Geri Halliwell has been mocked for making an unfortunate blunder while sharing a birthday message to her former Spice Girls bandmate Mel B.
In an Instagram post shared on the morning of Melanie Brown’s 49th birthday, Halliwell shared a series of Nineties throwback pictures of the pair together, but something looked amiss in the caption, which appeared to have been copied and pasted from Halliwell’s social media team.
“Sent images to Pippa and this wording asked her to tweak where needed,” the caption began, posted to Halliwell’s 1.4m followers. “Happy birthday @officialmelb ! Hope you have an amazing day.”
Fans were quick to notice the mishap, but within 20 minutes, the caption had been edited to redact the first line.
“Pippa has finally ‘tweaked’ the wording! It reads much more sincerely now,” joked one person watching the blunder unfold on Instagram.
Another person addressed Halliwell: “Babe you need to sort your social media manager out,” as one commenter added sarcastically: “What a lovely genuine heartfelt message from yourself.”
Others theorised that the post would have been scheduled to be posted in the morning, with one fan writing: “Confirmation celebs don’t even post legit birthday messages.”
“Sending much love to Pippa on this day, she might need a wine glass or two,” another wrote, while a different commenter joked: “Pippa, I’d tweak it to add a little more sincerity.”
Fans appear to be making light of the caption error as rumours suggest Halliwell, known as “Ginger Spice” during her time with the Nineties girl group, and Brown, known as “Scary Spice”, have had frosty relations in recent years.
Brown recently admitted she had been kicked out of the Spice Girls WhatsApp group chat, because the other bandmates didn’t trust her to keep details of their upcoming plans a secret.
Explaining why she has been removed from the group chat, Brown told This Morning: “Because I say things, you know I get so excited when it comes to Spice Girls because it is 30 years and we’ve got a lot to celebrate.”
“The fact that we’re all still healthy and living life and all talking still. It’s nice.”
In April, bandmates Emma Bunton, Brown, Horner and Mel C reunited at Victoria Beckham’s 50th birthday party in Mayfair, and sang a rendition of their hit 1998 single “Stop” for David Beckham.
David shared the moment on Instagram, and Victoria responded in the comments, writing: “Best night ever! Happy Birthday to me! I love you all so much! #SpiceUpYourLife.”
The girl group’s debut single “Wannabe” was released in 1996. After two years at the top of the charts, Horner, aka Ginger Spice, shocked the world when she left in 1998, citing “differences between us”.
In December 2000, the rest of the group went their separate ways, announcing an indefinite hiatus.
The last time the group performed, they embarked on their 2019 reunion tour, sans Beckham, also known as “Posh Spice”, who said she was focusing on her eponymous fashion business.
The most recent occasion that all five Spice Girls were on stage together was for their 2012 performance at the London Olympics.
