ENTREPRENEUR and former Towie star Wayne Lineker has a permanent grin on his face.
And it’s no wonder, as he’s contemplating on proposing to his stunning new model girlfriend of almost a year — who is 31 years his junior.
Club owner Wayne, 53, has found love with 22-year-old Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model contestant Danielle Sandhu.
But despite the age gap, they are not fazed by any criticism they get.
Wayne says in jest: “If people say it quickly enough then it doesn’t sound like much.
“I get some stick on Twitter over it but it’s just from jealous people.”
And after a whirlwind ten months together the pair are already thinking of tying the knot.
Wayne says: “Danielle is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. It was very fast but we have no regrets.
“Watch this space, I’ve definitely found the one.”
But one person who may not be at the wedding is Wayne’s older brother and Match Of The Day host Gary Lineker.
Wayne reveals that the pair are at the centre of a family rift after drifting apart following Gary’s marriage to second wife Danielle Bux in 2009.
He says: “In my opinion Danielle cost me my relationship with my brother. Sadly Gary is no longer a part of my life.”
The businessman reveals his relationship with Gary suffered a “breakdown” when the former England star, 54, started dating the model in 2008.
Wayne — who owns successful European pub chain Linekers Bars as well as a hit nightclub on party isle Ibiza — was confused when the weekly phone calls and visits stopped.
He says: “Within a year we had spent less time talking than we ever had before.
“It was like an itch I couldn’t scratch and I couldn’t understand why our contact had fizzled out.”
Once the best of friends, the brothers struggled to bond as usual when mum-of-one Danielle, 18 years Gary’s junior, joined the mix.
And Wayne confesses his relationship with the Welsh beauty foundered from the start.
He recalls: “They came to Ibiza in August 2008 and it was really awkward. I didn’t spark with Danielle and our relationship was cold.
“On the first day Gary was lying by the pool and said that she wasn’t very well and that she was in the room. She stayed in there all day.
“The next day 12 of us went out for dinner and Danielle sat one end and I sat another.
“We never spoke all night. Afterwards we went to Linekers Bar and again we never spoke. That for me was the start of things.
“I didn’t understand why it was like that. I didn’t want to upset Gary so I didn’t quiz him about it. That was the last time I spoke to her.”
Face of Walkers crisps Gary — who has four sons from his first marriage to ex-wife Michelle — quickly proposed to Danielle, now 35.
The couple got married in a secret ceremony in Ravello, Italy, in September 2009. The reception cost an estimated £250,000 and included a £20,000 six-course meal for around 50 guests.
But despite being Gary’s best man at his first wedding in 1986, Wayne did not attend the bash as his girlfriend at the time — model Ana Tanaka who is 24 years his junior — was not invited.
Talking for the first time about his absence, Wayne says: “Around six to eight weeks before the wedding Gary told me that my girlfriend wasn’t invited.
“He was my brother and he was telling me that I couldn’t bring my girlfriend of a year and a half to his wedding.
“She was a lovely, polite girl, and not a five-minute girlfriend.”
It’s clear that family means a lot to the dad of four, as photographs of his relationship with stunning Sandhu dominate their plush Essex flat.
He is also the boss of celeb party-haunt Ocean Beach club in Ibiza, which has fast become the top tourist club spot in Europe for Brits.
It is here that he first met his new girl.
Twice-divorced Wayne says: “When I met Danielle we immediately clicked and there was a lot of flirting.
“She was due to go home the next day and I managed to persuade her otherwise and she instantly moved in with me.
“Danielle has always been into older men and Simon Cowell was her ideal.
“I don’t really get that though — no offence, Simon.”
Wayne’s reputation as a party-loving playboy saw him briefly join the cast of ITV’s reality TV show The Only Way Is Essex in June 2013.
He adds: “I get a lot of stick on Twitter that I should hang up my boots but I don’t agree.
“I’ve got a really amazing life and I don’t want it to stop. I probably have the best job in the world — if you can even call it that.”
Despite Gary also losing contact with Wayne’s children — Duane, 30, Sean, 27, Tia, 16, and ten-year-old Freddie — the nightclub boss remains in constant contact with his brother’s kids.
But he says his attempts to reconcile with the footie ace, who he has spoken to just twice in two years, have failed.
He says: “On Gary’s 50th birthday I gave him a call. We spoke but sadly the call lasted less than a minute and was very awkward.”
Since then Wayne admits he has given up trying reconnect. He says: “I would love nothing more than him to call me up tomorrow and ask to go to lunch to speak about it, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
But he now hopes the two of them can heal their differences for the sake of their mother Margaret.
Wayne says: “Mum would love us to be close again. It can’t be nice for her to know that we are like this and it obviously upsets her.”
“I don’t dislike my brother at all. I love him to bits and it’s annoying that it’s come to this. I feel that he’s just changed since marrying Danielle.
“I was his biggest fan. He would always confide in me, and now nothing.”
And if Wayne does get down on one knee, he is adamant there will only be one invite sent out.
He adds: “I want something good to come from this, even if not now then in the future, and we become the family we were.
“I hope he reads this and thinks, ‘What have I been doing? He’s my brother’.”
Wayne is donating his fee for this interview to the Isle Of Wight Kidney Patients Association.