The bitter feud ripping apart hopes for a Spice Girls reunion

I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want: a chance to bathe in 1990s nostalgia at a mammoth Spice Girls reunion concert. Unfortunately for me, the group’s other devoted fans, and the five band members themselves, a rancorous feud has allegedly nixed plans for them to celebrate their 30th anniversary with a multi-date tour and a Netflix series worth £1 million a-piece. It’s a bitter blow for “girl power”.

The alleged row definitely doesn’t mark the first time the fiery quintet – which formed in 1994 – are said to have fallen out, although this could well be the costliest dispute in their colourful history. Reports suggest that the band were on the verge of agreeing a six-figure deal with the streamer, following in the footsteps of fellow ’90s stars like Robbie Williams – plus of course Victoria Beckham, who stole the show in husband David Beckham’s Netflix series, released last year, and has subsequently landed her own series about her fashion journey.

But it now sounds very unlikely that we’ll be seeing the highly anticipated Netflix show centred on the Spice Girls, who sold more than 100 million records worldwide, boasted the best-selling album by a female group in history, and scored nine number one singles. In fact, there were two different shows reportedly under discussion: one a documentary featuring interviews with all the girls and their families, another a biopic about the rise of Posh, Scary, Ginger, Baby and Sporty made by Left Bank Pictures – creators of hit royal saga The Crown.

The latter could have resulted in a £1 million pay deal for each of the bandmates, however it needed all of them to agree to it, and Geri Horner, 52, has reportedly pulled the plug on the lucrative project.

Talks involving Horner, Melanie Brown, 49, Emma Bunton, 48, Melanie C, 50, and Victoria Beckham, 50, were apparently going well. But, a source was quoted by multiple newspapers as saying that “as negotiations ramped up, the others were told Geri had objected. The plans have basically been thrown out”. Ironically, it’s just this sort of intra-band drama that would make their biopic an absolute must-watch.

However, Horner reportedly lost her cool after a series of sly digs and explosive revelations directed at her by the always outspoken Brown, aka Scary Spice, or Mel B. Tensions rose when the latter made a stinging joke by posting a throwback picture of the band with the caption “Happy 75th bday Ginge” on Instagram to mark Geri’s 52nd birthday in August.

Talks involving Horner, Melanie Brown, 49, Emma Bunton, 48, Melanie C, 50, and Victoria Beckham, 50, were apparently going well. But, a source was quoted by multiple newspapers as saying that “as negotiations ramped up, the others were told Geri had objected. The plans have basically been thrown out”. Ironically, it’s just this sort of intra-band drama that would make their biopic an absolute must-watch.

It might have been taken as a friendly quip had Mel B not previously claimed that Geri, Ginger Spice, hid her real age. Speaking on a podcast, she said: “No one knows how old Geri is. No one’s seen her passport. I know we’ve travelled the world, but I still don’t know how old she is.”