Louise Redknapp on being crowned sexiest woman of the 90s… and the truth behind THOSE saucy Daisy Lowe rumours
GIRLBAND favourite Louise Redknapp was a pop princess who turned into one of the hottest sex symbols of the Nineties – even being crowned the sexiest woman of the DECADE.
Going from band member to a solo star to a Wag, then coming back as a Strictly favourite, Louise, now 47, has spoken about suddenly discovering her sensual side.
Louise Nurding, as she was then, told The Sun in 1996: “I have to ex- plore other avenues and appeal to all kinds of people.
“If you’re sexy it should come out, no matter what you wear — you shouldn’t have to put on a bra and the smallest pair of knickers you can find.’’
Louise had come a long way since her early days in Lewisham, South East London, where she got a scholarship to a drama school.
Aged just 15, she met a music producer while out clubbing with her childhood friend Kelle Bryan.
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They then paired up with sisters Easther and Vernie Bennett to form the girl band Eternal in 1992.
Launching two years before the Spice Girls, they immediately became the UK’s favourite girl group.
On paper, Eternal had it all — a multi-platinum-selling album, four Brit Awards nominations and best group award at the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party.
But behind the scenes Louise was unhappy with her pop-star life. In 1995 she made the shock decision to leave the group after they had recorded just one album.
Rumours spread that US radio stations wouldn’t accept a mixed-race band, forcing her out of the group, but Louise maintained it was a personal decision.
She said: “Suddenly we were selling millions of records, touring the world — and I was just miserable.
“Everyone thinks it’s all showbiz parties, but I was 20, sitting in hotel rooms on my own. All I knew was that I couldn’t carry on being so unhappy and homesick.
“My passion for singing and music was dying. So I left.”
By then she had already fallen for Liverpool and England footballer Jamie Redknapp.
They had been introduced on a Bermudan beach a year earlier by Robbie Williams, who was then in Take That — Eternal’s support act.
But bemused Louise later confessed she didn’t realise Jamie was a pro footballer until she saw him playing on televison.
She said: “I had no idea who he was when I met him. A few weeks later I was watching England on TV and I said to my friends, ‘I know that guy — he asked me out’.
So unhappy
“They said, ‘Don’t you know who he is?’. I just thought every man you meet says they play football.”
Despite hitting it off, the couple stayed just friends in the early days.
Louise told FHM magazine in 1996: “I’ve never been out with a man I didn’t know before.
“I’m not one of those people who can just put it about. I prefer to wait till I meet someone I really like rather than just saying, ‘God, I really need it now’.’’
But having taken things slowly, the couple got married in 1998 — just a week after Jamie proposed.
In her 2021 memoir You’ve Got This, Louise recalled: “We were sitting in his room and he said to me, ‘I think we should probably get married then’.
“It wasn’t the most romantic proposal, and I think we even had a silly row afterwards when I told him he shouldn’t have proposed just because he felt it was the right thing to do.
“I mean, only I could have accepted a proposal in that way. But we were happy, and the wheels were set in motion for us to tie the knot.”
At the time of their wedding — in Bermuda, in a “low-key” ceremony with 30 guests on an 80ft yacht — Louise’s solo career was firmly established, with six Top Ten hits.
Then, in 2004 — the year FHM crowned her the decade’s sexiest woman — Louise gave birth to elder son Charley, now 17, and later Beau, now 13, and she took a step back from her pop career.
As Jamie’s own career took off and later as he became a TV soccer pundit, Louise admitted she played second fiddle in the relationship.
She said: “I wouldn’t give up my time away from the limelight for all the money in the world.
“But it is hard when you’re married to someone with a very successful career, and you have children, to have everything.
“Something has to give somewhere, and I think it was me that gave. You get comfortable and you stop chasing the dream a little bit.”
The couple soon got a reputation as showbiz’s most solid pairing, and in 2012 Louise said: “I remind myself that I’m lucky, that if you strip away everything, the celebrity, the fame, and look at what’s left, we’ve got a good relationship.
“We’re mates. All the other stuff doesn’t last.”
If you’re sexy it should come out no matter what you wear – you shouldn’t have to put on a bra and small pair of knickers
Louise Redknapp
But in private Louise was starting to struggle with self-doubt.
Writing in her autobiography, she said: “It was probably at this point that my insecurities about not being good enough started to spiral.
“Everywhere we went, glamorous and gorgeous women tried to get Jamie’s attention. They would sidle over to him in clubs, flicking their hair, all dolled up in their heels and tight dresses.
“It was like I was invisible to these women, or maybe they just didn’t care. I started to feel even less confident in myself and what I had to offer Jamie.”
All that changed in 2016 when she competed on Strictly Come Dancing, wowing viewers with her routines and finishing as runner-up.
She also sparked chatter after becoming close to fellow contestant Daisy Lowe on nights out, and said: “I did go out more than I’d ever gone out. I’d found a bit of a spark.
“I was enjoying myself. I guess I’d always been such a perfectly well-behaved pop star, and then I got married, had children and kept myself away from playing the game.
Tracksuit bottoms
“But I remember reading headlines like, ‘Louise, out on the town, drunk again’ when I knew I’d been home at 9.30pm, sitting with my son, having a bowl of Frosties.
“Daisy was not my girlfriend at any time throughout Strictly!”
She added: “Strictly switched a light back on.”
She started working again, taking a role in the stage show Cabaret, alongside Will Young.
After the series, she returned home to Jamie a changed woman and asked for a divorce.
She said: “For 21 years I was in a secure marriage, through good times and bad times. A lot of those 21 years were incredible. And there were moments in those 21 years when I was sad — not due to Jamie, most of it due to me.”
The couple divorced in December 2017 and in her biography Louise confessed she wished she had done more to save the marriage.
She wrote: “I wish I’d tried. I want to say to anyone thinking of running, ‘Just slow down. Don’t run’. Because once you run too fast, you can’t make up the ground you’ve lost.”
Louise credits her sons for helping her through the divorce.
She said on The One Show: “I was going through a hard time and what I did learn is you have to get broad shoulders in life sometimes.
“Surround yourself with good people, keep your chin up and just keep on going. My boys were an absolute saviour — and my mum.”
In 2019 Jamie met Swedish model Frida Andersson-Lourie, and last year they married shortly before son Raphael was born.
Louise has stayed single, and has said: “I’m the shabbiest mum on the school run.
“When I’m not working I love not making an effort. So I turn up in tracksuit bottoms, an oversized sweatshirt, my hair in a pony.”
And her old pin-up pix are locked away. Two years ago she said: “Do you think my 15-year-old would allow me to put my old FHM covers on the wall? No. They’re all in a box in the garage.”
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Even so, she hasn’t ruled out another relationship. She said: “No one is ringing me up asking for a date, but who knows? At the moment, I just don’t know if that’s ever going to happen.
“If it happens, I’m going to be honest and open and embrace it. But my kids get the last say.”
