In June next year, childhood sweethearts Harry and Sandra Redknapp will celebrate their 55-year wedding anniversary.
Their love story has captured the hearts of the nation, with their devotion towards one another as crystal clear today as it was when an ambitious 17-year-old Harry first gazed eyes at Sandra at the Two Puddings pub in Stratford.
But while their romance might seem like the fairy tale, the couple have battled their fair share of heartache from terrifying health scares to a horror car crash in Rome and a devastating miscarriage.
Now, for the first time, Harry, 75, and Sandra, 75, tell their story of "more than 50 years of love, life and strife" and how they overcame the biggest 'test' in their marriage.
In exclusive excerpts from their new autobiography, When Harry Met Sandra, the Redknapp's reveal:
- They had a 'heartbreaking' miscarriage before falling pregnant with their first son Mark
- Sandra had a hysterectomy after doctors found she had early stages of ovarian cancer
- Harry was told he was 'lucky to be alive' after a terrifying car crash in Rome
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How 2012 trial for tax evasion was the biggest 'test' in marriage
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They wanted Jamie's now ex-wife Louise to do Strictly for years after not doing 'anything for herself'
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Intimate details from son Jamie's secret wedding to Frida
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Their heartache as nephew Frank Lampard's life 'fell apart' when his mother Patricia (Sandra's sister) died
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Sandra's life-threatening sepsis battle as Harry prepared to jet off for I'm A Celebrity
Four years after that first meeting at Two Puddings, Harry and Sandra tied the knot. Two years later, in 1968, Sandra found out she was pregnant with her first child.
But 12 weeks into her pregnancy, heartache struck when she miscarried.
"I remember that day so vividly," she recalls. "It was February 1969. I had been working at the hairdressers and it had been snowing all day. By the time I came to leave that evening, there were no buses in Barking due to bad weather, so I ended up walking back in the thick snow.
"My feet were freezing and I couldn’t feel my hands. I had already started to feel a bit unwell – weak and slightly dizzy. I couldn’t wait to get back home in the warmth.
"But by the time I walked through the front door, I realised I had lost our baby."
The couple were devastated, with Sandra detailing how she was "terrified" she would miscarry again with son Mark, after falling pregnant months later.
But when they had Mark, 52, all their worries melted away with Harry and Sandra welcoming Jamie, 49, three years later.
But their life 'came crashing down' during a stint in America when Harry was left penniless after being scammed of their life savings by a conman football club owner.
The couple returned back to the U.K with Sandra returning to her hairdressing job charging £1.50 for haircuts to support the family.
As a stroke of luck would have it, Harry was offered a coaching role with Dave Webb at Bournemouth FC - but "things were about to get a lot worse than our financial worries", Sandra says.
Days before Christmas, the mother-of-two received a phone call from worried doctors that she needed surgery on Valentine's Day after finding cysts in her ovary, but months later she was told she needed a hysterectomy for ovarian cancer.
She recalls a doctor saying at her check up appointment: “So Mrs Redknapp, the growths we removed were isolated, which means they were unable to penetrate any tissue or organs.
"A moment or two passed. “What do you mean?” I asked him.
“They were very early stages of cancer, but it was all contained and we have removed the growths and the ovary.”
"I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was the first time I was hearing the C-word. My mouth was wide opened... within weeks, I was back at the hospital, but this time having everything removed".
While Sandra, who also battled life-threatening sepsis and being accidentally run over by her husband - which left her foot "sliced like a piece of bacon", Harry has also faced terrifying health scares over the years.
The most noticeable, perhaps, is when he was told by doctors he was "lucky to be alive" after his "minibus catapulted into the air and landed upside down" after being struck at 90mph by a Volkswagen Golf following Italy's win against Republic of Ireland.
"Their car was a wreck, smashed to pieces, and our minibus was like a scrunched-up crisp packet. I was covered in petrol, panicking that I was about to be blown up in the wreckage," he says of the crash in Rome.
"I was told I was lying on the road on my back, no doubt in shock. The emergency services arrived and thought I was a goner, so they put a blanket over my head."
When Harry awoke in hospital, he was told his friend Brian Tiler and the three teenagers travelling in the Golf hadn't survived.
Despite the troubles Harry and Sandra had faced, it was in 2012 they say they went through the biggest 'test' in their marriage when the ex football manager charged with tax evasion.
The charge related to a £189,000 payment from Mandarić to Redknapp via a bank account in Monaco.
Sandra recalls "turning the air blue" on the phone to Harry when police rocked up at 5.30am in the morning at their family home and started rifling through their belongings.
"Harry’s trial was no doubt one of the biggest tests of our marriage. The whole thing lasted for five years and was like a dark cloud hanging over us," Sandra says.
"Part of me was annoyed though of course he didn’t do anything wrong. But the most part of me felt so sorry for him. I was worried sick at the thought of Harry going to prison."
Harry was cleared of all charges following the Southwark Crown Court trial.
Elsewhere in the book, the couple speak about son Jamie's star-studded marriage to Louise and how they encouraged the singer, 47, to take up Strictly after years of caring for her two boys Charley, 18, and Beau, 13.
The couple also recall Jamie's intimate wedding to Frida last year, welcoming grandchild Raphael and how their nephew Frank Lampard found love with Christine after his life 'fell apart' when his mother Patricia died.
As for the future, the couple say they are looking forward to celebrating 60 years together from that night they met on the dancefloor.
"I don’t know what I would do without her. She means everything to me", Harry says.
When Harry Met Sandra is out on Thursday (September 29), £20, published by Mirror Books
