Geri Horner’s brother Max Halliwell dies suddenly aged 54 leaving star devastated
SPICE Girl Geri Horner has been left devastated by the sudden death of her older brother.
Max Halliwell, 54, died in intensive care after suddenly collapsing at home.
Singer Geri was was in the Middle East where her Formula One supremo husband Christian was preparing for last weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix when concerns were raised over Max’s welfare.
Friends described Max and Geri as “incredibly close.
Geri turned to big brother Max when she suddenly quit the band at the height of their Nineties fame - with the pair jetting away to Paris together to escape the limelight.
A source close to the singer explained: “This is the most awful, devastating, heartbreaking news and Geri is utterly broken by it.
“It has been a terribly traumatic time since the moment she heard Max had been taken to hospital, and the worst outcome which everybody close to the family hoped might not be.
“They are all rallying together but she barely knows what to say or think just now - she loved him dearly.”
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Police said Max, who worked for an eco-friendly technology firm, had been taken to Watford General Hospital after being found at his home.
In a statement a Hertfordshire Constabulary spokeswoman said: “Police were called at 9.40am on Wednesday 17 November to report the concern for welfare of a man at a residential property in Berkhamsted.
“Officers, along with the East of England Ambulance Service, attended the scene.
“The man was located and taken to hospital for treatment, where he sadly later died.
“His death is being treated as non-suspicious and will be referred to the coroner.”
A spokesman for Geri told The Sun said: “As you can imagine this is a difficult time and we would ask that you respect the family’s privacy at this time.”
Max featured during Geri’s 2010 appearance on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories and said of his sister: “Young Geri was always wanting to be the centre of attention.
“I think Geri doted heavily on her father. Maybe because of the attention that my father gave her as regards to her potential.
“He obviously saw something early on, so I’d call her a bit of a daddy’s girl, definitely.”
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'ABSOLUTELY DEVASTATED'
He said Geri “was absolutely devastated, as we all were” by the sudden death of their father Laurence, who suffered a heart attack in 1993.
Speaking about Geri’s party-girl days, Max went on: “Geri used to disappear, maybe for a day, or even longer.
"She’d go out on a rave, and these raves would start at 11 o’clock at night and they’d go right the way through the night ‘til the early hours of the next morning.”
Geri, 49, grew up in Watford with her brother and older sister Natalie - later telling how the family struggled to make ends meet during her childhood and she felt guilt over becoming an additional “mouth to feed”.
She explained: “I lived in the same house in Jubilee Road, Watford, Hertfordshire, for my whole childhood.
"Every street looked almost identical, like the set of Coronation Street.
“My arrival as the third and last child of Spanish-born Ana Maria and Laurence Francis Halliwell wasn’t cause for wild celebrations. I was considered just another mouth to feed.
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“I feel guilty about it now, but as soon as I was old enough to have such thoughts I suffered from a cuckoo mentality.
“I imagined that I’d somehow been swapped at birth and placed with the wrong family.
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