In May 1998, a 25-year-old woman walked out of her job, and it made world news. "I was standing on this mountaintop, and I jumped, not knowing where I was going to fall," says Geri Halliwell of her abrupt departure from the Spice Girls. "Everyone was saying I was bonkers, but I had to go, get my feet back on the ground."
Geri had planned on leaving the Spice Girls in September, 1998 and had already told the other girls of her decision, as she felt she had achieved all she could as a member of the group. Then in May, Geri wanted to do an interview with ITV about her breast cancer scare, but when the Spice Girls schedule would not permit it, it made her question her priorities. Within hours the decision had been made.
From nowhere to the pop phenomenon of the Nineties in the space of one record, the Spice Girls had been on an extraordinary girl-powered journey. They had hits around the world. They sold enormous numbers of records. They made a movie.
They met Prince Charles, President Mandela. They met all their pop heroes, then became more famous than most of them. And it all happened so fast there was scarcely time in their schedule to sleep, let alone take in what had happened to them.
For Geri Halliwell, it was time to go, to find out who she was when she wasn't Ginger Spice. "There was nothing contrived about the Spice Girls and Ginger is a part of me, but I'd been wearing platforms since I was 18, and it was natural to grow out of it. I wasn't wearing those kind of clothes off-stage. My make-up was getting less and less. When I left, I needed to strip the lot away and say, 'Actually I'm an egg at the moment. I'm in incubation.'"
Of course, the offers came flooding in: film roles, TV shows. One magazine alone offered half a million for her story, but Geri took her time. She stayed at George Michael's house for a while. She sold the trademark outfits she'd worn as Ginger Spice, closing a chapter in her own life and raising £150,000 for Sargent Cancer Care for Children. She went to Uganda for Comic Relief and nearly drowned twice while filming on some rapids there. She was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador by the UN. She sang "Happy Birthday" to the future king of England ("...If you ever have constipation, just sing to Prince Charles-- I went to the loo eleven times, I was so nervous.")
Biography Provided By the Official Geri Halliwell Website
See also the Spice Girls biography for more information on Geri Halliwell.