Second time lucky for Louise and Jamie Redknapp

It has been three years since Louise Redknapp shocked the showbiz world and ended her 19-year marriage to husband Jamie. And last week, Louise got candid about her post-divorce struggles, revealing in an interview that she didn’t like being on her own, and adding that she, “Gets terrible anxiety if I know I’m getting up in the morning with no one there.”

She then took the opportunity to pay tribute to Jamie as a great dad, and said she hoped they could still be “best friends” in the future. Plus, there are the cryptic Instagram posts and daily sexy selfies that she’s posting...

But while Louise publicly insists that she’s ready to date someone new, insiders say lockdown has left her feeling more nostalgic than ever and she can’t get her ex out of her mind. She may say she just wants them to be friends – but privately, we’re told, she wants more.

“Louise is finding it harder and harder to conceal how she really feels about Jamie,” says an insider close to the 45 year old, who has sons Charley, 15, and Beau, ten, with her ex. “She’s been feeling particularly emotional with what would have been their 22nd wedding anniversary coming up. Their wedding is still the best day of her life, and it’s been making her think a lot about the past. She’s been going through her wedding album and pictures from her honeymoon. If anything, the anniversary has made her question again if things could have worked out between them.”

The former Eternal star recently shared a cryptic post with her Instagram followers that many took as a signal to her ex-husband. Not long after posting a tribute to Jamie for Father’s Day, Louise shared a picture that said, “Please don’t be in love with anyone else.” Hmmm.

Louise split from Jamie following her stint on Strictly Come Dancing in 2016, which she said had “switched a light back on” after spending two decades “pleasing everyone and thinking I should always do the right thing by staying at home, looking after my kids and my husband”. However, last year she admitted that she handled the situation badly and felt she should have done things differently, hinting that they could have survived it if they’d discussed the situation properly together.

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She said, “I wish I had just gone, ‘Right, the kids are getting older, and I love my job and I’m going to give it a real go. And Jamie, if you don’t like it, tough. But if you do like it, let’s talk about it.’”

The split clearly gave her a new lease of life, and in the past three years, she’s relaunched her singing career, acted onstage and – as her recent Instagram pictures prove – regained her confidence. But speaking last week, she said she was still “very single, which is not a good thing”. Significantly, Louise revealed that her eldest son Charley had given her his blessing to date someone new, but added that her kids will “always hope their mum and dad will work things out”.

Looking back at the breakdown of her marriage, Louise revealed, “It’s been really tough. I’m a real softie and I still want to be [Jamie’s] best friend, which is impossible.” Admitting how deeply it affected her, she explained, “I try to be positive because it happened, and I was OK with it happening, but it doesn’t make it any easier. The kind of person I am, it would never be easy for me. It would never be water off a duck’s back. It will always mean something.” In the candid interview last week, she even went so far as to call Jamie her “everything”, saying, “I’ve known Jamie since I was a teenager. He was my everything, and suddenly he wasn’t any more. It’s a tough thing to go through.”

According to our source, Louise has been saying that she’s ready to date again, and has been upping her health and fitness regime in a bid to feel more attractive and boost her self-esteem. Hence, then, the onslaught of Instagram posts recently that have earned the singer compliments like “on fire”, “stunning” and “incredible natural beauty”. But, we’re told, secretly, there’s only one man she’s hoping to impress, and her efforts haven’t gone unnoticed by Jamie, who’s been coming around to her house to share parenting duties.

“Jamie already thinks Louise looks incredible with all the workouts she’s been doing while in quarantine,” says our source. “And he’s so pleased with how well they’re getting on.” The source adds that, after all of the ups and downs in their marriage, the couple feel lucky that they have got to the stage where they can be friends and co-parent their boys – regardless of what else might happen in the future.

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Louise herself praised Jamie’s parenting skills last week, saying, “I’m really lucky. I’m actually able to do the job I do because Jamie is so happy to share everything with me. I have friends who don’t have that, so I’m really lucky. He’s hands-on. He’s great.”

And while Jamie is thought to be single at the moment – he was linked to model Lizzie Bowden for a few months last year – our insider tells us the future of the Redknapps is a tantalising question mark at the moment. “Obviously, the boys are their first concern, but they both can’t help wondering what could have been. They make a great team, and both of them miss what they had and their family unit with the boys.

“So, who knows what could happen?”

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