Geri Horner says her 30s were ‘the most challenging time’ of her life

Geri Horner has revealed she found her thirties to be ‘the most challenging time’ because she felt she wasn’t ‘ticking boxes’ everyone else around her was.

The singer, 51, recalled how she feels she came late to finding love and felt like she was falling behind as she looked around and saw her friends moving on with their lives.

Speaking on the Reign with Josh Smith podcast, Geri told how her forties ended up being a more fulfilling decade as it was when she got her ‘bravado’ back. 

She said: ‘I certainly haven’t got all the answers. I’m still learning and growing because what happens is you go to different chapters in your life and different challenges and I think when we’re younger there’s a bit of teenage bravado that you can sort of fake it a little bit. 

‘It is almost like a Batman suit, like ‘I’ll put on some lipstick and a good cleavage and off I go.’ But then I think when you’re in your late twenties, your bravado starts to run out, especially in the thirties for me, this was my experience. 

Geri Horner has revealed she found her thirties to be ‘the most challenging time’ because she felt she wasn’t ‘ticking boxes’ everyone else around her was (pictured in December 2023)

The singer, 51, recalled how she feels she came late to finding love and sboagen felt like she was falling behind as she looked around and saw her friends moving on with their lives (pictured in January 2005) 

‘For anyone in their thirties, I found it the most challenging time because I was looking at the world around me and everyone else was ticking boxes and I was a little bit behind on finding love or getting that whole life plan that society is showing us. 

‘I was thinking, ‘oh, I haven’t got that quite together,’ and I haven’t got that sort of ingenue young something going on anymore. I think the thirties was quite tricky and I would say it started to move in a much more grounded direction when I was in my forties if I’m really honest. 

‘Because that sort of confidence, that teenage bravado, which gets lost in the thirties, comes back in the forties through life experience. You think, ‘do you know what, how important is it?’ You have a bit of perspective, and I say to my younger brothers and sisters that are out there in the world that there’s always something new and different to come. Growing older is okay, it is how we do it.’ 

Elaborating further on ageing, Geri said she doesn’t think people should ever let their age stop them from pursuing their dreams.

A recent experience with Dame Judi Dench has inspired the singer to return to one of her first loves – acting, which she now hopes to pursue further. 

She said: ‘Dame Judi Dench, I love her. She was discussing Shakespeare with me and I started talking to her. I learnt a piece from the Merchant of Venice and I was going through it and she started saying it with me, ‘The quality of mercy is not strained.’ blah blah. 

‘And I was like, ‘oh my God, I’m doing Shakespeare with Dame Judi Dench, my life is, my cup is full!’ That’s pretty amazing. Talking of acting, the other thing I can share with you or anyone that’s watching, and this is, it’s never too late to dream. 

‘You’re allowed to have different dreams because before the music, I studied English literature and theatre and it was a few years back and I was doing the book, but I thought I really want to start acting again. 

‘I studied it for quite a bit and I started putting myself up for auditions and I did some acting recently and it was a really positive experience. It was scary, but I’m really glad I did it because it says you are allowed… 

Geri said: ‘I think when you’re in your late twenties, your bravado starts to run out, especially in the thirties for me, this was my experience’ (pictured in November 2003) 

She added: I found it the most challenging time because I was looking at the world around me and everyone else was ticking boxes and I was a little bit behind’ (pictured in December 2003) 

‘There are so many ways we can marginalise ourselves whether it’s our gender, our race, or how old we are. I am on my path and I am not doing this perfectly but we are allowed different seasons to grow and do different things.’

Elsewhere during the interview, Geri opened up about the death of her father Laurence in 1993.

The star used the experience of his death in her children’s book Rosie Frost and the Falcon Queen, recalling how she was pulled out of class and told the news.

She said: ‘I think writing is a great way to get it out, whatever’s going on. And there’s a few times in my life where I felt lonely because I didn’t know how to express what I was feeling or with whom, or what was appropriate. 

‘So there’s a couple of themes that I use as ingredients for Rosie (Frost and The Falcon Queen), for example, she loses her mother and when I was younger I lost my father. Literally the scene in chapter one, that’s what happened to me. 

‘She gets pulled out of class, that’s what happened to me and they said, ‘your dad is dead.’ And I remember feeling like, and this sounds really strange, but almost embarrassed of my feelings because I didn’t want to cry in front of anyone. I remember just closing in on myself because I didn’t want anyone else to feel awkward or to see my vulnerability and I sort of carried that with me. 

‘It is also generational because if we look at our parents and generations before that, they really didn’t [cry] and so it is sort of each generation that would become a little bit more confident to use that language to say It’s okay to cry… actually vulnerability is your superpower. It’s okay. I think that’s really healthy.’ 

Judi DenchGeri Horner