Good evening. I'm speaking to you from outside the Opera House here in Manchester, but tonight, it's the home of the Royal Gala Performance. We were getting ready for the Royal Variety Performance in some hotel room, doing make-up and hair. All piled in, quick, get ready, you know. It was a laugh and a joke, every minute of every day, and humour really got us through some good times and some... sometimes quite hard times. And we used to have this thing called king dare. So you'd say, "King dare, who's gonna do the king dare today?" So it would be somebody was picked on to do the king dare. Go on, I dare you to eat one. Go on ` dare you. King dare! And I think Geri did do quite a lot of good king dares. And... I said to Geri, "I dare you "to kiss Prince Charles." Cos, you know, you can't go near him. And she was, like, "Yeah, all right!" I was putting so much red lipstick on her and so much gloss on her lips that they were literally dripping. Do you know, I think you're very sexy. Thank you. Oh no! You are. And I was thinking, "She's not really going to do it, is she?" She can't do that. You're just not allowed to. I can remember sitting backstage, and all I heard was, "She's only gone and done it, hasn't she?" What about the bum pinch? I think they'd done that quite a few times! They would do that to anybody that was of high social status, I suppose ` they would just bring them right back down to their level. To be honest, I don't even think the girls gave a shit about anything. They didn't! And because there's five of them, they were in a gang, so they could kind of, like, control things. Together, collectively, they were a force to be reckoned with. And I think this got the back up of a lot of people, that must have felt threatened by them. Subtitles by Red Bee Media. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Able 2021. Live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, it's the 1997 Billboard Music Awards! The American Billboard Awards is a hugely prestigious event with all the big names and the big boybands turning up. ALL: We're the Backstreet Boys! But in 1997, there was a new addition. Elvis designed Geri's. He spoke to me through my medium and said... AMERICAN ACCENT: "Hey, Geri, wear my suit tonight, cos viva Las Vegas! She nicked it out the foyer in the Hard Rock! The second time I met the Spice Girls was in Vegas. Geri was dressed like Elvis. I remember that really clearly. And the winner is... Spice Girls. CHEERING They'd just sacked Simon Fuller, and so then, you know, the press started coming out with, you know, "They're not gonna be as good, da-da-da-da.' Now, at the minute in Britain, there has been a bit of backlash against you. Ooh! The backlash has begun. We just wish that the press would put more facts, do you know what I mean? They're so... You know... They're just... Yeah, it's just... At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter, because I think, you know, our fans aren't stupid, and they've got their own brains, do you know what I mean? We love them. That's it. We forget how powerful the tabloids were. Hello. How are we? Good? Hello. Hello! Ooh! Ooh! These endless questions of when we're gonna split up ` you know, how long's a piece of string? But I think, even if Spice Girls did kind of go their own way, we are fundamentally friends, so Spice Girls would always be together anyway, whether it... It might not be necessarily in the public eye, but on a friendship level, we would never break up. Society loves to pit women against each other. Women of our generation, we've grown up to be in competition with each other. It was all about beauty competitions, modelling competitions, you know, supermodels. Whereas the Spice Girls were the opposite. We feel really proud that there are so many girl groups out there. It's about time. Yeah, they're not trying to be Spice Girls. They're individuals and they should be treated like that. There is no competition. There is just respect and admiration and camaraderie. It's only the press that choose to build that. I know. It's you that create that to make a story. I think, if you actually saw behind-the-scenes, it's completely different. We support each other. They had each other's back, and that was why they were so powerful. It's much harder to call things out when you're on your own. It took five women to have a voice of one woman in the '90s. As the pressure heats up in the press, the Spice Girls are forced to defend themselves after sacking the manager. Back in November, there was a big hate campaign in a certain tabloid newspaper, Mr Wright, and we were the happiest we could have been during that period within ourselves, so you couldn't be further wrong. I think you just rise above it. Was that when we got rid? Yeah, we got rid. That's good. CROWD CLAMOURS I was brought in there just after they'd parted company with Simon Fuller. A lot of the time, you're having to break not very nice stories to the girls when the media call you with something. You do end up feeling very protective of your clients, and I think the media would say that I'm probably very tough, maybe difficult. I mean, listen, I've been called plenty of different names over the years. But I think, if a male PR is dealing with stories and dealing with the media and is quite tough, they're treated with a lot of respect, and they're regarded as being, you know, good at what they do. Whereas I think as a woman, if you're quite tough, you're, you know, you're kind of regarded as being a bitch. In the early days of the Spice Girls, there were quite a lot of men that I would be talking to, whether they were on the PR or management or whatever. Here we are, 30 or 40 or perhaps even 50-something men, talking about an act that really doesn't have any connection with us at all. So we didn't have to pretend. It was business, but done in a very nice way. With Caroline McAteer's arrival, it just stopped being affable. It went from fun to nasty overnight. The Spice Girls' relationship with the tabloid press continues to deteriorate. In Spain, they refused to perform until the unofficial photographers leave the venue. When they finally came on stage, the reaction was mixed. MIXED BOOING AND CHEERING After they'd sung, it was no better. Does last night's hostile reception mean they're losing their touch? Showbiz editor Matthew Wright has been waging all-out war against the girls this week. No, I'm not. I don't read my stories out on camera, sorry. Do you not? No, no, no. Cos that's a classic stitch up. I've seen it happen so many times. So no. Wanna hear the Spice Girls getting booed? CROWD BOOING I'm being paid to do a job, but my job is most of the time to publicise the Spice Girls, you know, who I can't really give a monkey's about. There's so many signs that you can see that indicate this sort of... the sort of Spice mania is beginning to go. Why go on flogging a dead horse? I was a tour manager. They needed someone to come in and basically organise the world tour and co-ordinate everything. And, actually, the show was really important to them. They were working ridiculously hard, doing interviews constantly, and the press attention was ridiculously extreme. Whatever happened was just magnified into making a story. The Spice Girls dominate the headlines, and it seems people can talk of little else. Does anyone have a good word to say about the Spice Girls? No, I'm sorry, but there's nothing good about the Spice Girls ` I'm sorry. Nothing. I think they're talentless, really. They just look good, don't they? But it did become very personal, and started to be a little bit more unkind individually. And it went through all of the girls in different times, depending on whatever had happened in their kind of private lives. It really started to get nasty. Oh, I know that chest. Is it Ginger Spice? LAUGHTER Hang on, I'll just check. LAUGHTER No, it's Sporty Spice. Some of the mistreatment, particularly by male journalists and the media, came from fear, I think. I think people were intimidated and fearful of a powerful group of young women. Welcome to Merry Mind the Buzzcocks, the special Christmas pop quiz that says there's no one quite like Grandma, though Ginger Spice is catching up pretty quickly. LAUGHTER Is this Andy Gray, or is it Ginger Spice without the make-up? LAUGHTER I remember Geri particularly found that the most challenging. She was a powerhouse. Because she was very, very upfront and very outgoing and very vocal, the press decided that she was like the bully. Cos everyone said that it was Geri who got rid of Simon. No, it wasn't. Is that the truth? Everything we do is five people. A decision can't just be made by one person. It wears you down. You know, it's accumulative. And I remember her being a lot more reserved, you know, as the European tour went on. It wasn't just the press. Some in the music industry were starting to pile in. Are they as young as they say? That's what I wanna know. I'll tell you this, right, if Geri Spice is 24, then she's going to look BLEEPing rough when she's 30. It was just constant, constant, constant. Then obviously it becomes a little fraught. It created tensions between all the girls. * CHEERING We were on the European leg of the tour. One of the scenes during the show was basically a cafe type scene, and the girls were dressed as waitresses. Geri would wear the same costumes and do the same performance each night. I was photographing Geri on stage and she had a red top on, sort of hot pants, rollerblades, and she was carrying a tray, and she was rolling around, and it's like... you're following her round the stage, and then she just sat down on the chair, she looked me straight in the eye, and I done the pictures, and then the next frame, she's just gone, "Ah!" And I was like, "Oh, my God, what's happened?" And I knew I'd got a moment that I didn't really quite understand at that time. The girls were all very secretive, but I could see there was discord. And we finished the gig, finished the concert. We all then jumped into our cars and left. This lifestyle brings out the best and worst in everybody. It sort of accelerates, you know, your extremes of personalities. And it's so easy to get lost. It's so easy to not keep your feet on the ground. The next day, we all went back to work at the BBC, and Geri wasn't there. And so there was our room, full of glam, then the other room was full of lawyers and stuff. And no one knew what was going on. Nobody. But we had a show to do, so the show must go on, and I think some excuse was probably made. �10 million, so spice up your life ` it's the midweek National Lottery draw! CHEERING Thanks for coming along. It's really nice to see you all, but are we not missing somebody? ALL: We are. Unfortunately, Geri's not very well tonight, so get well soon, Geri. The girls sat us all down and just said, "Have any of you spoken to Geri? Do you know where she is?" Today is Thursday, 20th of May. I'm in Paris, and... yesterday, I left the Spice Girls permanently. Geri has asked me to read the following statement, and these are her words. "This is a message to the fans. "Sadly, I would like to confirm that I have left the Spice Girls." Something has changed, hasn't it? Something has changed. There's something different, isn't there? There's more room on the couch. There's more room on the couch. Where's Geri gone? # Where has Geri gone? # Where has Geri gone? # Geri Halliwell, otherwise known as Ginger spice, has confirmed that she has left the Spice Girls. I think everything was fine with five, and she's sort of letting the whole country down. My favourite Spice Girl! I don't know if she's gonna ever come back, sort of thing. When Geri left the band, I, as a 10-year-old, went into tinfoil-hat mode and refused to believe it. Then it dawned on me that this was true, at which point I took from my bed for, I'm gonna say two days, which then reached a boiling point, when my poor, well-meaning mother came in and said, "You know, "there'll be other bands, there'll be another band that you'll love", and I said, "Like who?" And she said, "B*witched". I think for a lot of people, it felt like a betrayal of what the band meant. When you're 9 years old and someone tells you friendship never ends, I think you want to believe that, and you believe that. Why does it make you cry? Why do you care so much? I just... I just remember the good things they done. I'd like to invite Geri Halliwell to help me sell the final lot of the sale. And I will start the bidding on this lot at 4200. 4800. 5000. 25,000. 32,000 on the telephone. 34 I'm bid. 36,200. Geri, sell it. It's sold! CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Geri. Excuse me. Excuse me. We saw you in Paris. You were wonderful. Oh, thank you. She's always wonderful! That was probably my first full-on media scrum. It's always a clusterfuck. Where's the car? I was Geri's publicist. When she left the Spice Girls there was a huge amount of media interest. Geri obviously was used to that. I was playing catch-up to begin with because I mean, it's another world. Her world turned upside down in a day, and everything she knew had gone, her support structure had gone, and she had to rebuild it and transition from being in what was then the biggest girl group in the world to being a solo individual. My final guest has lived the classic rags-to-riches showbiz story. She's the girl who walked away from the Spice Girls. Why? Let's ask her. Welcome, please, Geri Halliwell! SCREAMING AND APPLAUSE Geri's life after the Spice Girls had two sides. There was the public-facing persona, where she was confident and in control... I am living proof that if you put your mind to something and you feel strong, then you can achieve anything. ...and the more private, vulnerable side that was captured in a documentary. Everything's going right, but then, every weekend, I start crying. I suddenly feel really lonely. * Looking forward to America next Saturday. We are really excited. In Miami. Just the four of us, yeah. It's good. The four remaining Spice Girls begin the American leg of their world tour with camera crews following their every move. Hello. Hello! We've arrived. We're here in Miami. How long was the flight? Nine hours. So we feel really good. Nine hours! CHEERING Shouting the Spice Girl slogan, "girl power", fans are revved up to see the stars. It's their first appearance since Ginger Spice left. It's up to Baby, Posh, Scary and Sporty Spice to keep the fans happy. I like Ginger. I think she's the best one. I think she should really be here for the fans, but she wants to do what she wants to do. It's a free country. It won't be that good because... it'll just be like skipping a part. On tour with the girls, my day consisted of doing make-up in a little room. We'll put a bit of this on. And that is it cos they're gonna sweat a lot, you see, so you can't put a lot on them. Done? More lashes, though. I can remember what their bowl looked like in Miami, in my head, looking out. The girls went on stage and did a blinding show. AMBIENT MUSIC And... And it was like she'd never been there. It was the weirdest sensation. They'd filled the gap of her, and it still worked. And it was really bizarre. Cos you thought it would be broken, but it wasn't. I read in a Sunday Times paper in this interview, and it said, Melanie B, "We're stronger than ever since Geri's left. We don't need her any more," and to be honest, that says it absolutely all. That says absolutely everything. "We don't need her any more." CHEERING Mr Beckham, GDC. Do you have a second? Mr Beckham, how do you feel? We would always stay at the Four Seasons in New York City, and I can remember David Beckham being there. I think he'd just been booed or something from some football tournament, and I thought that Victoria and David would go the distance. You could see that they were a really good match. I was helping her kind of... make a plan to meet up with him. She was telling me what her plans were and stuff like that. It was really exciting. It was really lovely. This exciting new boyfriend. Did you know who he was? Ish. I mean, she told me who he was, but he wasn't David Beckham. He was just David, David who played for Man U, and he wasn't as big as he got to be. Yeah, it was just nice for her. Excited for her. And it was nice that she would tell me, you know, she was going to see him and he bought her a handbag and... That's when their lives started to become bigger. When lots of boyfriends came along, and it kind of changes the dynamics and it's not just about the band ` it's just part of growing up in a group of... with a group of people. You can't stay just bezzie mates forever, so it's just a normal progression, really. Victoria's engagement to David Beckham sparks a media frenzy, with everyone wanting to know every detail. This way. I'm embarrassed now! Stop it. Did somebody fix you up or did he just come over to you? I went over to him. I said to him, "Are you going to come down and sort of, you know, take me out", type thing? You said that? Yeah. And what's gonna happen when you get married? Nothing will really change. I mean, you know, he really understands that I want a career, you know what I mean? He would never expect me to stop doing everything and just stay in. Can I tell you something? He says that now. He says that now. He wouldn't even dream of it. I wear the trousers. OK. Everything changed then. If she thought she'd experienced mega fame as a Spice Girl, I don't think she had any clue what was around the corner. Just as Spicemania was all-embracing in '97, by sort of '99 onwards, it's Posh and Becks. Posh and Becks become a tabloid obsession. Victoria decides to make a documentary, and she challenges the editor of the Daily Mirror. It used to be, when in doubt, lead on the Royals. Now, when in doubt, Posh. You taking the piss? No, you're the new queen of newspapers. I've been telling them this for weeks. Thank you. So, Queen Posh and King Dave. Why don't you come and write a column for the Mirror? I'm gonna come and write a column? Mm. Weekly column. Why not? Do you pay well? You are as tight as they said, aren't you? Yeah, I am. Down to your last 20 million? Yeah. Don't believe what you read. CHEERING It was during the American tour that Victoria and Mel B got pregnant. I'd have to keep visiting pharmacies and buying pregnancy tests always, so that was becoming a bit of a full-time occupation at that point and that was quite funny. I'd be like, "Not another one ` come on!" You know, so I knew things were changing. I was there at the moment when Victoria found out she was pregnant. I do remember her telling me, and at the time what you have to remember as well is that at that moment nobody got pregnant when they were in a girl band. Nobody. Going through their pregnancies while they're doing concerts was pretty tough. There's a lot of sickness. It was tough on their bodies. In terms of a showbiz exclusive, it's about as big a story as it was possible to have at the time. The biggest female star in Britain, pregnant by the biggest footballer we have ever produced. In the '90s, people being pregnant on page one would have been Jerry Hall getting pregnant, because she was 40, and Posh Spice. TJ: Have I done enough to wear the jersey? Gotta sweat out that fear because this is bigger than me. I do it for my fans and my family. ION4 hydration. Sweat it out witih Powerade. * Touring with the girls, I remember receiving the day's newspapers ` obviously in America, you have a time delay, so there's enough time for them all to be faxed to you in those days. Standing by a machine watching them come out, you know, "Here's this. Oh man. And here's... Oh man. Here's another one. Oh, here's another one." That was very difficult and obviously not a pleasant thing to have to discuss and go through. "Showbiz exclusive ` are the Spices in crisis?" Emergency meter to discuss. "Meeting, even, to discuss future." We've also got, which is from The Star, "Mum-to-be Mel B". So these are all the newspaper reports coming in of... first of all Victoria being pregnant and now Mel B being pregnant. Stay back, all of you! I do remember when Victoria's pregnancy had been leaked, to have that blasted around, you know, publicly around the world is pretty traumatic, I'd have thought. All of the girls' parents were incredibly supportive, but also a bit protective too. Of course, it's their kid plastered on the front of every newspaper and magazine you walk past on a new stand. It would have been nice for Victoria to be able to tell her friends herself. And my family. Yeah, and her family and David's family rather than picking up the paper and reading it. It's a bit inconsiderate as well, because obviously, you know, I wanted to make sure everything was totally fine myself. And also being away from home makes a difference, doesn't it? It's just inconsiderate, I think ` it's really inconsiderate. If you actually look at the whole invention of, "girl power", the Spice Girls, after all that tough ballsy talking on television, what do they want at a young age? To have a baby and settle down. Yes. Good point! So that's what really comes of it all at the end of the day. The UK has more teenage mothers than anywhere else in Europe. Experts say peer pressure is a key reason teenagers start to have sex. The reason that it's growing is because we have media attention on very famous young mums ` the Spice Girls. 12-year-old girls look up to these... The criticism the two Spice Girls faced when pregnant forces Mel B to defend herself. They really milked it on teenage pregnancies. Let's kind of make Spice Girls responsible for teenage pregnancies, even though they're not teenagers themselves ` let's make out they are and blame them for that. Yeah, there is a problem with teenage pregnancies. Yeah, there is. But it's not our fault. We're not telling everyone to go out and get laid, without using a condom. Is it right to expose your stomach in that sort of sense? Is it right from what point of view? Who's it gonna harm? I mean, the general public. The minute you become a mother, your value decreases, because you're no longer a sex symbol, and that is the female currency. Have you missed me? CHEERING I wanna feel loved! Come on! Have you missed me?! CHEERING That's better. You know how to make a girl feel wanted. In 1999, Geri performs at Party in the Park, and the long-awaited first solo single goes down well. # Good lookin', bad tastin'... I think the song was very different from what people were expecting. # Loose livin'... I think Geri wanted a new start and to reinvent herself, and I think she did. # Big make-up, little break-up... Geri was really good at publicity. I mean, she was very savvy, she was clued up to what media interest is at that moment in time. # Superficial expectations. # Look at me. It's very interesting that she chose all the different roles that women had. You could be a sex object. You could be a tough businesswoman. You could be devotional. But the pinnacle of achievement for women is to be the bride. # That's me. # Sometimes I don't recognise... I think that's genius. She's holding a funeral for the persona that she became and lost herself in. Because I think that's what happens. I remember seeing Geri at a party, and something had changed. And it was like she wasn't quite there. LAUGHS # Look at me. # SHOUTING AND CHEERING That snog was definitely the performance the bubble completely burst. When she stepped out on her own, she became a target for what we all faced as women, is that you're there for the gratification of men. When the world tour ends, the Spice Girls stay together. But the remaining members begin to pursue solo careers. When the girls were going as solo artists, on their own, Melanie nabbed me first and she told the other girls as well ` "I'm taking Jenny." And we were very tight. Because we were protecting her. I'm a very lucky girl, actually, because the people who travel with me, as well as being my PA and hairdresser, they're my very good friends. So we're just a girlie gang on tour. I remember we did a video in the Mojave Desert, and she wanted to get away from the Sporty Spice black hair, and she just said, "I want it to look really punky. I'm gonna wear a kilt." I said, OK, let's chop your hair off, then. So we actually did it in the truck. And a lot was made of that short haircut. # How come I didn't see # you were making fun of me? How dare you change...? # I was at a wedding in the Lake District, and we were at the table in the morning having breakfast, and it's the News Of The World on the Sunday saying, "Melania C has found new love. "Has found love with this new woman." And it was me and her walking through Soho. "Jenny and Mel enjoy the sun together." Oh my God. "Mel C gets all touchy-feely with girl pal." It's just a non-story, isn't it? It's just three girls going out to have coffee. If she'd been a lesbian, she would have come out and gone, "I'm totally gay. I'm fine with it." But just to have this thing thrown at her all the time and having to keep defending herself, it was just... You know, it was hard for her. Everyone's been asking this question for the last six months, since the new image, about your sexuality. If I were to say to you, are you gay, Seriously, and you know me ` you know where I'm coming from ` if I was to say, are you gay? Would you give me a straight answer? I'll give you a straight answer. I'm very honest. You know, I might slip in the odd joke... Right, are you gay? ...that I think's funny. No, I'm not gay. I think she's pulled apart cos she didn't conform, you know ` she didn't have all the long hair and the soft look. She was just being herself. For her first performance we did The V Festival, which was... I mean, that's properly brave. You didn't think you'd see me up here, did you? So outrageously not anything the Spice Girls would have done. I think she just wanted to experiment musically, that she hadn't really been able to do before. It started off a little bit, you know, hostile. She definitely got a lot of scrutiny. It was very directed at, you know, a woman should be like this, a young girl should be like this ` you shouldn't do this, you shouldn't act like that. But then they'd go and see her perform, and they were, like, "Oh, actually, that's really good." That first album was a giant success. I mean, multi-multi-million-selling album. CHEERING All of the remaining Spice Girls released their first single with someone else. # I'm not aware of too many things... # And when it was Emma's turn, it was Emma and Tin Tin Out who released a cover of What I Am. The same week as Geri's Lift Me Up. It was in a real era where everyone loved for there to be a manufactured chart battle in which Geri went to the extreme lengths of dating Chris Evans. Geri versus Emma. It's still number one. It's Top Of The Pops. CHEERING In the run up to the chart battle, the girls are questioned about the rivalry. Who do you think's gonna be number one? Who would you put money on ` you or her? If you had to bet. I'd like to think, you know, I wrote my own song, and I'm really proud of it, and I think it's a great. Although, the song that she's covered is really fantastic, and she's done a great job. You have pointed out that it's a cover... AUDIENCE CHEERS Laterally, it created... a huge story. Was that planned? I don't think it was planned. We did win, though. Now, you might have heard a little bit about this brand-new number one. It's her second time at number one ` The Ginger One herself, Miss Geri Halliwell. See ya. # Watch the first light... # Whilst filming her documentary, Victoria is caught off-guard by one of her interviewees, who brings up the growing friction between the girls. What do you think of Geri's album? Geri Halliwell. Um... Put you on the spot. Um... LAUGHING: "Um." Have you spoken to her since...? No. No? Don't you think that's a shame, after spending all that time together? It is a shame, but I think that she kind of has turned it into a war, in a way. When they had their singles out together, her and Emma, she did as much as she could, didn't she? Oh, I know. It was all a big publicity exercise. But isn't that what singles are about? Yeah, but I wouldn't go to The Sun dressed as a schoolgirl with my... Unlike me. ...boobs out and talk about my relationship. There became a real era where the other girls were quite disparaging about Geri. I don't even like her voice. Mm-hm. I'm not saying she's rubbish. I'm saying I don't like her voice. Shot been taken. CHEERING It depends on the person. Some people don't like mine. That's cool. You're allowed to have your opinion. Yeah. It was a difficult time to be a Spice Girls fan. Felt like that's not what the Spice Girls were about. not what the Spice Girls were about. * ARCHIVE: The birth of the new century, the river of fire on the Thames, fireworks all over the country ` a happy New Year. At the dawn of the new millennium, the Spice Girls are still together. The band release their third album and reveal a new sound and look. # Imagine us together... # But it's met with scepticism. I would like to know if you think it is the best album of the Spice Girls? It's our first album as a four-piece, and we're excited, we're really proud of what we've made, and we hope it goes on to bigger and better things. It's pretty tough competition, right? I mean, there's the other band, Westlife, with a new album. We've never, ever been in competition with anybody. The mid to late '90s did feel progressive, but in the noughties, there was a massive backlash. It's, like, one step forward, two steps back. Something had shifted. The tabloids had been quite male, but this was women beating up on women and shaming each other. It was incredibly toxic. If we chopped your head off,... Yes, please. ...your sexuality would be in question. You are a single girl, you are a good-looking girl, big boobs, pretty hair, you go out there and you have oral sex with rich men, that is... Yes! Get a BLEEP! life! You know, wake up, remember, you are a young woman ` you should be sexy, trendy and fun. This is the worst crime that any young girl can do, is to have a little bit of a belly and to show it all off. It's such a bad look, and it's started out by those bloody Spice Girls. Victoria Beckham, Vic... uh! Uh! Uh! "Does this tampon make me look fat?" I hate her! I hate her. After Victoria becomes a mum, the media continue to comment on her body. Just 12 weeks after giving birth to Brooklyn, she appeared on TFI Friday. It's been a cracking year for you and your husband-to-be. Yeah. And you've had your baby. Yeah. Is your weight back to normal? Yeah, it is. Can I check? Do you mind? Oh, no, you did this to Geri, didn't you? Come on. No, but Geri was really small. It's all right. This is horrible. 8st. It's not bad at all, is it? I remember a lot of scrutiny around Victoria, and it was, like, seen as, "Well, that's the price of fame." Are you anorexic? No, I'm not. How do you know that? I know that cos I eat. You eat regularly? Yeah, no, I mean, I have a perfectly healthy diet. Sporty Mel C has revealed she's suffering from depression, following tabloid taunts over her weight and sexuality. You can never win. If you put a few pounds on, you're obese and fat, and they shame you. And if you lose weight, you're a bad role model. From well-rounded redhead... It's like anything ` you like strawberry ice cream; you eat loads of it. ...to desperately thin blonde. The new 6st Geri is high-maintenance, a regime which involves more than three hours of exercise a day and a high-protein, no-carb diet. Even in everything she'd achieved, it was her body everybody was focusing on. It becomes about her being a perfect specimen of womanhood, which is to be the smallest you can be. The battleground is always the female body. They're scrutinised on a daily level, they're scrutinised by ourselves more than anybody else, because that's what we've been taught to do. So young girls are being fed this, and then they carry this, and then it's passed on to the new generation, because they look at their bodies, and they go, "There's something wrong with me." Now, the News Of The World claims, after building a career as the fittest woman in showbiz, bulimia, the slimmer's disease she'd told the world she'd beaten, is back. But her publicist maintains the story is pure fabrication. Noel, do you believe the statement defending her, saying it's a load of rubbish? Well, whatever she's doing, she looks good, man, keep doing it. Keep doing it. I'm not sure that's the right thing to have said. Eating disorders are, you know, it's not good if she does have one and people shouldn't get... Obviously, she should take advice. Neal, do you worry for Geri's mental state as well as her physical state? If she's been sticking her fingers down her throat, making herself vomit, all I can say is, she's experiencing what most people experience listening to her records. So what advice would you have for Geri, now, then? She'll write another book, it will be My Celebrity Eating Disorder book. Those are very popular, those troubled. And then you'll review it. Then I'll review it. And you'll slag it off, and then she'll have a nervous breakdown, and then... And will you feel any guilt at all, any responsibility? Does she feel any guilt from making those records? With Geri, she's a woman who's explicitly said, "I've suffered from a variety of eating disorders," and that wasn't enough to stop her body being scrutinised in an incredibly invasive way. I think when you become more known for what size you are than what you're producing, kind of creatively, that's probably quite an unhappy place to be. Geri was set to perform at the Brits in 2000, and she was gonna perform Bag It Up. I think she wanted to stamp her mark that she was very much here as a solo artist. Our next performer needs very little introduction. Suffice to say, she likes to make surprise exits. But she's even better at grand entrances and openings, as you'll see in a moment's time, ladies and gentlemen. Big round of applause for Geri Halliwell! CHEERING It was with bells and whistles; it was the whole shebang. I mean, there were two huge legs in heels,... like that. And Geri appeared in between the legs. She knew it would raise some eyebrows. The Spice Girls were doing a medley at the end of the show. Naturally, as with all things Spice Girls and Geri, the papers were getting very excited about it, there were all sorts of increasingly crazy storylines put to us. Caroline McAteer was the Spice Girls' publicist when I was Geri's publicist. We just kept in touch whenever there were big media stories trying to be played out between the Spice Girls and Geri, so that we had a bit of an idea what was going on behind the scenes, as it were, before the papers started running stories. In what should have been a really enjoyable evening for them and a really celebratory evening, it felt very, very tense. The media presumed it was all to do with Geri ` none of it was. On that day, Victoria had received a death threat. They'd received threats towards Brooklyn, and they'd received bullets in the post. That was our biggest concern, was about the security and just what was gonna happen on the night. So, I'm at the Brits, and the Spice Girls have come on stage. And Victoria looked great. She's got this space-age suit on, so I'm thinking, "That's a good page one picture." But a big bang had gone off. Then suddenly, I noticed Victoria's, you know, crying. Obviously, they set off the confetti and the balloons, and Victoria thought that she'd been shot. And broke down in tears. So that's what was going on. But they just carried on. They're complete professionals. And at the end of their performance, the girls were getting the Outstanding Contribution. Thank you. We've all got to say a big, big thank you to Geri, cos without her, we wouldn't have been able to have done this. CHEERING To my two men, David and Brooklyn, this is for you. # Nah, nah, nah, nah. # No, no, no, no... I think we knew Goodbye was the end. We all knew it was a pivotal moment. We'd all sort of discussed it, but there was no official announcement. It was a goodbye to Geri, and it was goodbye to what was, really. The message was there. # Goodbye, my friend... I love this. It's making me very emotional. # Look for the rainbow in every storm... I love this bit Melanie sang. It's, like, my favourite bit. # Find out for certain ` love's gonna be there for you. You'll always be someone's baby. # Goodbye, my friend... # They'd been through a lot, you know, they'd been through a lot, and they were growing women dealing with the reality of what it means to be famous. Even women of my age now, probably don't go through what those girls went through. The girl gang gave them protection ` you know, they shielded each other. Made them less vulnerable, I suppose.