During a charity concert in South Africa in 1997, Geri cheekily made a flirtatious remark to Nelson Mandela

Less than two years after Wannabe topped charts, Geri announced she’d had enough and confirmed her departure from the group in May 1998 in the middle of their world tour.

Her shock decision to leave at the peak of their fame and right before their concerts in the US was never going to go down well, but her move to quit on Mel B’s birthday especially hit a nerve.

Scary Spice didn’t mince her words in a subsequent TV interview, saying: ‘When Geri left the group, it was bad. She left on my birthday and didn’t tell anybody. She didn’t show up. We had the American part of the tour to continue.’

Geri announced she had left the group via her lawyer, claiming that she was suffering from exhaustion and wanted to take a break; however, rumours rumbled that she had come to blows with Mel B.

Mel’s ex-husband Jimmy Gulzar later said that Scary Spice was particularly hurt because they were ‘really, really close’.

He hinted at rumours the pair had once had a fling, saying: ‘Melanie had showed me and told me how close she was with Geri. Melanie and Geri have a relationship with each other that was deeper than a lot of people think.’

With Geri gone from the Spice Girls, her bandmates were not shy about voicing their criticisms about her lack of natural vocal ability.

Sporty Spice even went as far as to call Geri ‘untalented’ during an appearance on the TV show CD:UK in 2003, after presenter Cat Deely asked her about Geri critiquing other pop acts.

‘Does she have the qualifications? What is your opinion?’ Cat asked.

Sporty responded by saying: ‘My personal opinion is that I don’t think that she does, I don’t think she is of a talent.’