Freddie Flintoff and his wife Rachael Wools are approaching their twentieth anniversary after tying the knot in March 2005.
The cricket star and the former model met in 2002 at a cricket ground in Birmingham while Rachael was promoting her events company Strawberry Promotions. Two decades later they are just as in love as ever, with Rachael supporting her husband following his near-fatal car crash while filming Top Gear in 2022.
© Tom ShawIt was the same year he was set to film Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams on Tour in India, which is finally being released on BBC One.
Take a look back at his relationship with Rachael, from their wedding to their three kids and his life post-recovery.
Following a three-year romance, Freddie and Rachael got married at the Pavilion Road Hotel in Knightsbridge, London. Unearthed photos show the happy newlyweds posing for photos inside a library area with stacked bookshelves, oversized paintings and a cosy fire with white flowers draped across the mantel.
The bride looked stunning in a strapless wedding dress with a fitted bodice, a textured, princess-style meringue skirt and a statement train. She teamed it with a cathedral-length veil pinned into her half-updo, with honey-blonde highlighted wispy bangs framing her face.
She cuddled up to her husband, who wore a classic black suit, a white shirt and an ebony tie, smiling from ear to ear.
Despite looking like a picture-perfect couple, Rachael admitted that she wasn’t immediately attracted to Freddie. “He really wasn’t my type physically, because I generally prefer dark men, but I thought he was the funniest guy I had ever met.
“He obtained my phone number and texted me a couple of times, and we went up for a drink, and I was really blown away by his charm,” she told Daily Mail in 2007.
© GettyThey went on to welcome four children: Holly, Corey, Rocky, and Preston. After Freddie was airlifted to hospital following his near-fatal crash on the test track at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey, which left him with serious facial injuries and broken ribs, his son Corey told the MailOnline: “He’s OK. I’m not too sure what happened but he is lucky to be alive.
“It was a pretty nasty crash. It is shocking. We are all shocked but just hope he’s going to be OK.”
© Vincent Dolman
Two years later, Freddie opened up about his recovery. When asked if he was “feeling better” following the crash, Freddie admitted in his show: “Not really, I’m not sure I ever will again to be honest. I’m better than I was. I don’t know what completely better is.
“I am what I am now, I’m different to what I was, that’s something I’ll have to deal with for the rest of my life. Better, no, different.”
Freddie’s confessions
© Getty
The cricketer has also been candid about his struggles with alcohol, depression and his eating disorder.
Praising his wife’s support, he wrote in his 2015 memoir Second Innings: My Sporting Life: “Looking back, I feel for the missus. She used to get the worst of me.
“She didn’t come out and celebrate when we won – that was with the lads – and I’d rock in at five in the morning, stinking and falling over. When we lost she’d see me drowning my sorrows in the corner. And then your career is all over.”
© Matt West/ShutterstockHe added: “It was two different worlds. My world – cricket, the dressing room and the lads. And then family. Even when they travelled with me, it wasn’t always easy to bridge the gap. Plus, I craved my own space.
“You can understand why cricketers’ marriages break down. If the shoe was on the other foot, I might have just said, ‘You know what, sod this.'”
He said he was “incredibly lucky” to have his understanding wife Rachael by his side.
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