I’VE TOLD BBC TO CUT MY PAY
Match of the Day presenter volunteers drop in £1.75m salary in new contract talks
GARY Lineker has vowed to take a wage cut after the furore over massive salaries at the BBC.
The Match of the Day star is the Corporation’s highest-paid presenter on £1.75million but is in talks with bosses to have that slashed.
Lineker, 58, said: “I’m negotiating a new contract with them and I’m volunteering to take less.”
And he told a pal: “It’s the right thing to do.”
GARY Lineker has faced his share of criticism from viewers and MPs amid the anger over huge salaries handed to BBC stars.
But the Corporation’s highest-paid presenter is now in talks with bosses to have his £1.75million wage cut.
Match of the Day host Lineker, 58, said: “I love my job at the BBC and I enjoy doing it. I’m currently negotiating a new contract with them and I’m volunteering to take less.” The former England and Spurs striker told a friend: “It’s the right thing to do.”
His move comes amid the row over the axing of free TV licences for over-75s and the BBC gender pay gap furore.
Six years ago he took a pay cut of £500,000 to continue as Match of the Day frontman. And his decision comes after Radio 2 presenter Chris Evans took a pay cut from £2.2million in 2017 to £1.25million this year – before he quit for Virgin Radio.
Lineker, who also features in Walker’s crisps adverts, is believed to have a personal fortune of around £30million.
In a candid interview, he opened up about his sex life, family, the death of dad Barry and his sports documentary company Goalhanger Films. Last week, Lineker admitted he was not “massively into sex” – which sparked a string of mickey-takes from pals.
He said: You wouldn’t believe how much stick I’ve had from my mates over that. I was talking about the context of the times we live in and sexual predators, etc. There used to be these rumours that I was a sh**ger, which was miles from the truth. So what I’m saying is I’m not a massively sexual beast.
“I’m not obsessed by sex. It’s been a while since I’ve been in the box. It’s more trouble that it’s worth I find.
“Let’s just say scoring goals is always better. Sex is just a bit of a moment.
“It’s the intimacy that’s always better than the action.”
Lineker admits he is much more open with his opinions now he is older and is confident enough in his own skin to make his forthright views heard.
He often tweets on controversial issues and has a new book out called Behind Closed Doors, written with TV and radio motormouth Danny Baker.
He said: “I know who I am, I know what I am and I know what I believe in.
“Everything emotional that happens to us has to have an impact.
“It’s hard to define exactly what that is but I’m more comfortable sharing my emotions now whereas when I was younger, you would never speak about crying or stuff like that because it didn’t appear particularly macho but I think it’s good to talk. The more you keep things in the more difficult things are.”
To put this in perspective, it was only days before his market trader father died on August 28, 2017 that the pair finally opened up to each other.
Lineker said: “Just a couple of weeks before dad died he told me he loved me for the first time. I always knew he did but to hear it was quite emotive and I said the words back.
“It was the first time we’d swapped those words.”
Recalling the moment Barry passed away after a two-year battle with lung cancer, tears welled up in Lineker’s eyes as he said: “I was with him, holding his hand when he went and it was actually weirdly calm. I didn’t know what that experience would be like because I’d never seen anyone pass before.
“I’d seen my mum on the morning she died in September 2015 and I’d managed to say goodbye to her and it was the same with my dad.
“By the end he said he was ready. The cancer was progressive and by the last couple of weeks he just said, ‘I’ve had enough of this.’ And he said, ‘I’m fine. I’m not scared of anything. I’m all right. Don’t worry about me son. I’m ready to go.’”
It’s hard to imagine Lineker sharing such intimate details a decade ago when he married his second wife Danielle Bux, but the loss of both his parents seems to have triggered a new maturity.
And he is acutely aware of the parallels between him and Barry.
He said: “My parents divorced when I was about 21, so they’d been on their own for a long time.
“Dad was happy on his own. He had a relationship for quite a few years and then he was happy on his own. A bit like me.” Lineker’s current significant other is his golden labrador, Snoop, who he lives
with in South-West London. His four sons from his first marriage to Michelle Cockayne – George, Harry, Tobias and Angus – split their time between her house in Sunningdale and his in Barnes.
Lineker and Danielle divorced three years ago but he remains close to his ex, who has since given birth to a daughter with partner Nate Greenwald.
Explaining his current domestic situation, he said: “When Danielle and I got married a child wasn’t necessarily part of the plan.
“I was of a certain age now where it was a bit too late, really. Not physically, but in real terms. If I had a kid now, I’d be nearly 80 when it was 20.
“Then as Danielle’s body clock started to tick she had this sudden urge.
“This sudden feeling so we talked about it and I said, ‘Yeah, OK,’ but she said, ‘It’s not really what you signed up for.’ And this wasn’t an overnight conversation.
“It was over months and months and in the end she didn’t want me to do something that ultimately we hadn’t planned to do. But then I didn’t want to stop her from having what she’d suddenly had this urge to have so we came to a grown-up arrangement that we’d split and that she would perhaps find someone more appropriate for what she wanted.
“And a year later she met a guy and they had a little baby girl.” Danielle now lives in Los Angeles with her teenage girl Ella from an earlier relationship, Nate, and their daughter Romy. But Lineker said: “We still get on. We’re just mates.
“It’s not usual, but it’s a kind of grown up, mature relationship and I’m not the jealous type and I quite enjoy our relationship as it is now.
“I get on fine with Nate, who doesn’t have a jealous bone in his body and he’s absolutely fine that Danielle stays in my house when she comes to London.
“It was made clear from the start I still have this relationship with my ex, we’re still very good friends, we still see each other, we still will have dinner together.
She stays at my house, my step-daughter’s always got a room.
“It might not be usual, but frankly I don’t care what other people think. Some people might think that’s a bit weird, but so what? I actually think it’s really grown up.
“Everyone gets on well. There’s no angst. There’s no confrontation, which I like. And everybody, in the end, has got pretty much what they want.
“I still have my mate. She has her little girl. It’s beautiful.”
Lineker, who also hosts BT’s football coverage, told how he will be increasing the output from Goalhanger Films.
He said: “I’ve never had a business so that’s fun and we’ll be doing more sports documentaries and films. Anything involving sports.”
Lineker presented a Match of the Day show in 2016 in just his underpants after losing a bet that Leicester City would win the Premiership that year.
■ Behind Closed Doors by Gary Lineker and Danny Baker, £20, Century.