Sometimes, fame just becomes too much.
This is how former Spice Girl Geri Horner (née Halliwell) was feeling in the late ‘90s. It was a time when the Spice Girls were wildly popular throughout the world, but, as Geri tells “Oprah: Where Are They Now?” in the above clip, she had major concerns about how big the group was getting.
“It felt like it had grown into this huge monster, bigger than the individuals, bigger than the band itself,” Geri says.
As the pressures of fame intensified, creative conflicts arose between Geri and her group members. The conflicts became too much for the resident redhead and, frustrated, she dealt with the trouble the one way she knew how: She quit.
“There was a bit of ruction in the band,” Geri says. “It was like, ‘You’re getting on my nerves and I don’t know how to talk this through, so I’m out of here.’”
Geri abruptly left the Spice Girls in the midst of their 1998 world tour, leaving fans in shock. Looking back on her decision more than 15 years later, Geri now acknowledges that it wasn’t the ideal way to handle things.
“It was quite immature,” she says.
Once on her own, Geri channeled her energy into new music, releasing a record a year after leaving the Spice Girls. That album, “Schizophonic,” performed particularly well in the UK and ended up certified Gold in the U.S. For Geri, it was a deeply personal project.
“I used all that sort of an ‘F-you’ and all that creativity, a bit of hurt, and poured it into a solo album,” she says.
Geri talks more about the Spice Girls as well as her marriage on this weekend’s “Oprah: Where Are They Now?”, airing Saturday, Aug. 27, at 10 p.m. ET on OWN.
Another music moment:
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