--- title: Ginger Spice Apologizes for Leaving the Spice Girls description: Ginger Spice has apologized to fans for leaving the Spice Girls nineteen years ago. canonical: https://time.com/4801195/ginger-spice-girl-apology/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-01T15:07:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:44:05.981Z og:title: Ginger Spice Just Apologized for Leaving the Spice Girls og:description: "Sorry about that" og:url: https://time.com/4801195/ginger-spice-girl-apology/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ffc32b2b6d431d9/6988cfbc97cdff6dd56b0f6e/gettyimages-150227552.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 2012 Olympic Games - Closing Ceremony og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ginger Spice Just Apologized for Leaving the Spice Girls twitter:description: "Sorry about that" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ffc32b2b6d431d9/6988cfbc97cdff6dd56b0f6e/gettyimages-150227552.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ginger Spice Just Apologized for Leaving the Spice Girls 19 Years Ago by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jun 1, 2017 3:07 PM UTC  LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 12: Victoria Beckham, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown and Melanie Chisholm of The Spice Girls perform during the Closing Ceremony on Day 16 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on August 12, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 12: Victoria Beckham, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown and Melanie Chisholm of The Spice Girls perform during the Closing Ceremony on Day 16 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on August 12, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)Stu Forster—Getty Images by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jun 1, 2017 3:07 PM UTC Pop culture bade farewell to one of the greats when Geri Halliwell a.k.a. [Ginger Spice](http://time.com/4391945/spice-girls-wannabe-20-years-anniversary/) dropped some devastating news during a global tour in 1998: she was leaving the Spice Girls. For fans, the departure was abrupt and lacked explanation, until 2010 when [Halliwell](http://time.com/4398171/the-spice-girls-tease-a-major-reunion-in-new-video/) discussed it in an interview. But now, 19 years later, Ginger has offered something else, via Twitter: an apology. On Wednesday, a fan account messaged the singer, who since marrying in 2015 goes by Geri Horner, to commemorate the anniversary of her exit. In response, Horner wrote that she was sorry in a tweet with an emoji of a broken heart, perhaps symbolizing the dashed dreams of fans around the world. “I’m sorry about that. Everything works out in the end, that’s what my mum says!” she wrote. It may be almost 20 years since her exit, but fans were grateful for personal touch. > [](https://twitter.com/SpiceGirlsFilm/status/869898293073113088) > [](https://twitter.com/GeriHalliwell/status/870044901928468481) In the [2010 interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdhIEIW8PSc), the pop star explained that she had been planning to leave the “girl power” group once their world tour ended in September 1998, but she ultimately left earlier because she was not permitted to give an interview about breast cancer, an issue about which she [cares deeply](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/181904.stm). “I was meant to be the advocate of girl power, and I felt like a hypocrite if I couldn’t do something…for empowering women. So, I had to go. I had no other choice, really,” she said. Last July, Horner, Emma Bunton (Baby Spice) and Melanie Brown (Scary Spice) announced that they would participate in a Spice Girls reunion concert in London’s Hyde Park, though no date has been confirmed. Victoria Beckham (Posh) and Melanie Chisholm (Sporty) were notably absent from the announcement — their [lack of interest](http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/7494556/mel-c-explains-why-she-said-no-to-spice-girls-reunion-tour) is [rumored](http://www.nme.com/news/music/victoria-beckham-spice-girls-tour-1945731) to be a factor in the uncertainty that the event will even happen — but fans will take all the spice they can get. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4801195/ginger-spice-girl-apology/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4801195/ginger-spice-girl-apology/"},"headline":"Ginger Spice Just Apologized for Leaving the Spice Girls 19 Years Ago","datePublished":"2017-06-01T15:07:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:44:05.981Z","description":"\"Sorry about that\"","url":"https://time.com/4801195/ginger-spice-girl-apology/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","Music","Spice Girls"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ffc32b2b6d431d9/6988cfbc97cdff6dd56b0f6e/gettyimages-150227552.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ffc32b2b6d431d9/6988cfbc97cdff6dd56b0f6e/gettyimages-150227552.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2012 Olympic Games - Closing Ceremony","caption":"2012 Olympic Games - Closing Ceremony","creditText":"Stu Forster—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4801195/ginger-spice-girl-apology/","name":"Ginger Spice Just Apologized for Leaving the Spice Girls 19 Years Ago"}}]}] ```