‘Louise is still family’ With Jamie Redknapp’s family refusing to cut ties with Louise, is there still hope for the former couple?
Hopes of a reunion between Louise and Jamie Redknapp were crushed when it was revealed that the football pundit, 47, is loved up with 37-year-old Swedish model Frida Andersson-Lourie – his first serious relationship since he and Louise, 45, split in 2017.
But, while things are going well for Jamie, his family are so fond of Louise that, for them, she takes priority, with Jamie’s dad Harry stating, ‘She’s family.’ So can it ever work again?
Football legend Harry, 73, touchingly defended his former daughter-in-law recently when he was asked about Jamie’s new relationship with Frida. He said, ‘We did meet Frida and she is lovely, very nice, but I don’t want to talk about Jamie’s new relationship. The last thing I want to do is upset Lou.’ He added, ‘It’s upsetting that Jamie and Lou aren’t together. It was a complete shock. She is the mother of our grandkids and she’s still part of the family.’
Harry also expressed sadness last year about the split after 20 years of marriage. He said, ‘That was obviously a difficult time for us. You could never see it happening. We love Lou, so we were sad to see it happen.’
He added that the families are still close, explaining, ‘Sandra [his wife] loves her and is great friends with Louise’s mum.’
Louise and Jamie have been co-parenting sons Charley, 16, and Beau, 11, harmoniously since their split. The boys have divided their time between their parents in lockdown, and Louise and Jamie make sure one of them is around while the other is working, with Louise explaining, ‘I’m able to do the job I do because he [Jamie] is happy to share things with me. I have friends who don’t have that, but he’s hands-on.’
But while on the surface the boys appear to have taken the split well, with Charley even giving Louise permission to go on dates, she has admitted that, deep down, they want their parents back together. ‘They always hope their mum and dad will work things out,’ she said.
GoodtoKnow Newsletter
Parenting advice, hot topics, best buys and family finance tips delivered straight to your inbox.
Louise only ever sings Jamie’s praises. She gushed recently, ‘He’s a fabulous dad. I’m really lucky. We speak every day because the kids do a million things. We live five minutes from each other and, when you’ve got children, your lives are very much intertwined.’ She added, ‘I still want to be his best friend, which is impossible.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kXb6fvWoFU
Louise has openly admitted that she’s not found anyone special since splitting from Jamie, which often gets her down.
‘I’m very single at the moment, which is not a good thing,’ she said. ‘It’s really hard for women. I’m beginning to think I’m never going to meet anyone. I’ve not been out for a meal, just me and a guy in a restaurant, in two years. I’ve not been on a proper, old-fashioned date since I’ve been divorced.’
Is she still holding a candle for Jamie? ‘How could I not still love him? He’s the father of my boys,’ the former Eternal singer said. And she’s even confessed that she will ‘love Jamie forever’, revealing earlier this year, ‘I always hold everything in my heart and there’ll never be a day that I don’t feel sad about it because he was my husband for 20 years and the love I had for him will never leave me.’
Jack White is Celebrity Content Director at Future, working across Women's Lifestyle brands such as Woman&Home, Woman, Woman's Own, Women's Weekly and GoodtoKnow. When he's not interviewing your favourite stars or writing about the latest make-up/break up, you'll find Jack searching for new Gemma Collins memes, singing (badly) in the office or binge-watching crime dramas.