Gary Lineker has admitted he wishes he had learned to cook before his marriage ended. The former England striker, single since splitting from Welsh model Danielle Bux in 2016, said he heavily relied on takeaways and solo restaurant trips following the divorce. Living alone now, Lineker has finally improved his cooking skills – a habit he says was long overdue.
“My one real regret in life is that I didn’t learn to cook earlier,” he told the Irish Independent. “After I became single nine years ago, I ate takeaways or sat in restaurants by myself.” It makes sense that Lineker, like many footballers, didn’t focus on cooking earlier. Players often start their careers in their teens, with grueling training schedules and club-provided meals leaving little need – or time – to practice cooking. At home, meals are usually handled by partners or family members and frequent travel during a professional career adds another layer of difficulty.
Since retiring from football, Lineker has built a prominent media career, which involves irregular schedules, travel and late-night obligations – all of which make consistent cooking challenging.
Even so, he has now embraced the kitchen, enjoying preparing meals for himself. He has learned dishes from Spain and Japan – cuisines he discovered while playing for Barcelona and Nagoya Grampus Eight in the early 1990s – and occasionally cooks for The Rest is Football podcast team when recording at home.
Lineker has been married twice. His first wife, Michelle Cockayne, is the mother of his four children. They married in 1986, during the peak of his football career and divorced in 2006.
In 2009, Lineker married Bux, but the marriage ended seven years later, reportedly due to Gary’s hesitation about having more children. When asked about dating again, he gave a blunt reply.
“No, can’t be arsed,” he said. “I’m so comfortable with how I live now: not answerable to anyone, not even the BBC. I’m very kind of stuck in my ways. I love women’s company. I’ve got a lot of female friends, genuinely just friends and I go out to dinner or cook for them, but I just can’t see myself dating again.
“I’ve had two amazing marriages and I’m still friendly with both exes. Danielle is probably my best friend and it’s much better that way than being married.”
Lineker’s 26-year career with the BBC ended suddenly earlier this year. In November 2024, he announced he would step down as Match of the Day host at the end of the 2024/25 season.
Although he intended to stay until the 2026 World Cup, the Leicester-born broadcaster was let go in May after sharing a social media post containing antisemitic imagery.
Now fully dedicated to his Goalhanger Podcasts company – which produces The Rest is History, The Rest is Politics, The Rest is Entertainment and The Rest is Football, in which he features – Lineker took a fresh swipe at his former employers by claiming he is pleased not to be “treading on eggshells” any longer.
“In hindsight, it [no longer working at the BBC] is great,” he said. “I don’t have to tread on eggshells any more. I get on with my life. I was going to finish on the World Cup on BBC so that’s the only thing. And actually, now I’m free to do what I want at the World Cup, which I think is great because we’ll do a podcast every day.”