Text message storm F1 boss Christian Horner has had his dreams of receiving a knighthood smashed by the toxic WhatsApp scandal that has engulfed the sport, the editor who he is threatening to sue yesterday claimed.
Horner, the husband of Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, has threatened legal action against the sport’s trade magazine Business F1, for a 19-page article in which the younger female employee who the Red Bull team principal allegedly bombarded with suggestive messages, is named.
Multi-millionaire Horner, 50, was last week cleared of misconduct by an independent investigation probing alleged “coercive behaviour”, but hours later a tranche of WhatsApps and pictures was circulated anonymously to key figures in the sport purporting to show hundreds of messages the race boss had sent to the woman at the centre of the probe.
Horner denies wrongdoing and has refused to comment on “anonymous speculation from unknown sources”, but has now instructed lawyers against the online magazine’s editor-in-chief Tom Rubython.
But hitting back Rubython said the scandal had crushed Horner’s hopes of receiving a royal honour and shattered the celebrity couple’s perception of a “perfect life”.
He said: “He’s very proud. He had the perfect life, and he was in line for a knighthood, if (Red Bull and Max Verstappen) had won a fourth championship.
“Him and Adrian Newey (Red Bull’s chief technical officer) would have both received knighthoods, and that’s (in my view) gone forever.
Wife of nine years Geri is reported to have had the “meltdown to end all meltdowns” after the messages were leaked as she flew to Bahrain for the opening race of the F1 season last weekend.
The pair put on a show of unity in the race paddock, but Rubython suggested the couple’s jet-set image of perfection had been left in tatters.
He added: “His celebrity lifestyle is gone. That’s what he’s lost, that whole scenario of perfection in a life. I can’t think of anybody else in celebrity of public life who had such a public perfect life.”
The editor confirmed he had received correspondence from Horner’s legal team alleging their reporting has been unlawful and defamatory, stating that the article does serious harm to Horner’s reputation.
The article is also alleged to have breached privacy laws by the firm, and they have demanded it should be taken offline and no longer printed in hard copies.
But Rubython retorted: “I just don’t think the article’s defamatory. We’re a trade magazine, we’re used to writing these sort of stories.”
Geri, mother of their seven-year-old son Monty, is understood to be returning to the UK whilst her husband has flown to Dubai ahead of next weekend’s race in Saudi Arabia.
The couple split their lives between their farmhouse and stables in Oxfordshire and a home in North London.
Horner, who is worth £40m, has won 13 world championships since being appointed as the youngest team principal in the sport at the age of 31 in 2005.
He was awarded a CBE for his services to motorsport in the New Year Honours List.
