony which, strikingly, was not attended by either of Horner’s parents. F1 legends David Coulthard and Sir Jackie Stewart, as well as TV celebrities such as Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, and ex-Spice Girl Emma Bunton, were among those present.
Halliwell gave birth to her first child with Horner in 2017, a year and a half after their wedding. Her eldest daughter, Bluebell Madonna, is from a previous relationship. Horner insists their ‘blended family’ set-up is harmonious and he has a civil relationship with his ex-partner.
Horner and Halliwell split their time between sprawling family homes in Oxfordshire and Hertfordshire, having reportedly amassed a staggering combined fortune of £440million.
The relationship has long been in the spotlight due to their respective celebrity status in motorsport and music, and that only escalated when Red Bull opened an investigation into Horner after allegations of inappropriate behaviour were put forward by a female employee.
Horner was grilled by an independent barrister recruited by Red Bull GmbH before being cleared by the multi-billion-pound drinks brand. However, another spanner was thrown in the works last week when WhatsApp messages and photos, allegedly from Horner to an unnamed person, were leaked to journalists.
The Red Bull team principal, who has refused to clarify whether or not the WhatsApp messages are his, strenuously denies wrongdoing. Halliwell flew out to Bahrain last week ahead of the 2024 F1 season’s curtain-raiser, and walked hand-in-hand with her husband of almost nine years in front of TV cameras.
