Formula One boss Christian Horner has broken his silence on how he and his wife, Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls, made it past a sexting scandal.
Horner, the team principal and CEO of Red Bull racing, which features three-time defending champion Max Verstappen, was accused earlier this year of sending racy text messages to a subordinate female employee of the team.
Horner opened up on the saga for the first time in an interview with Daily Mail.
“What happened at the start of the year felt like a perfect storm,” Horner said. “In life, it is a great lesson that the more success you have, the more of a target you become. Anything that can be used to unsettle and destabilize you and the team and the business. What disappointed me more than anything was the steps that people went to in order to try and achieve that.”
Horner was cleared of wrongdoing in a Red Bull investigation.
In the interview, he said that Halliwell was “hugely supportive.”
“You just stay true to yourself and I am very fortunate that I have got a tremendous family. My wife has been unbelievable, fantastic. Your partner is always the one you share your difficulties with. She has been absolutely outstanding and hugely supportive,” Horner said.
“She saw through a lot of things from having an outside perspective and it is good to have that weight and measure. It is hugely important. You learn about yourselves in times of difficulty and I was absolutely determined that we would navigate through the difficult waters.”
As Verstappen has the chance to clinch his fourth straight F1 championship in Las Vegas this weekend, Horner spoke about how the controversy brought the team closer together.
“In times of difficulty and when stones are being thrown, it actually galvanizes a team. I think there was an element of ‘f–k you’ from the team this year. Our people were saying ‘we are a strong team, no matter what you throw at us, bring it on,'” Horner said.
“I never felt I might have to walk away. I believed in myself. I believed in the process. I trusted in the process that was scrupulously applied by the company and I just had to trust to that. When I was on the plane to Bahrain, I didn’t know whether I was going to be at the race or not,” Horner said.
“But I had to believe in the process. I have had tremendous support and backing from the shareholders and from within the company. It was actually quite emotional before the first race when I addressed the factory. I do the usual summary of the testing and what the objectives are going into the season and it was absolutely rammed.”
