Louise Redknapp makes sad 'villain' admission after Jamie split (2025)

Louise Redknapp said she was painted as the 'villain' after her split from Jamie Redknapp. The duo were married for 19 years before they went their separate ways in 2017

Louise Redknapp recalled being 'painted as the villain' following her split from her footballer husband, Jamie Redknapp. The 50-year-old singer and the former footie star share two children, 20-year-old Charlie and 16-year-old William, and were married for 19 years before their shock split in 2017.

Not only did she have to grieve the end of their marriage, she was also under scrutiny by the public as everyone 'had an opinion' on the couple's break up and even accused her of walking out on her family. The star went on to say there was no winning as she would have remained the villain no matter what.

She explained to the Independent: "I was the villain. I'd been lucky in my career because for many years I didn't really have a lot of scrutiny. Then bang, everybody's got an opinion.'

"Anything someone could perceive as negative, I cut out. Nothing I said was right. To defend myself was wrong. To not defend myself was wrong. I felt like I was walking up a one-way street with just nowhere to go on it."

The Naked musician once admitted she avoided dating for almost six years in an effort to focus on her children instead, meanwhile Jamie married model Frida Andersson in 2021.

The Sky Sports pundit and his second wife are parents to son Raphael and Frida is also mum to four children from her previous marriage to Jonathan Lourie.

On Fearne Cotton's Happy Place podcast, Louise revealed she would have reached an even lower point in her life if it wasn't for her children.

She explained: "If I didn't have my kids, I just, I think I would have just given up. I really do. I think I just knew that my kids were my everything and they needed me."

During the chat, she discussed how the public scrutiny of the breakdown of her marriage affected her. "But I can honestly say, when you're going through something so personal in your own turmoil in your own way, but then to get the barrage of judgment and nastiness," she continued.

"I never realised people could be so unkind and say such terrible things. I blew my mind. I was going through a lot as it was, I was trying to be strong for my kids, whatever had gone on in our life was private - which I do believe that you're entitled to no matter what. And God, I was such a villain, and I was breaking like I was absolutely breaking.

"Beyond what I thought it was possible for a human to break and all along I'm still trying to be a mum.

"And it was just like every time I went out, and I was trying to put a brave face on and do things, like that was wrong if I didn't. I felt like everything I did was so wrong."

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