Louise Redknapp’s son’s heartbreaking hope for her and his dad Jamie after split
Louise and Jamie Redknapp called time on their marriage in 2017 after 18 years of marriage and the year after she had appeared on Strictly
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Louise Redknapp and her husband Jamie were a real love success story.
They had been married for 18 years and had two beautiful sons, Charley and Beau.
But following Louise’s appearance on Strictly Come Dancing the showbiz couple shocked their fans by announcing they were getting divorced.
She admitted in an emotional interview that her appearance on the show had made her re-evaluate her entire life.
Louise said she had grown tired of being a “Stepford wife”, striving to always be the perfect wife and mum.
She added: “I wanted kids so much, I was happy to put everything on hold for them.”
But as Jamie’s media career had bloomed, Louise admitted she had struggled with his success and missed being a performer.
She said: “Standing by and watching Jamie become this entertainment star was pretty hard. I was proud of him, but there was part of me thinking, ‘that’s my world’. I could see the excitement he got out of it and I knew how that felt. But it wasn’t me feeling it anymore.”
And once she started Strictly, she felt ‘physically sick’ at the thought she’d never perform again.
Louise initially confirmed the couple were living apart in October and filed for divorce in December 2017.
Jamie and Louise have always worked hard to raise their children together, and have been co-parenting both boys throughout the coronavirus lockdown.
Louise was just 23 when they married but heartbreak soon followed as the couple struggled to get pregnant.
The former Eternal singer was diagnosed with the painful condition endometriosis, which makes it difficut to conceive, just a year into their marriage.
But six years after they wed, Jamie and former Eternal singer Louise welcomed their first son, Charley – and were both over the moon.
It was the happy ending to a four year battle to become parents and the couple were overjoyed when their youngest son, Beau, completed their family in 2009.
Louise left behind her showbusiness lifestyle and threw all her energies into their perfect family while Jamie retired from professional football and carved out a career as a pundit.
But then, in 2016, Louise joined the Strictly Come Dancing line-up, where she was partnered with Kevin Clifton.
The singer and her professional dance partner hit it off instantly and their chemistry and stunning moves on the dancefloor earned them a place in the final of the BBC competition.
Jamie’s pals, including James Corden, Freddie Flintoff and Jack Whitehall, relentlessly teased him about the so-called Strictly ‘curse’.
At the time Louise said: “I could see Jamie getting angrier and angrier with the jokes.”
But she insisted the couple laughed off any suggestion she would cheat.
And behind the scenes, Louise hoped her Strictly experience would finally mean she would become a mum to a baby girl.
Dubbing Kevin the ‘fertility king,’ Louise joked about the conspiracy that Kevin could lead to her and Jamie having a daughter as his last two partners – Frankie Bridge and Kellie Bright – fell pregnant shortly after the show.
“Maybe he’s the good luck charm I need to get that girl I really want,” Louise told The Sun.
“Jamie would love another baby, I’m not getting any younger so we’ll see what happens. But I’m in Strictly shape now so we’ll see.”
As she progressed in the BBC competition, Louise started to relish her time back in the limelight and she has since said the show gave her a renewed sense of self confidence.
Louise hailed Strictly her ‘saviour’ and revelled in returning to the stage after 12 years of ‘doing the mum thing’ – with Kevin acting as a constant source of support.
As the competition heated up, Louise and Kevin grew even closer with the pair training for hours each day and wowing audiences with their routines every Saturday night.
And while both rubbished rumours of any spark between them, it didn’t stop the wagging tongues.
Then, just months after she reached the finals of Strictly, Louise’s marriage to Jamie crumbled.
Louise found a new lease of life and as well as calling time on her marriage she also relaunched her career, releasing new music and appearing in the West End.
Describing her decision to leave Jamie and restart her career as the “first selfish thing I’ve done”, she admitted that although nobody “understood”, she felt like she’s finally “come back to who I really am”.
Jamie is now reported to have moved on with his new girlfriend, Swedish model, Frida Andersson-Lourie.
The rumoured couple are said to have bonded over their children and while pals insist it’s early days, Jamie and Frida are believed to be falling hard.
And Louise seems happy for her former husband and said she’s ready to move on after eldest son, 15-year-old Charley told her he was fine with it.
She told The Sun: “My eldest is 15 and super-protective over me. But he knows he can talk to me about anything and doesn’t need to be embarrassed, I’m so open.
“One morning he said to me, ‘if you ever did want to go on a date, I’d be OK with it’. It was actually a big moment as he’d always been quite vocal that I’d never go on a date.”
But before he spoke to his mum about her moving on, Louise revealed he’d secretly hoped his parents would get back together.
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