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Louise Redknapp makes defiant statement after divorce from Jamie

The ring is off

Louise Redknapp has finally ditched her wedding ring following her legal separation from husband Jamie.

The former Strictly Come Dancing star flashed her ring-free hand in a new Instagram video to promote a YouTube style channel.

At one stage in the clip, the singer is seen pulling a black jumper up around her face, her hands clearly visible in the frame.

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And there was no missing the fact her ring is missing.

It marks the first time Louise has posed on social media without her wedding ring; she had continued to wear the diamond band following her split from Jamie earlier this year.

The video was to promote Louise’s new project with stylist pal Emma Rose Thatcher.

They’ve teamed up to create a YouTube channel called A Style Album by Lou & Em; their first video, at just over five minutes, sees the pair answering fans’ questions about fashion.

Louise, 43, and Jamie, 44, ended their 19-year marriage last Friday, when a decree nisi was granted at the Central Family Court in London.

The divorce papers, filed by Louise, cited Jamie’s “unreasonable behaviour” as the reason; the retired footballer did not contest that.

Court documents stated: “The Petitioner Louise Redknapp has sufficiently proved the contents of the petition herein and is entitled to a decree of (divorce), the marriage having irretrievably broken down, the facts found proved being the respondent’s (Jamie’s) unreasonable behaviour.”

The documents added: “The respondent (Jamie) has behaved in such a way that the petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live with the respondent.”

The couple, who married in 1998, have two sons: Charley, 13, and Beau, nine.

Louise praised football pundit Jamie as an “amazing man” in an interview given in October, in which she confirmed the couple were living apart.

She told Stella magazine: “He’s an amazing man and we’ve had 20 good years together. I know he’s trying to understand that I do need to do this.

“People might look at me and think I’ve got everything, but a sweeping staircase and designer handbag doesn’t really do it for me.

“I have no idea what is going to happen, all I know is that I fought for this, it’s taken everything, but this is something I need to do – for me.”

The pair’s marriage split has often been attributed to Louise’s stint on Strictly Come Dancing in 2016, which apparently gave her a new sense of freedom and ambition.

She previously told the Daily Telegraph that she loved her partner, but had come to feel like “a sort of Stepford Wife” and she was “coming back to who I really am”.

She said: “I feel I’m coming back to who I really am. 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.

“I think this happens to a lot of women when they get married and have children. You have this feeling deep inside you, ‘Where did I go?’ But I pushed those thoughts away.

“I’d think of my past life as a pop star as being ‘not reality’. Looking after the house and my family was my reality.

“I became a sort of Stepford Wife, wanting to be perfect at it.”

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The star said her turn on the Strictly dance floor gave her back her zest for performing, gushing: “I loved the dancing. I loved being pushed to see what I could do.

“I loved that incredible camaraderie, the laughs, the nerves, the excitement, the audience.

“Sometimes I felt like crying because deep down inside me this voice was screaming, ‘This is what I have been missing!'”


Nancy Brown
Associate Editor