Gary Lineker rules out romance ten years after divorce

Gary Lineker has revealed he is currently single ten years after his second divorce and cannot imagine regularly sleeping with someone again. The 65-year-old former England football star and broadcaster said he tried dating four years ago but now prefers living on his own while enjoying female company.

Speaking on the Begin Again podcast alongside presenter Davina McCall, Lineker discussed his relationship status after McCall expressed shock at his single lifestyle. He explained that although he has not dated for three or four years, he maintains a wide circle of female companions.

During the interview, Lineker said: "I'm single [for] quite a few years now. I dated for a while about three or four years ago and not since." When McCall questioned his arrangement and hinted at casual relationships, he immediately shut down talk of benefits, telling her: "I have a lot of female company and companions and friends."

Lineker, who spent 25 years hosting the BBC's flagship football program Match of the Day, emphasized his appreciation for social companionship. "I have a lot of female friends for company. I love female company," he said, adding: "I really do have a lot of close friends that I see fairly frequently."

When McCall asked whether those close companions included any of his ex-partners, Lineker confirmed that a couple of them were former flames. He rejected the idea that any of his friends remained in love with him, joking: "I don't think so. I think they suffer me. They put up with me."

Dating apps and lifestyle choices

Explaining his comfort with living alone, Lineker admitted that the practicalities of getting older play a role in his reluctance to share a bedroom. "I've just got so comfortable being on my own," he said. "In the sense I'm not sure I could imagine regularly sleeping with someone again or not that you have to, sharing a bed. As you get older you tend to make a few more bathroom trips in the night and stuff like that."

The former striker insisted he could not imagine using online platforms to find romance. "I'm not ruling anything out. Who knows what might happen," he said, while maintaining that he could not imagine going on dating apps.

His comments follow an interview in June on Louis Theroux's podcast, where Lineker insisted he was done with seeking love following his two divorces. During that conversation, Lineker admitted to enjoying his independence, saying: "I like being on my own. I've got so accustomed to it now and being slightly selfish, but unanswerable to anyone."

When Theroux asked if he felt isolated living alone in a large house, Lineker answered that it was just "me and a dog", noting that his adult sons are always around and that he is "absolutely happy on my own." Asked if he was open to future romance, Lineker said: "No, I think I'm done. I don’t know, you never know, but I just can't imagine actually living with someone again." When asked about physical needs, he joked that "you get to a certain age where it's so much effort", before quipping about "a big blue pill" and reiterating his love for going out to dinner with female friends.

First marriage and family history

Lineker was married to his first wife, Michelle Cockayne, for 20 years before she filed for divorce in 2006. The couple first met when Lineker was an 18-year-old rising star playing for Leicester City, long before he became one of the world's top strikers with a pay packet to match.

Together, Lineker and Cockayne share four sons: George, 34, Harry, 32, Tobias, 30, and Angus, 28. During their marriage, the family experienced significant personal challenges, including when their eldest son, George, battled leukaemia at just eight weeks old and was given a survival rate of just 10 to 20 per cent.

Second marriage to Danielle Bux

Following his first divorce, Lineker married Welsh actress and model Danielle Bux at a ceremony in Italy in 2009. After seven years together and six years of marriage, the couple announced their separation in 2016 due to Bux wanting children of her own, while Lineker did not want any more children.

Despite their split ten years ago, Lineker described Bux as his "best mates" and said they remain on friendly terms, frequently meeting for dinner dates and going on holidays together. Bux subsequently relocated to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career and found love with Nate Greenwald, an Ivy League-educated lawyer with Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Bux, already a parent to 24-year-old daughter Ella from a former relationship, welcomed her second daughter, Romy Wren, in August 2017.

Friendship with Jemima Goldsmith

In 2024, Lineker was also linked to documentary producer and journalist Jemima Goldsmith after they were pictured enjoying a cosy dinner date together. However, a source insisted at the time that the pairing between Lineker and Goldsmith was purely platonic and that they are just good friends.

A friend of Goldsmith said of the pairing: "Jemima has known him for years and never known him to date anyone. They aren’t a couple but they’ve been good friends for a long time now. He’s not interested in dating and hasn’t been for years." Lineker is also said to have attended a 50th birthday party held by Goldsmith at her country home.

Goldsmith, the daughter of late financier Sir James Goldsmith, married cricket legend and former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan in 1995 before their divorce in 2004. They have two sons together, Sulaiman Isa, born in 1996, and Kasim, born three years later in 1999. Goldsmith has since been in high-profile relationships with comedian Russell Brand and actor Hugh Grant.