Louise Redknapp opens up about family life with her sons and finding happiness in her new relationship

It’s no secret that Louise Redknapp endured her share of heartbreak following her divorce from ex-husband Jamie. But six years on, she’s found happiness again with businessman Drew Michael.

The singer, 48, who split from the former footballer in 2017 following 19 years of marriage, went public with her new man last week as they were spotted leaving the Groucho Club in Soho, London.

Breaking her silence, Louise says with a smile, "It’s so difficult with your personal life… it’s all good." But keeping her cards close to her chest, she insists she has "nothing else" to say on it.

It seems Louise has a type. With his tall physique and dark hair, Drew, 39, who works in aerospace and defence, bears a striking resemblance to Jamie – the father of Louise’s sons Charley, 19, and Beau, 14.

Her new romance is her first public relationship since the breakdown of her marriage. Jamie, 50, remarried in October 2021 and welcomed son Raphael with his wife, the 38-year-old model Frida Andersson, a month later.

Louise has previously admitted that she stayed single for the sake of her family.

“I’ve felt this as a mum and, to say this in the most sort of respectful way, my boys’ lives changed dramatically and then it changed again when obviously Jamie got married and had a family,” she said.

“Their life changed and I felt like I needed to be their one staple. That’s just something I think a lot of mums would feel.”

Earlier this year, she also revealed she was in no rush to find love again.

“I’m just open to what may happen. I’m not actively out there looking. It’s not my number one goal in life,” she confessed.

“But if it goes that way and I met somebody who swept me off my feet and was amazing and kind and great, then I’d be so open to exploring that. But no, I’m not downloading apps. Well, not at the minute…”

She added, “If I did meet that great person, I would never hide it. If they are right, they are right. And I would be the first to embrace it and share it. But I’m not at the stage in life where I want to just do something for the sake of it.

“If it happens, it happens. And if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”

Louise parted ways with Jamie shortly after she appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2016.

Writing in her memoir You’ve Got This: And Other Things I Wish I Had Known, she revealed, “If I’d done the show four years earlier, this wouldn’t have happened. I wouldn’t have walked away from my marriage.”

She added that taking part in the BBC show “simply wasn’t worth putting anyone I loved or love through the heartache”.

Louise also revealed how “lonely, anxious and unimportant” she felt in her marriage.

“Looking back, I wish I’d sat down and really tried to explain how much I was struggling, how unimportant I felt in our lives together and how depressed this made me feel,” she said.

“I wish I’d been honest and said I felt unloved. I never spoke about how things were at home to a single soul.”

Louise has always maintained that her boys are her main focus. She’s been navigating life as a single mum, and last year Charley flew the nest to attend the University of Arizona, where he plays rugby.

Talking about him leaving home, she says, “He comes back quite a lot and I get to go over there. I’m definitely going to go out before Christmas and then he’ll be back here for Christmas; in American unis they get really long holidays, so I’m fortunate he always comes home.”

She continues, “It’s always hard when he leaves again, but we stay in touch by sending each other little pictures. Sometimes it’s easier than sending long messages. So instead I’ll ping him pictures of our bulldog doing something funny, or if I’ve cooked something I know he likes I’ll snap a photo of it, and he’ll send me one of him turning up to rugby.

“We both love memes, so if I see one I know he’ll laugh at, I’ll send it over. It only takes a split second but you feel like you’re engaging with them every day.”

As well as her thriving love life, Louise’s career is keeping her busy. The singer, who found fame in the early 1990s with girl band Eternal, and starred as Sally Bowles in the musical Cabaret in 2017, is back in the studio writing and recording new music.

“I’ve had a great year,” she says. “I ended the year before doing a straight play, which was a lovely experience, so it’s just about knuckling down and doing more of the same, career-wise.”

Louise was speaking on behalf of Three UK and Samaritans about the support for parents as their children leave for university. For details, look up fresh starts at university at three.co.uk.

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