Spice Girl Geri Horner: Single parenting can be lonely but co-parenting has challenges too

Geri Horner has confessed she found being a single mother lonely at times, but co-parenting with her husband also has its struggles.

The Spice Girls star brought up 17-year-old daughter Bluebell on her own until she was eight, before she married Formula One racing boss Christian Horner, with whom she shares six-year-old son Monty.

Horner, 51, told Giovanna Fletcher's Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast: "I've experienced both and I can tell you that, yeah I had my mum to help me with Blue. So I'm very grateful. And her granddad is gorgeous so it was a fantastic role model for her.

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"He takes her to football, which is amazing and I think you know, they both have their blessings and challenges.

"Being a single parent, mother you don't have to answer to anyone, but it's all on you. And that can be quite stressful and you have to be responsible. All the responsibilities are on you in every way.

"Broad shoulders are needed and sometimes it's lonely. So I've experienced that. And then, you know, having the blessing of having a lovely husband or partner, which I've experienced. That's amazing.

"So it's not all on you, but then you've got to compromise, we might have, you know, we're all different in the way we think things should be done. So learning to be a team, which has been a challenge for me."

Ginger Spice welcomed daughter Bluebell in May 2006. Her father is screenwriter Sacha Gervasi who Horner dated in 2005.

The singer began dating Christian Horner in 2014 and they married in May 2015. Horner had son Monty in January 2017.

Horner told People she was ready to meet her husband in her 40s because she had learned to be herself.

She said: "When I hit 40, there wasn't much airbrushing going on, to put it politely. I was my best geeky, silly self, and I think that helps to find a more compatible combination."

The children's author - who has just published her first novel - said she felt under pressure to settle down and have a family in her 20s and 30s and she would advise younger women not to rush into it.

She said: "I remember in my 20s and 30s feeling the pressure to achieve, to get the job, get the partner... Everyone's trajectory is different.

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"I was a bit of a late developer, and watching other people get their personal lives sorted was quite challenging. I did not focus on personal life at all during my 20s and 30s, and there's all these boxes to tick off. I would say to my younger self: 'Tranquilo! Everyone's trajectory is different.' I had a baby naturally at 44!"

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