You can’t blame Lineker for not wanting a baby at 55

WHAT I don’t understand, what I really, really don’t understand, is why people get married before they have thought through the big issues. What colour to paint the second bathroom. tenerife or torquay? And whether or not to have children. Particularly the latter.

Surely on the road map to that town called Happy ever After, Mr and Mrs Soppy would have plotted out their pit stops at Babyville and toddler town en route? or not, as the case might be.

But no. Romance being what it is, lovers just throw themselves into the moment and drive off into the sunset with tin cans tied to the bumper, hoping that it will all turn out OK. Sometimes it does. More often, it does not.

Gary Lineker and Danielle Bux have just divorced after six years of marriage because he doesn’t want any more babies and she does — something you can’t help but think they might have sorted out before kick-off.

the 55-year-old football pundit has four grown-up sons from his first marriage, while model and actress Danielle, 36, has a 14-yearold daughter from a previous relationship.

It is understandable why Danielle’s biological clock is ticking away like a giant time-bomb. However, in denying her a child together, Lineker has been accused of being selfish. Is that really fair? He feels he is too old to become a father again, and surely there is merit in that.

Dads are often railroaded or overlooked on this delicate family expansion issue, but his views have to count. Consider that if the former england footballer has another baby in the next few years he would be more than 70 by the time the child was in the hormonal white heat of adolescence and most in need of parental support.

His boys have already proved to be quite a handful — could he really do fatherly justice to another one? He probably gets exhausted just thinking about it. Gary has done his share of croup and chickenpox and childcare and doesn’t want to do it again. He says that every time he walks onto a plane and sees children crying and grizzling in their seats it reminds him of the horror.

On The other hand, it is clear that Gary’s life very much revolves around Gary. At his age, he wants his luxury and his comforts and his Barbados holidays with his hot second wife. Gorgeous photographs of them strolling along the beach appear ever year — but add a toddler scrambling along the sand between them and the entire dynamic would change. And not in a way that appeals to G. Lineker esq.

For any responsible couple, having a child is not an easy undertaking, and the first few years of babydom can be utterly gruelling. Yet there are no winners here — there never are.

Still, not every putative born-again father feels the same way as Gary Lineker. Rod Stewart had his last son at the age of 66, Sir Paul McCartney was 61 when he fathered Beatrice, his THE Carillon cafe in Paris reopened its doors this week for the first time since it was targeted by Islamic extremists in November. There were still floral tributes on the pavement to those who died, as waiters poured champagne and some customers wept. ‘We are lucky enough to be alive,’ one of them said, adding that it was more important than ever to live and laugh and drink. It certainly is. Vive la France! daughter with Heather Mills, while Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood is the daddy of them all.

the 68-year-old is expecting twins with third wife Sally, who is 31 years younger than him. Ronnie already has four children from his previous marriages, but relishes the thought of becoming a father again. ‘I didn’t think it could happen,’ he has said.

Well it has, it does and it will. Women are becoming pregnant later and later in life, because of careers and lifestyles that become obstacles — and courtesy of developments in science that make their baby dreams come true. And if there is one thing worse than a 55-yearold new father it is a 55-year-old new mother — now that really is selfish.

However, in these particular cases the bulk of the childcare will undoubtedly fall on the much younger wife, while King Daddy waltzes around in much the same carefree manner he has always done.

the rich, famous and successful are cushioned against the financial realities of family life in the way most are not.

But one thing cannot change. Few of these older fathers will be around to see their children grow up and marry, latelife dads run the risk of having their children’s teenage years beset by watching their fathers incapacitated by illness, rounds of treatment and worry.

It might work out splendidly, but then again it might not. the moral imperative should be — if in doubt, don’t.

So good for Gary Lineker — not something I ever thought I’d say — for once a voice of sanity and responsibility on a difficult subject.