It is perhaps the most unlikely twist in a career dogged by feuds, eating disorders and drastic diets.
Geri Halliwell - drama queen of pop, follower of every fad philosophy going, and fiery self-obsessed redhead - has finally found happiness.
Paparazzi pictures of the former Ginger Spice tell their own story. Confident, sexy, gently curvaceous and obviously relaxed, she's never looked better.
A close friend this week told the Daily Mirror: "She's come to terms with herself, she's grown to love herself. She a bit more mature, a bit more centred. I think she's just grown up a bit and found a bit more inner peace.
"She accepts herself more for who she is. Going to her own birthday lunch recently she just stuck on a dress and a pair of shoes and there she was, looking a million dollars again.
"With someone who has been photographed as much as Geri I think the pictures do tell the whole story. And the pictures currently doing the rounds show a relaxed, happy Geri."
Gone is the incredible shrinking woman. There's no sign of the bulimic who desperately ate chocolate cake out of George Michael's rubbish bins. She's no longer hiding behind her vulgar Ginger Spice persona - and no longer screaming, "Look at me!"
Catty comments about her weight have been replaced by slightly envious remarks about her svelte size 10 figure, glowing skin and recently returned cleavage.
Now aged 32 - her birthday was two weeks ago - she has finally realised she does not have anything to prove to herself - or anybody else.
It helps that she is surrounded by a close group of friends from her home town of Watford with whom she has grown up and can still trust.
She's also has support from her mum and older sister, classroom assistant Natalie Jennings - and despite rumours to the contrary she has kept her celebrity mates.
EVEN the prospect of a tell-all autobiography later this month by former boyfriend Robbie William is not enough to worry her these days - or spoil their on-going relationship.
Another insider said: "They were very close for a while and they remain friends. She used to see him when they were both in LA, and she speaks to him on the phone.
"This idea she had lost all her friends and is now winning them back just isn't right."
Much was made of an apparent big fall-out with her fellow Watford superstar George Michael, to whom she turned after leaving the Spice Girls in 1998.
But no major bust up ever took place and the pair will be working together at the Girls' Night In, the Breast Cancer Care concert at the Royal Albert Hall on September 19, a cause close both their hearts.
George and Geri will both be performing, along with Ronan Keating, Jamelia and Beverley Knight. Geri is also hosting the event as a patron of the charity.
The concert, which will later be broadcast on Channel 5, will be an early chance for Geri to air material from her new album, due for release early next year.
After an operation to remove two nodules from her throat eight months ago, she was - much to the amusement of her critics - forced to have singing lessons to re-adjust her voice. Happily, the result is a far greater range.
To prepare for the relaunch of her music career Geri is back in training, but not the mad exercise and yoga regimes she believed were necessary in the past
The friend says: "She still does yoga, still goes to the gym and still dances, but she doesn't do that to the same extent. A lot of it is because she's on top of her eating. And there's a certain element of inner calm now."
When at her most ultra-skinny, dropped from a size 14 in her Spice Girls' days to a dangerous size six by existing on a diet of yoga and little else, Geri has admitted she stopped having periods.
Now her exercise regime, while still serious, is a lot more reasonable. Working with a personal trainer she power walks regularly, runs 10 miles a week with a small backpack of weights, goes to the gym and dances.
It will be a fit, sexy, well-proportioned Geri who takes on the charts in a few months time when her first single for three years is released.
While it is almost a national pastime to belittle the former Spice Girls, Geri's vital statistics speak for themselves. The Guinness Book of Records rates her as the female artist who has had the most number ones in the UK as a solo artist and with the Spice Girls - who sold 40million records worldwide during their short lifetime.
Two autobiographies were both sellers - the first, If Only, sold more than 500,000 copies. And she can lay claim to Britain's best selling health and fitness video of all time.
"Everything she has ever done has been hugely successful, so she has less to prove to herself," says an industry insider.
For a while it looked as if Geri was always destined to be the most troubled of the Spice Girls, but in recent months she has found herself the most sorted and secure of them. Mel B and Mel C's careers are virtually non-existent, Victoria Beckham has had a pig of a year, while Emma Bunton was dropped by her record label.
Meanwhile Geri prepares for a new assault on the charts, but without the utter desperation for success she had in the past.
From her teens Geri was desperate for fame. And so followed the topless photo-shoots, a stint as a Turkish game show host and finally the Spice Girls, whose first single Wannabe really summed up where Geri was at.
Instead of fame she found international superstardom as Ginger, Baby, Sporty, Scary and Posh became global phenomena.
But then she discovered fame was not all it was cracked up to be - living life under the gaze of the ever-present paparazzi.
The friend says: "In her books she's the first to say riches and fame brought her absolutely nothing in many respects. Whatever she was looking for, she didn't find it in that. And so she had to look elsewhere.
"Obviously she's been to Overeaters Anonymous meetings - and she still attends those as and when is appropriate, but not religiously.
"She has had therapy and talked about that, but while obviously she's had help, she's also done it - to an extent - on her own. People can give you pointers, but that's all."
After failed relationships with the likes of photographic consultant Mark Griffiths, Coffee Republic boss Bobby Hashemi, actor Jerry O'Connell, society boy Jamie Morrison and reformed addict Demian Warner, the element most obviously missing from her life is still a man.
Describing past dates as "a bit uptight," "too effeminate," and "a lapdog" and then listing over two pages in her last autobiography her daunting requirements in a boyfriend, it's perhaps no surprise that men are nervous about approaching her.
But today Geri is at ease with being single.
THE friend says: "If the right person came along she would be more than happy to settle down - but until then she's quite happy where she's at. She's very content."
Instead her constant male companion is Harry, a Shih-Tzu, soon to be joined by Daddy, her little Pomeranian who is currently in quarantine after arriving from the United States.
The 18 months Geri lived in Los Angeles gave her a breather from her fame and the privacy she craved. The friend says: "She's been out there and had a break from the whole thing - and that's helped her find herself a bit."
After returning in January she's back living in her west London home, and intends to stay. The response she is getting from the press and public is more encouraging than ever before.
More words have been written about Geri's weight than ever will be about her singing career. It is no different now, except that what is being said is so complimentary.
With both "very voluptuous Geri" and "stick-thin Geri" consigned to the past, the new Geri is being showered with praise - and she's loves it.
The friend says: "If you imagine reading every day about you being either too fat or too thin, it would affect you. If people are now saying, it's great to have you looking the way you look, it's bound to have a positive effect."
As an artist almost constantly reinventing herself, it will be interesting to discover if the latest incarnation is the genuine Geri - and that she's here to stay.
Source: The Mirror
