I’m A Celebrity…South Africa star Phil Tufnell might be a cheeky comedian in the camp, but his love life hasn’t always had the sportsman laughing.
With two failed marriages including one public divorce, the cricket star’s rocky love life hasn’t been smooth sailing until he met current wife Dawn Brown.
Describing his wife of 18 years as his “soulmate”, Phil said his better half helps keep him “measured” and that the pair haven’t stopped laughing since they met over 20 years ago.
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Former England cricket star Phil Tufnell has had his ups and downs in his love life since getting married at 18 for the first time.
Alison Squires
Phil’s first marriage to partner Alison Squires came when the cricketer was young and in love, with the pair saying ‘I do’ when Phil was just 18.
King of the Jungle Phil met his first wife Alison Squires at his team’s ground, Lords, while she watched him play in a match in 1983.
The couple quickly fell in love and were married three years later. Yet it wasn’t long term romance for this unlucky pair as they soon drifted apart, with the marriage ending three years later in 1989.
Phil opened up about his marriage to first wife Alison in his autobiography ‘Phil Tufnell: What now?’, where he wrote about the breakup of his marriage blaming rows over his womanising as the pair found their relationship had changed.
In August 1991 it emerged she had been forced to turn to prostitution in order to pay her rates bill.
Jane McEnvoy
Whilst Phil and Jane never officially tied the knot, the pair did fall quickly in love.
The couple had one daughter called Ellie in 1992, with Phil getting down on one knee shortly after to pop the question. Whilst the pair became engaged, they didn’t ever make it up the aisle before the couple called it quits.
The breakdown of their relationship wasn’t simple with Jane telling the Daily Mail in 2002: “I met Phil Tufnell in 1990 and in all the time I knew him he was unstable, unpredictable, neurotic and full of himself.”
She also claimed that she had a nervous breakdown because of their relationship: “I had to go to counselling. It took me a long, long time to get over him. When I first met him he was a golden boy, you wouldn’t want to have anyone better, but things happened and I realise that the person I was with was a very unstable person.”
Lisa Bar
Phil met air hostess Lisa in 1993 at a beach barbecue, with the couple tying the knot a year later after a whirlwind romance.
Marrying in 1994, Phil said at the time: “This is the happiest day of my life and a whole new start for me. I wanted to marry Lisa because I wanted to show how much I love her, to make that commitment to a faithful marriage.”
A loved up Lisa also opened up about her love for sportsman Phil, in an interview in 1995 she said: “I know Phil. His bark is worse than his bite. From my experience, he’s probably the easiest person in the world to get on with – just a loveable rogue. I’ve tamed him but it wasn’t hard.
“He’s made me the happiest woman in the world and I couldn’t have found a better husband.”
The couple share daughter Poppy together, who was born in 1997.
It wasn’t happily ever after for Lisa and Phil, with the marriage ending after seven years in 2002. In court, Lisa accused ex husband Phil of of causing her to endure “anxiety, stress and an eating disorder.”
Dawn Brown
Cricketer Phil married third wife Dawn in 2005, and the couple have been happily married ever since.
He told the Mirror: “I met Dawn in the hospitality tent at a charity cricket match I was playing in. The two of us got chatting and I don’t think we have stopped laughing since.
“Humour is vital in a relationship, to maintain the friendship. Me and Dawn get on like a house on fire still, that is because we have a bit of a laugh, enjoy the same sort of things, we’re both social people.”
In 2015, he told The Guardian how Dawn taught him to love again after his marriage to Lisa had ended: “I kept going, looking for a bit of love. I finally found it with my Dawn.
“We’ve been together about 13 years. She’s the most honest – and loyal – woman I’ve met. And she’s a great friend.
“People said: ‘Crikey, why are you going down this route again?’ But I always wanted a soulmate. I’m more measured now.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk