Geri Horner has spoken about her close friendship with the late George Michael and the hole his passing has left in her life.

The singer died on Christmas Day last year and former Spice Girl Horner said that she was still struggling to accept his death.

In an interview with The Sun, she said: “I had a very unique relationship with him, I was a fan first and foremost and he had been such a figure in my life at times of great importance.

Geri Horner
Geri Horner has spoken about her heartbreak over George Michael (PA)

“When you’re going through tough times you find out who your friends are and what you’re made of.

“He was completely there for me when I left the Spice Girls – I didn’t know what to do, I’d been part of a band.

“He picked up the phone and said, ‘Geri, come and live with me for the weekend’, and I stayed for about three months and went everywhere with him.

Geri Horner single
Geri working on her tribute single (Matt Crossick/The Outside Organisation/PA)

“I needed that ‘to be in a band’ feeling, I did that for about a year, just hanging around with him, I was so broken and so sad and he just scooped me up.”

Horner said that his help had continued after the birth of her first child, Bluebell, in 2006.

She said: “When I had Bluebell I’d come back to Britain and I didn’t have anywhere to live so he said ‘come and live with me’.

Geri Horner and George Michael
Geri Horner and George Michael were close (Rebecca Naden/PA)

“I transformed his bachelor pad by hanging up baby towels to make it more like a nursery.”

She continued: “My daughter’s birthday party it would be me and him with a load of kids.

“I haven’t quite accepted he isn’t here anymore.”

Talking about her decision to leave the Spice Girls in 1998, Horner admitted that she would have done things differently in hindsight.

Asked how, she said: “Probably not at such short notice.”

Horner has recorded a tribute song to Michael, Angels In Chains, which she made with many of the musicians he had worked with throughout his career.