Freddie Flintoff and his wife Rachael Wools will soon celebrate their twentieth wedding anniversary after marrying in March 2005.

The cricket star and the former model met on a Birmingham cricket ground in 2002 while Rachael was promoting her events company Strawberry Promotions. Two decades later, they are as in love as ever. Rachael supported her husband after his near-fatal car crash while filming Top Gear in 2022.

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That same year, he was due to begin filming on tour in India on Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams, which is now finally being released on BBC One.

Take a look back at his relationship with Rachael, from their wedding to their three children to his life after recovery.

After three years of romance, Freddie and Rachael married at the Pavilion Road Hotel in Knightsbridge, London. Unearthed photos show the happy newlyweds posing for photos in a library area with crammed bookshelves, oversized paintings and a cosy log fire with white flowers on the mantelpiece.

The bride looked stunning in a strapless wedding dress with a fitted bodice, a structured princess-style meringue skirt and a statement train. She wore a cathedral-length veil tucked into her half-up hairstyle and thin bangs with honey-blonde highlights framed her face.

She snuggled up to her husband, who was wearing a classic black suit, white shirt and ebony tie and was beaming from ear to ear.

Although they looked like a picture-perfect couple, Rachael admitted that she wasn’t immediately attracted to Freddie. “He wasn’t really my type physically because I generally prefer dark men, but I thought he was the funniest guy I’d ever met.”

“He got my phone number and texted me a few times and we went out for a drink and I was really overwhelmed by his charm,” she told the Daily Mail in 2007.

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They had four children: Holly, Corey, Rocky and Preston. After Freddie was flown to hospital by helicopter following his near-fatal accident at the Dunsfold Park Aerodrome test track in Surrey, in which he suffered severe facial injuries and broken ribs, his son Corey told MailOnline: “He’s OK. I’m not entirely sure what happened but he’s lucky to be alive.”

“It was a pretty bad accident. It’s shocking. We’re all shocked but hope he’s OK.”

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Two years later, Freddie spoke about his recovery. When asked if he was “better” after the accident, Freddie admitted on his show: “Not really. To be honest, I’m not sure I’ll ever be better. I’m better than I was before. I don’t know what ‘completely better’ means.”

“I am what I am now. I am different than I was, and I will have to deal with that for the rest of my life. Better, no, different.”

Freddie’s confessions

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The cricketer also spoke openly about his problems with alcohol, depression and his eating disorder.

In his 2015 memoir, Second Innings: My Sporting Life, he praised his wife’s support: “Looking back, I feel sorry for my wife. She was always the worst part of me.”

“She didn’t come out and celebrate when we won – that was with the boys – and I came in at five in the morning, smelly and fallen over. When we lost, she saw me drowning my sorrows in the corner. And then your career is over.”

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He added: “It was two different worlds. My world – cricket, the dressing room and the boys. And then the family. Even when they travelled with me, it wasn’t always easy to bridge the gap. Also, I was craving my own space.

“You can understand why cricketers’ marriages break up. If the tables had been turned, I might have just said, ‘You know what, screw it.'”

He said he was “incredibly lucky” to have his understanding wife Rachael by his side.

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