Podbit · The Louis Theroux Podcast
At a 1997 Prince's Trust concert, the Spice Girls were given strict royal protocol: wait to be spoken to, never initiate a handshake, curtsy for the Queen. Geri Halliwell ignored all of it, loaded up her lipstick, patted Prince Charles on the bottom and kissed him — leaving an iconic mark. Melanie C confirms: it was entirely premeditated.
Where this was said
At 1:05:00 · chapter starts 1:03:30
Melanie C and Louis riff through a gallery of extraordinary encounters. Nelson Mandela told the Spice Girls that meeting them was the best day of his life — a line Melanie suspects was diplomatic rather than sincere ('better than being released from prison?'). Then there was the 1997 Prince's Trust concert, where the girls were given strict royal protocol and promptly ignored all of it: Geri loaded up her red lipstick, gave Prince Charles a pat on the bottom and left her mark, literally. Melanie C confirms it was premeditated — 'obviously' — and frames it as the Spice Girls being exactly what they always were: normal girls from normal backgrounds doing what everyone else in that room wanted to do but couldn't. The photographs became iconic not by accident.
Nelson Mandela reportedly told the Spice Girls that meeting them was the best day of his life, a comment Melanie C herself thought may not have been entirely sincere.
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