Gary Lineker has found himself front and centre of intense media coverage and popular opinion like never before as an impartiality row erupted at the BBC.
While viewers are more used to seeing ex-England footballer Lineker, 62, present Premier League highlights on Match of the Day, they got a tiny glimpse of the presenter's off-camera life thanks to news channels and newspapers covering the latest twist and turn in the row, often featuring photos or clips of Lineker leaving his London home with his adorable dog as the story rolled on.
The BBC has now apologised after an impartiality row over a tweet by Lineker ended with the presenter reinstated as the host of Match of the Day. Director-General Tim Davie said he recognised "the potential confusion caused by the grey areas of the BBC's social media guidance" following a "difficult period for staff, contributors, presenters, and most importantly, our audiences".
Lineker thanked his fellow presenters and pundits for their "remarkable show of solidarity" after a number pulled out of BBC shows at the weekend when the former England striker was told to step back from hosting the show. The 62-year-old was taken off air for a tweet comparing the language used to launch a new Government asylum seeker policy to that of 1930s Germany.
Confirming Lineker would return to Match of the Day on Saturday, Mr Davie said the presenter "will abide by the editorial guidelines" until a review of the BBC's social media policy is complete.
Lineker declined to comment further or answer any questions outside his south-west London home on Monday.
Gary Lineker's £4million home
BBC presenter Lineker, who earned between £1,350,000 and £1,354,999 in the last financial year (2021/2022), is reported to live in a £4million London mansion in Barnes, a south London district in the borough of Richmond upon Thames. Visit London describes Barnes as a "small but perfectly formed Thames-side village in London, great for a stroll whilst discovering excellent local restaurants and boutiques, or simply relaxing by the river."
During the Covid pandemic, he modified one of his sitting rooms and turned it into a makeshift production studio, and has also shared snaps of his sons relaxing in a luxurious cinema room. Lineker is also the proud owner of a smart garden which houses a wooden pergola, fire pit, and clipped evergreen bushes. Subscribe here to the Don't Take Me Home newsletter for updates on Wales' national football teams
Gary Lineker's cute rescue dog
Lineker introduced rescue dog Filbert to his family in April 2022, having permanently rescued him from the streets of Los Angeles. The pooch is named after Leicester City's former stadium Filbert Street, which they left in 2002, and appears to be a Siberian Husky cross.
Lineker wrote on Instagram at the time: "Meet Filbert, the new and already much loved member of the Lineker family. He’s a rescue from the streets of LA. Met him through his foster parent and friend Reggie, @r_breakspear on a recent holiday, and it was love at first sight. I’ve been dogless for far too long."
Before that, Lineker was without a furry companion since November 2019, when his 11-year-old Labrador Snoop died.
However, the cute canine has been known to get up to mischief. While holidaying in Ibiza, a mix-up in communications with Lineker's son George meant Filbert was accidentally left home alone for a few hours, leading to some damage around the house. Ex-Leicester forward Lineker said of the damage: "Five sets of curtains. Five. One in the front room, two in the bedroom, one in the main room downstairs and one in the guest bedroom.”
Marriage and divorce
Lineker has been married and divorced twice.
In 1986, he married teenage sweetheart Michelle Cockayne, who he has four sons with: George, Harry, Tobias and Angus. The couple split in 2006 on amicable terms.
His second marriage was to Welsh model Danielle Bux, who he married in 2009. They were together for seven years before they got divorced in 2016. Bux was 30 when they married, while Lineker was 48. They had initially met on a blind date arranged by a mutual friend. They have since maintained a close relationship, which you can read more about here.
Early in 2022, Lineker said he was happy as a singleton.
“I’m happy being single now," he told The Daily Star. "It’s nice to be unanswerable in a slightly selfish way and I’m not actively seeking a partner right now. I had two wonderful marriages and now I’m single and I’m in a good place, but that might change. I might need someone to change my nappies. Who knows?"
Four Lineker sons
Lineker's four sons are all now grown-up, and none have followed their famous dad's footsteps into football. According to Hello magazine, George is co-founder of Your Business Number, which provides business numbers to entrepreneurs, Harry is a producer, Angus is a business development manager, and Tobias is a DJ.
George told The Sunday Mirror of the BBC impartiality row: "This week has been very overwhelming, and I do think it has been hurtful for Dad. But all the support he has received has made him feel a lot better and I know he has no regrets.
"After it all kicked off, me and my brothers messaged him saying, 'we’re proud of you', and he replied, 'cheers boys', with a thumbs up emoji. Later he told us that he’d been so overwhelmed by the support. He wrote, 'Shearer and Wrighty backing down made me emotional, it means a lot to me'. I think he did cry when he found out about that. The support has been a positive thing to come out of this."
Family heartache
Lineker's eldest son George was seriously ill as a baby, and was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia, a rare form of blood cancer, at just two months old. It is reported that he was given just a 10-20% chance of survival
He spent seven of the first nine months of his life at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, with his dad going on to front a nationwide campaign to encourage people to donate blood.
Former Barcelona striker Lineker has since revealed that while his son was in remission, even all the way up to the age of 20, he feared that the disease could return.
While kickstarting the 'FINISH IT' campaign in 2022, an initiative seeking to raise £10million for a new National Children's Blood Cancer Trials Network, the BBC presenter said: "We feel indebted to charities that raise money to get research that enabled George to have the life he has had because without that amount of research and people putting money in that research he wouldn’t be in that position today. It always gets to me, sitting there watching a parent sitting next to their child knowing it’s touch-and-go, it’s hard. But you smile, it’s lovely to take George in, he’s 30 years old and he was given very, very little chance and here he is."
Gary Lineker's well-known brother Wayne
Many a clubber in Ibiza will have come across Gary's older brother Wayne Lineker, who is the owner of the famous O Beach club. The footballers' go-to clubbing destination is part of Wayne Lineker's reported £30m nightclub empire.
He has appeared on several reality TV shows, including Celebs Go Dating.
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