Geri Horner returns to Instagram for the first time in weeks as she wishes Mel C a happy 51st birthday with her Spice Girls bandmates – amid claims of a bitter fallout over derailed TV project

The Spice Girls were back together on Sunday, at least in a manner of speaking, as Melanie Chisholm celebrated her 51st birthday. 

The iconic girl group were thought to be at loggerheads following claims that Geri Horner derailed a lucrative TV deal that would have earned them a collective £5million. 

But there was no bad blood as Geri, Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton and Victoria Beckham shared individual birthday tributes to their bandmate. 

Taking to Instagram with her first grid post since December 19, Geri, 52, shared throwbacks of herself and Mel – famously referred to as Sporty Spice – at various points throughout their pop career. 

Captioning the post, she wrote: ‘Happy birthday! Wishing you an amazing day!’ 

Geri Horner returned to her Instagram grid for the first time since December 19 as she wished Spice Girls bandmate Mel C a happy 51st birthday on Sunday 

Elsewhere, Emma, 48, shared her own celebratory message to the singer, writing: ‘Side by side always. Happy birthday my beautiful friend! Here’s to celebrating together every year. Love you.’ 

Victoria – who left the band permanently ahead of their 2019 reunion tour – shared a short clip from their 1997 film Spice World. 

Captioning the scene – in which she and Mel exchange some scripted banter – she wrote: ‘Happy birthday! Kisses.’ 

Sharing a red carpet throwback with her own followers, Mel B, 49, added: ‘Happy birthdayyyyy!! Miss you and luv youuu have THE BEST day I see you v sooon.’ [sic]

The Spice Girls were the biggest girl band of the nineties but hopes of another reformation were thought to have been have been scuppered due to an ugly feud between two members. 

Reports emerged in November that Geri backed out of a huge Netflix biopic that would have netted each of the five members £1million each .

According to The Sun, the streaming service has told the band to make up otherwise, much like controversial drama The Crown, it will make the show without any input from the people featured in it.

A source said: ‘Executives are keen to have all the group on board providing as much input as possible – after all they are pop royalty.

Baby Spice Emma also paid tribute to her bandmate as she celebrated her special day 

Sharing a red carpet throwback with her own followers, Mel B added: ‘Happy birthdayyyyy!! Miss you and luv youuu have THE BEST day I see you v sooon’ [sic]

Victoria – who left the band permanently ahead of their 2019 reunion tour – shared a short clip from their 1997 film Spice World

‘But Netflix are the organisation who defied the wishes of real royalty and went ahead and made The Crown, so they aren’t afraid to go it alone when they have to.

‘The project is in its very early stages so there’s plenty of time to get all five Spice Girls involved.

In November, Geri’s husband Christian Horner was forced to deny claims he was to blame for ‘derailing’ the band’s TV project.

He told the PA news agency: ‘There is a lot being written about different things, but there are absolutely no plans to do a family documentary.

‘Netflix do enough, and you see enough of the behind-the-scenes on that. So where that report has come from, I have absolutely no idea.’

The feud began when Mel confessed she had a lesbian fling with Geri during the band’s nineties heyday on Piers Morgan’s chat show in 2019. 

The iconic girl group were thought to be at loggerheads following claims that Geri backed out of a lucrative TV deal that would have earned them a collective £5million.