Staggering wealth gap of Spice Girls from country pile & £440m fortune to star living in mum’s bungalow… amid new feud

THE Spice Girls certainly weren’t Wannabes back in the 1990s and early noughties.

They were one of the biggest girl groups in the world, but that didn’t stop the five members from having spats.

And thirty years after forming, the band is still struggling to see eye to eye as their lives take different directions – and their net worths are world’s apart.

Geri Halliwell has caused chaos after reportedly pulling out of a TV series that was expected to net the girls £1million each.

It would have been a dramatised version of the girls’ path to stardom, and they would all net the huge sum for essentially doing nothing.

A source said: “As the negotiations ramped up, the others were told Geri had objected. The plans have basically been thrown out.”

Over the years, the girls haven’t struggled for drama – often falling foul of each other.

And their wildly differing earnings, among other things, may well have been a source of tension.

Despite making a fortune in their heyday, Victoria Beckham and Geri Halliwell seem to have soared ahead in the wealth stakes.

‘Geri doesn’t need it’

Mel C, Mel B and Emma Bunton haven’t been quite as careful with their cash – not that any of them are that short of it.

PR guru Mark Borkowski said: “What it all really boils down to is money and do the people involved in this kind of thing need it.

“And in this instance, Geri doesn’t need it. Before that, it was Victoria saying no.

“Things like this always come down to who wants it and who needs the money.”

While they might have been promoting girl power with their music, that doesn’t mean things behind the scenes were harmonious.

At their peak, they were thought to have earned around £59.5million per year.

By May 1998, Geri announced she was leaving the group due to depression and differences between the group, just as they were about to embark on a North American tour.

Her departure hit a particularly sore note for Mel B, as the announcement came out on her birthday, without warning.

Mark said: “Behind the scenes, things aren’t always going to be hunky-dory.

“It’s like a family dynamic, people will argue and have that kind of sibling rivalry. Things don’t always go smoothly.”

While the other four carried on for another three years, in 2001, they went on hiatus, insisting it wasn’t a permanent end.

Profitable marriage

Since leaving the group, Geri hasn’t struggled much for cash – and is now worth £440million.

In her first three years as a solo artist, her company, Wonderful Productions, reported a £13.1million turnover and she paid herself £8.9million.

After that, her accounts went dormant from 2001 until 2018, when she opted to get involved in a Spice Girls reunion.

It saw the girls, bar Victoria, come together for a six-date tour, which netted the four involved £2.2million each.

The following year, The Daily Mail reported Geri’s company was worth £3million and she had paid herself £1million from it.

In 2022, she paid herself £762,240 but last year’s accounts showed losses of £77,994 but held reserves of nearly £1.4million.

She bolstered her fortunes by marrying Red Bull boss Christian Horner in 2015.

He is believed to have been paid over £8million per year for his role with the F1 firm.

Together, the couple rake in £2.4million in rental properties and extra winnings from horse racing investments.

But the couple’s dream life has run into problems after Christian was accused of “inappropriate behaviour” by a female colleague and sending “sexually suggestive” texts.

The couple are trying to rebuild their image and have even been spotted being followed by TV cameras – which may be part of her decision to pull out of the Spice Girls TV project.

Mark said: “Geri has already been in the spotlight getting hassle for her husband.

“The last thing she’ll want to do is be drawing attention to herself outside of trying to rebuild their image.

“She’s already got cameras at home, so she doesn’t need the Spice Girls TV project again.

“Another massive project will just stir things up again and that’s the last thing she needs.”

£455m fortune

Like Geri, Victoria refused to take part in the 2007 Spice Girls reunion, due to the fact she was worried it might damage her burgeoning fashion career.

She almost signed up to the 2019 one – but pulled out at the last minute.

A huge row broke out between Victoria and Mel B over text, and a source claimed at the time: “The girls are furious with Victoria for initially agreeing to reunite, at one stage she even threatened to go legal if the girls cashed in on the brand minus her.”

Victoria’s fashion label was launched in September 2008 and by 2011 it had become a regular celebrity staple.

Last year, Victoria’s fashion label was estimated to be worth around $70 million (£55.3m).

Victoria definitely doesn’t need the extra cash either, having married David Beckham in 1999.

The former Manchester United legend is one of the richest sportspeople in the world, and together, the couple are worth a whopping £455 million, according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2024.

They live in a £12 million converted barn in the heart of the Cotswolds, which featured in the Beckham Netflix documentary.

The mansion, which is a stone’s throw away from the celebrity haunt Soho Farmhouse, has an Estonian sauna, as well as a swimming pool and huge garden.

Broke and living with mum

Mel B was desperate for the 2019 tour to go ahead, due to the fact she’d been left penniless by her abusive ex-husband Stephen Belafonte, having spent her earnings on legal fees and payments to him, along with a lump sum of £274,000 plus £3,900 a month in child support for their daughter, Madison.

She was even forced to sell her Hollywood mansion in 2017 and move back to Leeds to live in her mum’s bungalow in 2019.

“I wasn’t just emotionally and physically abused, there was all the financial abuse too,” she said in her 2018 memoir, Brutally Honest. “I didn’t realise that I didn’t have as much money as I thought I had. So I literally had to eat humble pie, live with my mum.

“Obviously any situation is better than being with your abuser, but when you’ve left that kind of abusive situation, it’s like starting all over again. You have to learn to trust people. You have to learn to trust yourself.”

By 2021, Mel had built a lot of her earnings back up, banking £1 million, and she said being back in her hometown of Leeds had helped her get back on her feet.

She said: “My mum’s one of seven so I’m surrounded by friends, family, aunties, uncles, nephews, nieces – the whole nine yards,”

Earlier this year, Mel announced she had purchased her own home. 

“I’ve been looking at houses on and off for the last couple of years, knowing I didn’t have the money to afford them,” she told the BBC. “But I just put my head down, worked and lived frugally, and hence I’ve been able to buy my own house.”

Taxman troubles

Emma Bunton has built up a £24 million fortune since Spice Girls, thanks to a solo career, various TV appearances, as well as presenting on Heart radio.

She and her husband Jade Jones also launched plant-based household product Kit & Kin in 2017, earning them a bit more cash.

But Emma got in trouble with the tax man earlier this year, due to the windfall of £4 million she made for her firm Monsta Touring Ltd from the 2019 reunion.

She placed the business into voluntary liquidation in 2021, believing she had settled her bills after paying £748,014 in corporation tax when the tour ended.

She was handed a second bill worth £185,006 to settle her affairs after she started the liquidation.

However, HMRC then said Emma had a further third debt to pay.

Liquidators for Monsta revealed: “Our understanding was that all tax had already been paid. Since March 2023, we have been in correspondence with HMRC to resolve the position. This is ongoing.”

£24m fortune

Mel C has managed to amass a £24million fortune since her time in the Spice Girls.

This has been thanks to a successful solo career, as well as a couple of TV stints including being a judge on Superstar in 2012, as well as a coach on The Voice Kids in 2021.

Most recently, she was on Celebrity Gogglebox with her former race car driver brother, Paul O’Neill, giving fans a rare glimpse into her London pad.

Clearly a Spice Girl with expensive taste, she has previously confessed she couldn’t live with her Egyptian cotton bed sheets or Peloton exercise bike, which can cost up to £2,199.