Louise Redknapp has opened up on why her almost two-decade marriage to Jamie Redknapp crumbled shortly after her stint on Strictly Come Dancing in 2016.
The Stretch songstress had spent the previous years out of the spotlight, raising their two sons, Beau and Charley, along with putting her singing career on hold.
BBC show Strictly hailed a new era for the British star, who was paired with popular dancing pro Kevin Clifton, and the duo went on to make the final of the well-loved BBC dancing show.
While she was heating up the dance floor, her marriage collapsed months later, and Louise admitted she started to feel like ‘a Stepford Wife’.
Louise and Jamie filed for divorce in December 2017 after nearly two decades of marriage (Image: Getty Images Europe)
“I feel I’m coming back to who I really am,” she previously told The Telegraph.
“I have spent most of my life pleasing everyone else, worrying about being judged and thinking I should always do the right thing by staying at home, looking after my kids and my husband. I lost myself.”
She added: “I became a sort of Stepford Wife, wanting to be perfect at it.”
Louise appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2016 alongside Kevin Clifton (Image: BBC)
Elsewhere in the interview, Louise admitted she found it hard when her husband Jamie transitioned from football to entertainment, admitting he had stepped into “her world”.
Jamie has enjoyed overwhelming success with his football punditry, but returned to the small screen in a different form when he bagged the team captain role on Sky’s A League of Their Own.
“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 any more,” she added.
Louise initially confirmed the couple were living apart in October and filed for divorce in December 2017.
The rumour mill soon went into overdrive when she was pictured with Kevin, and his family in Grimsby, during a Christmas visit in December 2018.
However, the musician denied anything romantic, and when asked if she’s still in touch with the start the following April, she replied: “I haven’t spoken to him for a long time.”
Since her Strictly stint Louise has revived her music career and released her Heavy Love album earlier this year (Image: BBC)
While her marriage may have faltered, she began a career revival, starring in West End Musical 9-to-5 along with recording her fourth studio album, Heavy Love.
Chaneling her heartbreak and love lessons into the deeply personal album, she dropped the release earlier this year, reaching number 11 in the UK charts.
Speaking what the making of the album has taught her during an interview with Glamour Magazine, she said: “It taught me that it’s okay to be honest. It’s okay to not have to always portray perfection on how I look.
“I do not care about perfection anymore. I think it taught me that it’s okay to feel. It’s okay to be honest to people that you don’t know.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
