Gary Lineker has opened up about his private life, revealing he "doesn't need" a romantic partner. The 65-year-old former Match of the Day host has been largely single since divorcing Danielle Bux ten years ago, aside from "the odd date" and a "few short relationships."
His professional life, however, has flourished since leaving the BBC in 2025. As co-owner of Goalhanger, identified as Britain's fastest-growing business by the Sunday Times, his company is worth £100 million and produces four of Spotify's current top nine podcasts, including his own The Rest is Football show. He is also hosting The Box, a new game show on ITV starting Saturday night (September 5).
Lineker on being single
In an interview with The Observer, Lineker said: "I've become very comfortable being unanswerable to anyone. Call that selfish if you want I don't feel I need someone in my life."
He added: "I have a lot of female friends who I get on really well with, so that's satisfying because I love female company. But it's the other bit that comes with it. I'm quite happy to be without that."
In 2019, he described himself as "unbelievably fussy" and confessed he's "not massively into sex," attributing his diminished interest in intimacy to lower testosterone levels in his advanced years.
Past marriages and relationships
Lineker has been married twice. He has four sons—George, Harry, Tobias, and Angus—with his first wife, Michelle Cockayne, whom he married in 1986 before divorcing two decades later. In 2007, he began a relationship with Bux, who was 20 years his junior. They married in Italy in 2009, but their marriage lasted just six years before they announced their separation in early 2016.
Despite the divorce, Lineker has said he and Bux, now 47, remain close. In 2019, he said: "Danielle and I are best mates we still speak three times a day we text all the time. When she comes to London she stays with me and when I go to LA I see her."
Close friendship with ex-wife
Lineker has also detailed how Bux's current husband, American entertainment lawyer Nate Greenwald, is unbothered by their friendship. "He's not got a jealous bone in his body," Lineker told the Radio Times in 2018. "We get on really well. We go out for dinner when I'm in LA."
He has previously defended his bachelor lifestyle, telling The Times in 2023: "I am still single. I am not going down that route! I have been there before and tried to explain myself and I got slaughtered by my friends."
Reflecting on his contentment, he said three years ago: "I like being on my own. I know it sounds a bit mad." He added: "I have lots of company. I've got lots of friends and I've also got my boys who come around a lot and I cook for them. I don't feel lonely. I have the odd date here and there, but nothing, not in terms of a long relationship."
