From social media, it felt like the world and their wife somehow managed to make it to one of the 13 dates of first Spice Girls UK tour since 2008.

Amazingly, given the Spice Girls are the most-successful girlband well… ever, and their cultural legacy is so enduring, it was only the fourth tour they’d embarked on. And for Geri Halliwell, it was especially bittersweet. 

Halliwell famously left the group in 1998, mid-way through their first ever tour, when the five-piece were at the peak of their powers. Although the other four managed to complete the remaining dates and continue with the band until 2000, it marked the end of a remarkable era. As Victoria Beckham said, in 2007 BBC documentary I’m Giving You Everything, things without Geri: “were never the same.”

Audiences at the last night on the tour, which saw around 80,000 fans crowd into Wembley Stadium, got to witness an emotional moment 21 years in the making when Halliwell finally addressed that elephant in the room and apologised for her abrupt departure from the group. 

“21 years ago and I wasn’t there,” Geri began, during a group hug with her bandmates.

“It suddenly occurred to me this afternoon that I need to say something very, very important that I should have said a long time ago, to Emma, to Melanie, to Melanie and to the fans: that I’m sorry,” she continued.

“I was just being a brat,” Geri admitted tearily, to cheers. “And it’s so good to be back with the girls that I love and with you lot.”

It’s fitting that a girl group whose entire brand was built around the power of female friendship should still be imparting lessons about this bond, two decades on. There may be ups and downs but rifts can be healed and a simply apology is sometimes all friends are waiting to hear – even if it’s 21 years overdue.

 So swallow your pride - whether it’s front of around 80,000 fans or you know, just a phone call that only your cat witnesses - and reach out. Friendship doesn’t have to end. 

Images: Getty