SPICING IT UP - 'I'VE GOT A FEW WRINKLES, BUT MORE WISDOM'

LIFE IS SWEET FOR GERI HORNER AS THE SINGER EMBRACES HER FABULOUS FIFTIES

- ZARA ZUBEIDI

There's a hint of celebration in the air - and it's not just because the Spice Girls are reportedly reuniting next year.

Geri Horner turns 51 on 6 August and fans are just as keen to discover her secret to looking fabulous in her fifties as they were to replicate her iconic Union Jack dress 26 years ago.

Unsurprisingly, for someone who inspired "Girl Power" worldwide, Geri - known to most of us as Ginger Spice - has fully embraced her new decade.

"Age is a gift," she says. "I've got a few more wrinkles, but I've also got more discernment, more wisdom - it's a trade-off."

Gone are the towering platform boots, outrageous outfits and attention-grabbing antics - remember the time she patted the King's royal bottom? In their place is a more demure Geri, or Geraldine, as she now prefers to be called, who sports a signet ring on her little finger, loves a pair of wellies and almost always wears white (more of that later...).

But it's taken her some time to reach the level of self-acceptance she enjoys today.

Geri - who was only 23 when the Spice Girls' debut single Wannabe was released in June 1996 says her younger years were emotionally "stunted".

When she shockingly quit the band in 1998, she was just 26, hiding a debilitating eating disorder and struggling with depression.

Despite enjoying four No1s in her own right - she's the most successful of the solo Spices - Geri missed the camaraderie of being in a band.

"I found it really hard to let it go," she later said. "It took me a long time to adjust emotionally."

She says it wasn't until her thirties that she was able to ditch the "bravado" of her sassy pop persona to reveal the vulnerable soul within.

And by the age of 45, the mum-of-two finally conceded she liked herself "a bit better now".