Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
NEW ENDERS’
Having never had a row in 54 years of marriage, Harry Redknapp admits wife Sandra has good cause to be angry with him now. Because at the age of 74, when she might have expected to see more of him in retirement, he is busier than ever and seems to always be away from home.
Since winning I’m A Celebrity in 2018, a year after he ended his long football managing career, he has barely stopped.
For a start, he is starring in a new Sky show, Redknapp’s Big Night Out, with son Jamie and comedian Tom Davis.
And his diary is filling up with appearances on everything from daytime TV to game shows, a cameo in Eastenders – even a seven-day cruise this summer alongside Katherine Jenkins and Lulu.
He says: “Sandra tells me to slow down all the time. I always seem to be somewhere, doing something. And I do seem to be on TV all the time, I’m always saying, ‘Can you turn me off ?’.
“I’m not the type of person who can sit around the house doing nothing. I’m getting old, I don’t want to sit here watching TV all day, reading the paper, having my dinner and going to bed.
“I love having lots of things to do, it keeps me feeling young.”
I do seem to be on TV all the time. I’m always saying, ‘Can you turn me off?’ HARRY REDKNAPP ON HIS BOOMING TV CAREER SINCE QUITTING FOOTBALL
But he admits his wife, also 74, thought she would have more time with him after he bowed out four years ago from a 50-year career in which he played for West Ham and Spurs before managing both.
A year after leaving his last job at Birmingham City he agreed to go on I’m A Celebrity and his success on the show catapulted him to a new level of fame.
He says: “On the way home from Australia, Sandra and I stopped off in Dubai for a break. On the first night we went out for a meal and we walked in and someone recognised us. Suddenly the whole restaurant stood up and everyone started singing to me.
“Sandra’s looking at me, like, ‘Harry, I thought we were going to have a quiet night out.’ I’d never watched the programme so I had no idea how big it was. Jamie said, ‘Wait until you get home, it’s gone barmy. There are big posters of you all over the underground’.
“Loads of people started asking me to do stuff. I’m not an ambitious person but if someone asks me to do something I’ll do it, and the work piled up.
“Sandra’s really shy. Whenever I have to do something with her in it, she’ll say, ‘Please, I don’t want to’. I tell her I’ll give her half the money, but I never actually do. She’s still waiting for her share.”
Quiet nights out are still impossible.
He says: “We go out for dinner and end up talking to everyone in the restaurant. If anyone comes up to talk to me I always give them all the time in the world. My wife says I talk to everybody like I’ve known them for years. She’s used to it now. We never row about it.”
But she might have found a way to secretly vent her frustrations – having recently taken up boxing as part of her fitness routine. “She always wants me to