'Stress' caused Lineker split

Gary Lineker and his wife Michelle in happier times

Paul Cheston|David McMillan|Evening Standard

11 April 2012

Gary Lineker was accused of causing his wife Michelle stress and anxiety as she was granted a 'quickie' divorce.

Mrs Lineker was granted a decree nisi from the former England striker in only 20 seconds at the High Court Family Division after 20 years of marriage.

District Judge Caroline Reid accepted that the marriage had irretrievably broken down because of the 45-year-old star's unreasonable behaviour.

They separated in April when she moved out of their £2 million family home in Sunningdale, Berkshire. She has since moved back, according to court papers, but they no longer live as husband and wife.

She will remain at the family home and Lineker will move out once he has a new place to live.

At the weekend, he was pictured in the press sunbathing in Barbados alongside Denise Moore, who has a villa on the island. Mrs Moore, who was shown topless, is married with a daughter. A source told the News of the World: 'Denise's husband travels a lot. But it is a simple friendship.'

Lineker was holidaying in the Caribbean with his four sons, George, 14, Harry, 12, Tobias, 10, and Angus, eight. The former Leicester, Spurs and Barcelona star married Michelle in July 1986 when he was a 25-year-old professional footballer and she was a 21-year-old beauty therapist.

The couple had met in their home city of Leicester when she was 14 and he was an 18-year-old hopeful with Leicester City. Lineker was reported as saying once: 'I kept asking her to marry me, but it was nearly three years before she agreed.'

On another occasion he recalled: 'I do remember asking her out for our first proper date to a restaurant when she was 17, and it just went on from there. I was probably keener on her than she was on me, and I'm probably keener now.'

During a football career in which he was never booked, Lineker, now a BBC sports presenter, developed a blameless reputation, and it was assumed his marriage was built on similar principles.

Nearly a decade ago, he said of his marriage: 'I think we have been very lucky. She knew me when I had nothing, and our relationship has not changed over the years. If anything, we have grown closer and we have a rock-solid relationship.'

But in recent years the cracks began to show. There were reports - never substantiated - that he had dalliances with other women, and Michelle's dissatisfaction became increasingly obvious to all those close to her.

'In the end, she has just had enough,' one friend said this year. 'She is only 40 and she wants to move on with her life.'

Michelle's petition appeared ninth in a list of 30 undefended petitions in High Holborn. In response to the question 'if you consider that the respondent's behaviour has affected your health, state the effect it has had', she replied: 'Stress and anxiety.'

In answer to the next question 'is the respondent's behaviour as set out in your petition and particulars continuing?' She replied: 'Yes.'

Mrs Lineker asked the court for 'a decree dissolving my marriage with the respondent on the ground stated in my petition.' In his reply Lineker said he did not intend to defend the petition, agreed to pay the costs and agreed to the arrangements for the children.

Lineker is said to be worth about £30 million. The couple are reported to have reached financial agreement.

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