Harry Redknapp has been married to his wife Sandra for 55 years – and their relationship has involved something not many others can lay claim to: a pitch invasion.
Harry is best known for his days as a manager – he took charge of Bournemouth, West Ham, Portsmouth, Southampton and Tottenham between 1983 and 2012. But he started out as a player and turned out for the Hammers between 1965 and 1972.
The budding footballer met Sandra while he was still learning the game in the West Ham academy. They first met aged 17 at the Two Puddings pub, in Barking, East London in 1963 and got married at Barking Abbey on June 30, 1968.
By all accounts it was love at first sight for the couple, and that feeling was so strong that Sandra decided to invade the pitch at Upton Park to give her husband a hug. Back in November 2018, when Harry was on I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, son Jamie shared a clip of Sandra running onto the pitch to throw her arms around Harry, before legging it back into the stands to avoid the stewards.
"Sandra just couldn't keep her hands off Harry even in the early days," Jamie wrote on the post. "I'm pleased to say she improved her running action".
The commentary of the vintage clip displays the unusual nature of the incident. “A couple of spectators have come on the field towards the referee – a couple of girls in fact,” he says. “Oh! They’ve come on to mob Harry Redknapp! Well, nothing too sinister about that – and perhaps Harry enjoyed it!”
Sandra and her friend bolted onto the pitch for a very brief moment with Harry, before jumping back into the stands to avoid getting thrown out. That mad moment goes against her personality, according to Harry.
"Sandra is very different to me,” he told GB News. “She's very quiet and very shy. She's quite happy just spending time with the family and would rather take a backseat."
Harry was happy to wax lyrical about his wife when in the jungle. "Even when I'm out I ring her 10 times a day," the 75-year-old told campmates. “She's my life. I'm a bit scared, getting a bit older. I love her too much, if anything happened it would just kill me.
“We just get on so well, I only want to be with her. I can never wait to see her. Jamie says 'you've won the lottery'.”
The couple’s granddaughter, Molly James-Redknapp, told ITV2 at the time: “It is literally what you see is what you get. That is what I love about him, he is showing everyone what they are like on the outside. They love each other so, so much and it just never seems to die, how much they love each other.”
