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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Frances Kindon

Jamie Oliver and Jools' refreshing marriage honesty - phone checking, trust and bickering

Twenty two years ago today, Jamie Oliver and his model girlfriend Juliette Norton became man and wife at a picture-perfect ceremony in Essex.

Since then, Jamie has arguably become the biggest TV chef in the world, while his wife Jools has raised an impressive brood of five children at their too-cool £6million country mansion.

Neither expected this is what their future would look like when they met as teenagers growing up in Essex.

Jamie had been harbouring a huge crush on Jools, once admitting he 'dreamed of marrying' her long before they got together.

He finally got his chance on a double date to the cinema in 1991, but crashed his souped-up car on the way.

"I had my Fiesta with lowered suspension and a sound system," he told Alan Carr's Chatty Man.

"We were driving there that night and then I went smashing into the back of another car. She felt sorry for me. She thought, 'The way he drives, he needs support in life."

Jamie and Jools Oliver tied the knot at All Saints Church in Rickling, Essex, on June 24, 2000 (Press Association)

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Despite his questionable driving skills, Jools fell hard and fast and when her modelling took her to Japan for three months, Jamie, then 17, bombarded her with letters and faxes which she still has to this day.

When she returned they became inseparable, renting a tiny flat in Hammersmith while Jamie worked in the kitchen at the famous River Cafe.

A life-changing job

It was there that TV producers got their first sight of Jamie in a 1997 documentary about the eatery.

He'd only come in to cover sickness but instantly attracted the attention of big wigs, receiving seven offers the next day.

The one he went with was The Naked Chef. Bosses wanted it to be filmed in his home, but that was too small.

So they rented him a bigger, cooler apartment in East London which he and Jools filled with their mates.

Jamie and Jools pictured looking tanned and loved-up on their very first holiday (joolsoliver/Instagram)

The show debuted in 1999 and with his Essex slang and affable grin, Jamie was an instant hit.

With his star on the ascendant, the couple, then 25, tied the knot in 2000 at All Saints Church in Rickling, Essex.

Like the rock-star chef he was fast becoming, Jamie wore a pale blue Paul Smith suit with snakeskin brogues while Jools stunned in a strapless ivory Neil Cunningham gown.

Their first dance to Dusty Springfield's I Only Want To Be With You was a disaster thanks to Jamie's two left feet, but Jools 'threw him off' and went solo.

"I was in my element," she would later recall.

Different ambitions

Over the years Jools has been unfairly criticised for not having her own career, but she openly admits her dream was to have, "babies, baking and roses around the door".

"I never felt the need to validate myself. I don’t mind being a mum, I don’t mind being seen as Jamie’s wife," she told Red magazine.

Jools loves being a stay-at-home mum to her brood (Instagram)

For the ultra-ambitious Jamie, his wife's perceived lack of ambition was a constant source of confusion for him.

"Jools is interesting cos she's not like me at all. She hasn't got a mission, she just wants to be married to someone she loves and have a family and that's it, end of story," he once said.

"It's odd for me, because I'll go, what do you want to do? Then do that, I'll help you!

"It baffled me for ages, I almost felt she had a part of her life missing, then I thought, it's sweet and quite refreshing, especially in London."

With books, cooking shows and international campaigns to overhaul nutrition the millions were rolling in and in the mid 2000s they bought two adjoining villas in the glitzy London suburb of Primrose Hill and knocked them through to create a 10-bedroom mega mansion.

But with Jools shouldering the bulk of the parenting and spending weeks on end away from her husband, Jamie's extreme work schedule began to cause friction.

Fights over work

He had vowed to quit public life within three years back in 2005, but by 2011 he was still just a 'weekend dad' and the infamous workaholic admitted their marriage was in a 'rut'.

Both have been candid about the trials of marriage (Dave Benett/Getty Images)

"We love each other to bits, but I don’t think marriage is easy," he told the Mail of Sunday, admitting he'd given more time to journalists than his own wife.

"She doesn’t necessarily get everything I do. She’s like, 'Why do you care? If you’re not going over there and doing it for money, why do you care?'

"I'm not a worrier but she is a worrier. I don’t need that and she doesn’t need that, so we’re in a bit of a rut."

Jools has also opened up about tension, admitting, “We bicker all the time. A lot of my friends can’t believe how much.

“He drives me mad because he never listens to me and I drive him mad because I can be horribly selfish.”

Trust issues

Then came Jools' controversial admission that she regularly checks Jamie's phone to make sure he's not cheating.

"Yeah, I’ll check his emails. I’ll check his Twitter, I’ll check his phone. Everything seems fine.

"He says I’m a jealous girl, but I think I’m fairly laid-back, considering," she told the Telegraph.

Indeed, in the Naked Chef days, Jamie admitted girls would literally throw themselves at him.

"It wasn't just young girls, it was medium and young girls and it was classic slightly rock star-esque: random knickers and bras getting thrown at you," he told the newspaper.

"When The Naked Chef kicked off it was a bit like a pop band. The memories of it were absolutely ballistically crazy."

Jools was once seen crying in Jamie's School Dinners over false claims that he'd played away, and on another occasion accused him of having an affair after he kept coming home with grass-stained knees.

Jamie later explained it had been 'courgette season' and he was down in the 'veg patch'.

In 2008 she got stick for daring to insist that she trusted her husband - but Jamie hit back at the haters, insisting she has every reason to.

"She got loads of s**t for saying that she didn't think her husband would s**g someone else. Isn't that terrible?" he told the Daily Mail.

"If I wanted to be an old tart, believe me, it wouldn't have been hard. I've had loads of opportunities, but I never have.

"I can still look at a woman and think, isn't she lovely, vivacious, beautiful, nice a**e, great t**s, whatever. I am only human.

"But I'm really happy with my lot, and I would be massively surprised if I even thought about going with anyone else."

The next chapter

Meanwhile, the few years may have proved to be some of the most stressful yet with Jamie's Italian restaurant chain going bust, leaving thousands out of work.

But it appears to have brought him and Jools closer together.

In the evenings he brings her cappuccinos and massages her feet.

Jamie and Jools have made their marriage a success (GC Images)

"In the old days, I used to get a cuddle, but now she’ll just poke me with her toes and I’ll have to give them a good pounding," he told Red Online of their cosy life.

"She then falls asleep, so when she wakes up I pretend to have been doing it the whole time."

He's hailed their marriage, "the best thing I ever did," and believes the key to their success is that they are perfectly matched.

"I think if you roughly pick the right person in the first place, you just have to be patient enough to know that if you’ve had a sh*tty week where you’re picking fights with each other, it will all be alright in the end,’ he said in 2014.

For Jools, although she can't get him to work less, she enjoys the upper hand in all other areas.

“He’ll kill me, but, yeah, he adores me. He’ll do whatever I say, really,” she joked.

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