Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner and former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell arrived to Formula One’s race in Bahrain holding hands days after droves of text and photo messages leaked purporting to show Horner communicating with a female employee.
The messages leaked hours after Red Bull’s parent company cleared Horner in an investigation in which he was accused of “coercive behavior” with the employee.
The messages allegedly included comments to the employee about Spanx, and spreading her legs open.
The messages were reportedly sent via an anonymous email to about 200 people, including FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali, every team leader and even star driver Max Verstappen’s father.
Horner and Halliwell wed in 2015, and friends of the couple were concerned that this scandal could break them up.
One person told Daily Mail that their “marriage is now in question for the first time”.
Horner addressed the text message allegations indirectly in a statement that a Red Bull spokesperson read to reporters shortly after the news broke.
“I won’t comment on anonymous speculation, but to reiterate, I have always denied the allegations,” the statement said, in part.
Here's everything we know about Christian Horner's sexting scandal
Christian Horner, the team principal of the Red Bull F1 team, is being accused of “inappropriate, controlling behavior” following leaked allegedly salacious messages between him and a female employee.
Horner, who is married to former Spice Girl Gerri Halliwell, allegedly commented to the female employee that it would be good for her to stretch her legs in response to her stating it would be good for him to do so after a long flight, according to reports.
The leak, which was sent to nearly 200 people in a Google document, included nearly 80 images of screenshots with messages to the woman, including: “I keep thinking about Spanx” and “What’s underneath at the moment?”
Horner also allegedly asked the woman for selfies of her in pajamas, and one message referenced what the Daily Mail described as a “solo sex act.”
The employee reportedly asked Horner to stop and attempted to turn the tables by asking him how he would feel if his wife was doing the same thing with an employee, according to reports.
Red Bull Racing cleared Horner of any violations of misconduct following an internal probe.
“I won’t comment on anonymous speculation, but to reiterate, I have always denied the allegations,” Horner said Thursday in a statement.
Verstappen, Red Bull’s star driver, has won the F1 championship the past three years and is the heavy favorite to do so again this season.
He seemingly had Horner’s back earlier this week.
“Listen, when I look at how Christian operates within the team, he has been an incredible team boss, so absolutely, from the performance side of things, you can’t even question that,” he said, as covered by ESPN.
Verstappen sidestepped specifics of the controversy, emphasizing that he is focused on the “performance side of things.”
Verstappen is a -900 favorite — meaning you have to wager $900 to win $100 — in Saturday’s race in Bahrain.
