VIEWERS OVER LOVE FOR WIFE I was there when Harry met Sandra Soccer boss pal tells of a fateful night
HARRY Redknapp has warmed the heart of the nation with his constant outpourings of love for his wife Sandra on I’m A Celebrity.
The ex-football manager revealed he’d thought he’d lost out to handsome best pal Colin “Macca” Mackleworth when it came to wooing his future wife.
But Colin insists it was only ever going to be Harry and Sandra as he recalls that fateful night in East London.
“We’d go out together on a Saturday night and one of the places was the Two Puddings in Stratford,” said Colin, 71. “It was a pub with a disco upstairs. We’d always go out suited and booted.
“It was a time when girls put their handbag in the middle of the floor and danced around it.
“He saw these two girl and said we should go over and buy them a drink.”
On Wednesday night’s ITV show, former West Ham and Tottenham boss Harry, 71, gave his version of how he met Sandra.
He said: “Me and my mate Macca, he was a goalkeeper for West Ham, saw these two lovely girls and I said to Macca, ‘Shall we have a dance with those two?’
“Macca is a good-looking geezer and I look back on it now and think Sandra must have seen us both coming over and thought ‘I hope I ain’t got him’ – and she went for me. Fifty-four years later we’re still going strong.
“And Macca ended up as an undertaker, so really Sandra had the better deal in the long term.”
Colin, who now lives with partner Jane Blake in Ipswich, laughed as he saw the footage.
He said: “It was nice of Harry to call me the good-looking one.
“I can’t remember who the other girl was, I never went out with her. But Harry was keen on Sandra. I get on well with Sandra, she’s terrific and lovely looking.
“But she wasn’t one I went after. She was Harry’s.”
Harry and Colin were best mates from the age of 10 – rising through the ranks of football together in the East End of London.
They both played for the West Ham team which won the FA Youth Cup in 1963, the first time in the club’s history.
Colin remembers Harry had a taste for the East End speciality jellied eels – which may help him in the jungle – before he started living the high life. He loves his food,” said Colin. “I don’t know how he was surviving on those rice and beans. He loved jellied eels.”
While Harry carved out a path at West Ham, Colin moved to Leicester. Harry married Sandra and had sons Mark, 48, and Jamie, 45.
Colin left the sport to become a policeman. After a 25-year career, sometimes patrolling at West Ham games when Harry was managing, Colin became an undertaker.
Now retired, the grandad of four last spoke to Harry in April when the soccer legend phoned after Colin had a heart bypass.
Colin said: “Harry had a stent in his heart and I had a bypass. He called to see how I was.
“He’s gone one way and I’ve gone the other but we’ve always kept in touch. He likes talking about the old times. He’s down-to -earth because he’s from the East End.” She is not going to Chase success in camp but viewers are warming to her down-to-earth nature.