Divorced in 25 seconds... Louise’s last night as Mrs Redknapp
‘Irretrievably broken down’
LOUISE Redknapp ended her 19-year marriage to former soccer star Jamie Redknapp in just 25 seconds yesterday.
Louise 43, a founding member of pop group Eternal and a finalist in 2016’s Strictly Come Dancing, last month filed for divorce citing his ‘unreasonable behaviour’.
In six weeks she can apply for a decree absolute to formally complete the process.
Hours earlier, Louise had been at the wedding reception of a Strictly choreographer, apparently still wearing her wedding ring. She joined friend Frankie Bridge – wife of former Chelsea soccer star Wayne Bridge and a Strictly finalist in 2014 – to celebrate the marriage. Louise, dressed in a pink suit and black shirt, sang for fellow guests, as well as partying with The Saturdays’ Mollie King – a Strictly finalist this year – and Strictly professionals Giovanni Pernice and AJ Pritchard.
Yesterday, as her case was being heard in London, she was pictured smiling as she left her hotel in a car with the Bridges.
Since her appearance on Strictly, Louise has returned to the showbusiness world she left behind to be mother to the couple’s sons, Charles, 13, and Beau, eight.
She spoke of feeling like a ‘Stepford wife’ after giving up her singing career in 2004 and suggested she was enjoying the ‘buzz’ of performing again – playing Sally Bowles in a touring production of Cabaret. She has also been pictured on nights out with model Daisy Lowe, another former Strictly contestant.
There have been claims Jamie, 44, was uncomfortable with his wife’s return to the spotlight.
Judge Ian Mulkis told London’s Central Family Court that Louise had ‘sufficiently proved’ the marriage had ‘irretrievably broken down’ due to her husband’s ‘unreasonable behaviour’.
It is a legal requirement that unless couples spend five years living apart, a ‘reason’ must be given to obtain a divorce.
Jamie made no attempt to fight the application.
The couple married in Bermuda on board a 130ft yacht in 1998.