Jamie and Louise’s split shocked me. I was choked
Harry Redknapp on son’s divorce
HARRY Redknapp says he was “choked” when son Jamie split from wife Louise and insists the break-up “came out of the blue” from his point of view.
Footballer Jamie and singer Louise were seen as the perfect showbiz couple when they married in 1998 but they divorced in December 2017.
Trouble between the pair was first reported early in 2017 after Louise was on Strictly the previous year and grew close to partner Kevin Clifton.
Then Louise said in an interview that she felt “like a Stepford wife”, constantly looking after others.
Ironically, Harry, 72, insisted he thought she was happiest when looking after the family, perhaps illustrating that she had changed her priorities or was not as happy as he and Jamie thought.
Speaking about their split, the former football boss said: “I was choked. I thought they were married forever. They were such a lovely couple together.
“It came as a shock. Lou just did not want to be anywhere without Jamie. They were very very down to earth the pair of them.
“Lou was happiest when she was with the kids, Jamie and the dogs. No one knows what goes on behind closed doors do they in life? So you don’t know. It is sad.”
The couple has two sons together, Charley, 13, and Beau, nine, and reports say they remained friends. DEVOTED With his wife Sandra Jamie, Louise and Harry in 2011 Speaking on ITV’s Life Stories, I’m A Celebrity winner Harry also revealed Jamie could not read or write when he left school, partly because he used to let him bunk off school to go training. But things worked out as Jamie, now 45, went on to earn millions playing for Tottenham and Liverpool. Harry also told how he failed to recognise Princess Beatrice at dinner with Jamie. He said: “I sat opposite this young lady and we started chatting about horse racing.
“I was telling her my nan used to take the bets off all the old girls in the street and Cyril the paper boy was the bookmaker. It was illegal to gamble then. Then she went, ‘Oh my gran loves the horses.’ I went ‘Oh really? Does she? Your nan loves racing?’ and she went, ‘Yeah. When she won the Gold Cup last year at Ascot .... ’ Now I am thinking ‘Who won the Gold Cup at Ascot thinking it was the Queen?’
“So I said, ‘Do you think she bets with Cyril the paper boy.’ She said, ‘She likes a bet. She loves a bet’.”
Harry, who is married to Sandra, is also ready for an EastEnders part after his I’m A Celeb win. He said: “I am getting a lot of TV offers. I see myself walking in the Queen Vic, ordering a drink and hear someone say, ‘It’s Harry Redknapp, he’s moving back in the area’. I am waiting for the call.”
■ Piers Morgan’s Life Stories airs Saturday at 9.35pm on ITV. Piers and Harry will be managing the Soccer Aid World XI team at Soccer Aid on Sunday, live on ITV from 6.30pm.