Geri Halliwell "talked openly about grief" with George Michael

She told The Sunday Times: "I don't think about [being noticed], I don't see it. I learnt from George Michael how to deal with all that. He was an angel to me. He protected me from the minute we met. He'd lost his mother, I'd lost my father.

"And he was someone I could talk to openly about grief. We lived together twice and I'd play my music to him and he told me when I could do better. I tried flirting with him once, and it didn't work, and I was like, 'What?'"

Meanwhile, the 'Mi Chico Latino' hitmaker is married to F1 boss Christian Horner and has seven-year-old Monty with him but is also mother to 18-year-old Bluebell Madonna from her brief relationship with Sacha Gervasi.

Since her days as a pop star, Geri has carved out a career as a children's author and revealed seemingly for the first time when explaining that her daughter also has a penchant for writing, that Christian has "formally adopted" the teenager.

She said: "You know Bluebell is studying English literature.

"She's brilliant at writing. I run things past her. [She got that from] her biological father, yes. Christian formally adopted her. It's public knowledge."

Geri also explained that when it comes to herself and Christian - who she tied the knot with in 2015 after around 18 months of dating - the pair of them are "quite silly" with each other at home.

She said: "We'll find a TV series that we lock into. I'll try my best not to watch it when he goes away. I waited for him before finishing 'Severance'. We like playing games too. The other day, in the kitchen, we were playing 20 questions - you've got to guess what the object is. We're quite silly."