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      in Soccer

      Inside Jimmy Greaves and wife Irene Barden’s enduring love story – from baby loss and divorce to remarrying ‘best mate’

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      SPURS legend Jimmy Greaves will be remembered as one of the all-time footballing greats and the King of White Hart Lane.But by his side throughout his phenomenal career and beyond, was his doting wife, Irene Barden.
      Jimmy Greaves and Irene first got married when they were just 18 years oldCredit: Getty
      They remarried in 2017 after Jimmy suffered his second strokeCredit: Mirrorpix
      Jimmy – who died today aged 81 – and Irene married when they were just 18, and have been together ever since.
      There were some heartbreaking bumps in the road including the tragic loss of their second child and the couple’s separation for 18 months at the height of Jimmy’s battle with alcohol.
      But, over the last 60 years, they always found a way back to each other.
      And Irene, 81, never left his side for more than an hour after he suffered a stroke five years ago that left him wheelchair-bound.
      “We’ve always adored each other, without a doubt,” Irene said, earlier this year. “I never wanted anyone else.”
      Childhood sweethearts
      Jimmy and Irene were just 18 years old when they first got married in a small ceremony at a registry office in Romford, Essex in March 1958.

      At the time, Jimmy was playing for Chelsea, earning £17 a week and £100 if he played for England.
      Irene wore a smart belted beige dress and jacket with white gloves and a white hat for the ceremony.
      But tragedy struck the couple just three years later.
      Agonising loss of 5-month-old son
      In 1961, Jimmy and Irene’s second child, Jimmy Junior, died from pneumonia aged just five months.
      The couple – who also had a daughter, Lynn, now 61, by this point – were left in despair.
      Jimmy once said: “Jimmy’s death devastated us, it nearly drove us out of our minds.
      “We were inconsolable.
      “You grieve for the death of any loved one but when it is for your own child no words can describe that grief.”
      Irene has said: “He was five months old and there was no rhyme or reason about it. It just happened. 
      “He’d been a healthy baby, 9lb at birth, and when he died we didn’t speak about it — you were told to go home and get on with your lives. 
      “There was no counselling.”
      Irene and Jimmy went on to have three more children, Mitzi, now 59, Danny, 56, and Andy, 54 – and she says she still thinks of Jimmy Jr too.
      “I still think of him. You always do,” she said.”
      “I’ve still got a lovely picture of him hanging on my wall with all the other family photos.”
      Selling jewellery to keep the family home
      Football became a guiding light for Jimmy, but his top flight career ended at West Ham in 1971. 
      It was at the Hammers that his alcoholism began. 
      “He’d just shut himself away in a room at home and drink,” Irene said.
      Some days he would go straight from training to the pub and stay for the rest of the day.
      At his worst he was downing 20 pints of beer and a bottle of vodka a day. 
      Meanwhile, Irene was training as a nurse and raising their four children single-handedly.
      At one point, as Jimmy lost himself to the bottle, Irene had to sell her jewellery to keep the family home.
      “I just got fed up with him,” she said. “I realised it was no good nagging or pouring his drink down the sink because he’d hide bottles everywhere. I had to wait until he was ready to stop himself.
      “He’d promise to give up but he carried on. 
      “I’d say to him: ‘You’ll drink yourself to death and you won’t be here to see the kids grow up.’ 
      “But nothing worked.”
      He and Irene divorced at the height of his alcoholism in 1977, when she “told him to go”.
      ‘I was at the bottom of the heap’
      His marriage over, Jimmy was living in a one-bedroomed flat in Wanstead, east London, scraped a living selling sweaters from a market stall.
      Destined never to see 40, he even ended up sleeping rough.
      Did it prick his pride, he was asked in 2005?
      “I didn’t really have any,” he said “I was at the bottom of the heap and what had happened in the past was the past.
      “I didn’t look at it and think, ‘Well I’ve done this and I’m entitled to that’. Life, I found, was not like that.
      “I basically felt pretty worthless and there wasn’t a lot left in me. I didn’t have any plans.
      “My sole ambition in life at that time was to remain sober, nothing else, that was my only target.”
      Couldn’t live without each other
      It was just 18 months later, when they found they couldn’t live without each other, Jimmy and Irene got back together – with him promising to stay sober.
      Irene recalled: “Jimmy came back home. He said: ‘I’m ready to give up drinking now’ — and I just knew he meant it this time.”
      Jimmy took himself to Warley Hospital in Brentwood, where he’d been twice before.
      This time would be “third time lucky”.
      “There was a small pub on the corner,” Irene said. “He went there and had his last pint of beer. 
      “And that was it. He stopped.”
      Remarrying in 2017
      Although Jimmy and Irene lived together ever since, they only remarried in 2017.
      Their wedding was a small ceremony in their village church.
      “Oh, it was a lovely day,” Irene said. 
      But she added how they always felt like they’d never split up, and still celebrated their anniversary every year throughout their marriage.
      She said, earlier this year, “We’ve been together 63 years now and we always considered ourselves married, even when we weren’t. 
      “We still went out for our anniversary.”
      ‘I’ve lost my best mate’
      Jimmy suffered a minor stroke in 2012, and then a more major one in 2016, which left him partially incapacitated.
      Before he died, Irene said: “He was so charismatic, so funny. Now he’s a shell of the man he was. After his last stroke, I didn’t think he’d make it.
      “And in a way I think it would have been better if he’d gone.
      “This is no life for him. 
      “He doesn’t want to be here. He says: ‘Get me something so I can go.’ And I tell him: ‘You’ll have us both in jail.’ 
      “Sometimes I wish he could just slip away peacefully. I know that’s what he wants.”
      The former footballer had constant care around the clock, and Irene never left his side for more than an hour.
      “Although many people have worse lives, as a carer you feel a bit trapped,” she confessed. “My eldest daughter Lynn lives nearby and she’s in my bubble, so she calls round quite a bit. 
      “But I can’t leave Jim for more than an hour.
      “Sometimes we have a tiff and I say: ‘That’s it. You’re going into a home!’ But I don’t mean it, of course. I’d never, ever do that. 
      “I’ve promised the children I won’t, too. I’d never want that for Jim.”
      “We’ve always adored each other, without a doubt,” she finished. “I never wanted anyone else. But I look at him now and think he’s not the man he was.
      “I’ve lost my best mate. There was no one like him.”
      Irene has said she feels like she’s “lost her best mate”Credit: Getty – Contributor
      Jimmy and Irene with their daughter, MitziCredit: Rex
      Jimmy and Irene with their youngest son, AndrewCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
      Jimmy with his eldest daughter, LynnCredit: Rex
      Jimmy Greaves dead at 81: Tributes paid to Tottenham and England legend after dementia battle More

    • 225 Shares159 Views

      in Motorsport

      Inside Michael Schumacher’s marriage, his wife Corinna’s incredible sacrifices – and reason why she first fell for him

      by

      TO the outside world Michael Schumacher was the confident clean-shaven superstar of Formula One who won seven World Championships – but to his wife of 26 years Corinna, he was so much more. On the track, he was known for his unshakeable nerves and utter precision as he hurtled around the track at breakneck speeds.
      Michael Schumacher with his wife Corinna on their wedding day in 1995Credit: Netflix
      But few know the seven-time world champion like his wife CorinnaCredit: EPA
      Supporting him from the sidelines was Corinna, who was introduced to the star by a mutual friend in 1991 and four years later they married.
      She knew a different side to the motor racing legend – a true gentleman and family man who loved nothing more than to party and throw friends into the swimming pool.
      “He’s simply the most lovable person I’ve ever met,” says Corinna, who has two children Mick and Gina-Maria, with Michael.
      Family breaks their silence
      In the new documentary Schumacher, which is released on Netflix tomorrow, she gave her first in-depth interview since Michael’s horror skiing accident in 2013. 
      Mystery has surrounded her husband’s condition since he fell and hit his head on a rock while crossing an unsecured off-piste area in the French Alps in 2013. 
      It’s known that Michael suffered brain damage as a result of the fall and that he is “different” in the wake of his injuries but until now little else has been said. 
      Giving a rare insight into their lives, Corinna said: “No matter what happens, I’m going to do everything I can. We’re all going to do that.

      “We do everything we can to make Michael better and make sure he’s comfortable and just to make him feel like he’s with his family and to continue our bond.”
      In a heartbreaking admission, Corinna revealed her husband nearly decided against taking to the slopes on the day of his accident.
      She recalled: “Shortly before it happened in Méribel, he said to me, ‘The snow isn’t optimal. We could fly to Dubai and go skydiving there.” 
      Corinna said: “I never blamed God… It was just really bad luck, all the bad luck anyone could ever have in their life.”
      She was by Michael’s side from the early days when he was just a fledgling star with unimaginable pressure on his shoulders, after being tipped as one of F1’s greatest racers.
      I never once thought, ‘He’s a terrific racing driver at the start of a dazzling career.’ No one could have guessed that would happenCorinna Schumacher
      It was the small moments that attracted Corinna to him, including when she cooked a meal in celebration of his birthday and he was “the only one” to help her clean the dishes.  
      “I thought, ‘That’s a proper bloke,” she recalled. “And yes, he was really funny and that’s what I saw in him.
      “I fell in love with him simply because he was a wonderful person. I just sensed that he was something special to me. 
      “I never once thought, ‘He’s a terrific racing driver at the start of a dazzling career.’ No one could have guessed that would happen.” 
      Penniless go-karter to F1 god
      Michael likely never imagined it either. It was his father Rolf, a builder who later ran a go-kart track, who set him on the path to racing superstardom.
      At four years old, he tested pedal karts with motorcycle motors that had been made by his dad and two years later won his first club go-kart championship.
      But taking to the tracks was no easy feat for young Michael because he had little money behind him and was forced to “use the cheapest equipment”.
      He recalled: “I fished discarded tyres out of the bin, put them on my go-kart and won races with them. 
      “I was always glad to have won with the worst and not the best equipment. Having to really fight like that was an additional motivation for me.”
      At around 13, Michael competed against future rival Mika Häkkinen for the first time, who noted he was “difficult to race against”  because he “knew every corner”. 
      I fished discarded tyres out of the bin, put them on my go-kart and won races with themMichael Schumacher
      In 1988, watching in the crowd was Willi Weber, Michael’s future manager, who asked him to join his team and test F3 cars but the teen was uncertain.  
      “Of course, money was an issue,” Weber said. “Michael Schumacher had nothing at that time, not even 500 marks (around £218) to finance a season, which even then cost six hundred to seven hundred thousand”.
      Later that evening, he was delighted to be told he would earn 2,000 marks – around £873 – a month as part of a five-year contract.  
      Michael quickly rose through the ranks and was soon considered a threat to legendary F1 figure Ayrton Senna, who died after a crash in 1994. 
      He joined Ferrari two years later – which was thought to be the ultimate challenge because they had not won the Drivers’ Championship since 1979.
      Michael worked tirelessly for the F1 team but struggled to achieve his first World Championship with them until 2000. 
      Dedicated wife Corinna was by his side for every race until their children were born and made great sacrifices to ensure her husband’s success.
      I spent half the night sitting on the toilet in order not to wake him up to let him have a good night’s sleepCorinna Schumacher
      She says: “It might have been in the bus or somewhere behind the scenes, but I was always on the road with him. 
      “We always enjoyed it together. It was a support to him just knowing he wasn’t alone.
      “Michael planned practically everything down to the minute – get up at such-and-such a time, 15 to 20 minutes in the bathroom. 
      “One night, when we were in Suzuka, I realised there was no way I was going to fall asleep.
      “So I spent half the night sitting on the toilet in order not to wake him up and to let him have a good night’s sleep. So I read my book there.”
      Wild parties, pool dips & bad karaoke
      Michael retired in 2006 but four years later was back racing for Mercedes GP, where he spent his final years on the track before being replaced by Lewis Hamilton.  
      Corinna beamed with immense pride while talking about her husband but most fondly remembered the man who very few got to see.
      She says: “Michael is very suspicious, he always has been during the initial period until he thinks he knows someone or can trust them.
      “But if he opens up then it’s 100 per cent really, all the way.” 
      Those entrusted with this unseen side got to know Michael as a fun family man who loved nothing more than to play practical jokes and laugh. 
      We all ended up in the pool every time… even at our weddingCorinna Schumacher
      She says: “At parties, he was the first to arrive and the last to leave. He loved it… We laughed so much and had so much real fun.
      “We all ended up in the pool every time, that was Michael’s thing. Even at our wedding people were thrown into the pool! 
      “He couldn’t sing well, it was one of the things he didn’t do so well. But he always sang ‘My Way’ because he knew the lyrics.”
      Michael’s former rival David Coulthard described him as an “uncompromising, fast and determined racer” but also a loveable “family man”.
      He recalled: “I’ve had many social evenings with him, drinking Bacardi coke and he would have a cigar.
      “It was a completely different person because of course at that point there was no competition. It was just sharing a nice social moment together.” 
      ‘Accident was bad luck’
      That side of Michael is now sadly a distant memory. 
      Despite several near-misses on the F1 track and his love of high-adrenaline sports like skydiving, Corinna could have never imagined him landing in harm’s way.
      She says: “I don’t know if it’s just a kind of protective wall that you put up yourself or if it’s because you’re in a way naive but it simply never occurred to me that anything could ever happen to Michael.”
      Now the Schumacher family can do nothing else but carry on and live their lives in the way Michael would have wanted.
      Michael always protected us. Now we are protecting MichaelCorinna Schumacher
      Corinna says: “‘Private is private,’ he always said. It’s very important to me that he can continue to enjoy his private life as much as possible. 
      “Michael always protected us. Now we are protecting Michael.
      “Of course I miss Michael every day but it’s not just me who misses him – the children, the family, his father, everyone who is close to him. 
      “Michael is here in a different way, but he’s here and I think that gives us strength.”
      Schumacher will be released on September 15 on Netflix.
      Michael Schumacher raced go-karts as a child and regularly took wheels out of the binCredit: Netflix
      Michael and Corinna danced a slow waltz at their wedding in 1995Credit: Netflix
      Wife Corinna made a number of sacrifices for her husband’s career including pulling all-nighters not to wake himCredit: Netflix
      Michael was an adrenaline junkie and is pictured here before a skydive with children Mick and Gina-Maria
      Schumacher and his wife Corinna in a passionate clinch back in 2003Credit: Corbis – Getty
      The F1 racing legend’s highs and low is being explored in the new Netflix doc SCHUMACHER
      Michael’s family briefly spoke out about his condition and explained why they wanted to keep his health struggles private
      Formula One star Mazepin blasts Mick Schumacher and says German team-mate ‘f****d last attempt’ in Dutch GP qualifying More