Louise Redknapp wishes ex Jamie happy Father’s Day with rare snap of their sons
LOUISE Redknapp wished ex husband Jamie a happy Father’s Day with a rare snap of their sons Charley, 15, and Beau, 11.
The performer, 45, split with the football-ace-turned-sports-pundit in 2017 after a 19-year marriage.
Proving the pair are still very much on good terms, Louise took to her Instagram account to share a sweet tribute to their kids’ dad on Father’s Day.
Louise posted a photo of Jamie with their two sons, Charley and Beau, as she called the ex footballer “an amazing dad.”
She wrote: “Happy Father’s Day @jamie.redknapp. Thank you for being an amazing dad to our boys.”
The mum-of-two recently opened up to The Sun Online in an exclusive interview about how she was finally ready to start dating again.
Louise admitted it has been the toughest time of her life and she hasn’t spent a day alone in the past year as she “struggles” to cope on her own.
She said: “I’m very single at the moment, which is not a good thing.
“My eldest is 15 and super-protective over me. But he knows he can talk to me about anything and doesn’t need to be embarrassed, I’m so open.
“One morning he said to me, ‘If you ever did want to go on a date, I’d be OK with it’.
“It was actually a big moment as he’d always been quite vocal that I’d never go on a date.
“They always hope their mum and dad will work things out.”
On her divorce from Jamie, Louise said: “It’s been really tough. I’m a real softie, and I still want to be his best friend, which is impossible.
“It was like watching someone else’s life unfold — it was almost like I wasn’t really present when it happened. And I think anybody who’s been through a divorce knows that it kind of comes and goes, like a grieving process.
“I try to be positive because it happened and I was OK with it happening but it doesn’t make it any easier. The kind of person I am, it would never be easy for me. It would never be water off a duck’s back. It will always mean something.
“I’ve known Jamie since I was a teenager. He was my everything, and suddenly he wasn’t any more. It’s a tough thing to go through.”
Louise was introduced to Jamie by mutual pal and Take That star Robbie Williams when she was in the successful Nineties girl band, Eternal.
At the time, she was more famous than the England and Liverpool midfielder.
Jamie proposed in Bermuda in 1998 and they married on the beach the same week.
They had been hailed for having one of the strongest marriages in showbusiness, never tainted by allegations of cheating. But cracks began to appear after Louise’s stint on Strictly Come Dancing in 2016 when she was partnered with show lothario Kevin Clifton.
At the time he was married to fellow pro dancer Karen.
But his close friendship with Louise caused tension with his wife, who was said to have warned Jamie in a phone call.
The couple denied rumours of marital problems but, ten months after the show ended, Jamie and Louise announced they had separated and that she had moved out of the family home.
She filed for divorce on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour and it was finalised in a 25-second court hearing in December 2017.
Louise later said: “I have spent most of my life pleasing everyone else, worrying about being judged and thinking I should always do the right thing by staying at home, looking after my kids and my husband. I lost myself.”
Louise and Jamie, 46, now live a few miles apart in Surrey and share custody of their sons. They remain on friendly terms and speak regularly.
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