The former cricketer has four children with wife Rachel
Fans were delighted this weekend when Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff was seen for the first time in public getting back to work after the horrific crash he was involved in while filming for Top Gear in December. The former cricketer suffered facial injuries and broken ribs in the accident at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey, where he had been driving an open-topped car at 130mph.
After the crash, the 45-year-old quit Top Gear and made a return to cricket in a consultancy role, and on Friday he was pictured leading the England team in field drills ahead of their match against New Zealand.
Freddie's family reportedly begged him to bow out of his Top Gear role after the accident, during which he was air-lifted to hospital. The Sun said: "As a loving husband and dad he understands the fear his family feel about what's happened, knowing that he could have been killed."
Meanwhile, speaking of the crash Freddie's teenage son Corey told the Mail Online: "He's OK. I'm not too sure what happened but he is lucky to be alive. It was a pretty nasty crash. It is shocking. We are all shocked but just hope he's going to be OK."
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The sportsman and presenter has of course been supported through his recovery and return to health by his family. Want to know more about them? Here's what we know...
Freddie and his wife have been married for over 15 years
Freddie Flintoff's wife
Freddie, 45, and his wife Rachael Wools married in March 2005 and have been the picture of marital bliss since. Rachael, 43, is a former model and ran her own successful events company Strawberry Promotions from the age of 19 up until 2006. The happy couple met in 2002 at a cricket ground in Birmingham while Rachael was promoting her business. Three years later, the pair tied the knot and the rest, they say, is history!
The pair met in 2002 and married in 2005
The TV star has been open in recent years about his battle with depression, and even revealed his wife's reaction to his diagnosis. During his appearance on the Australian version of in 2015, the former cricketer said: "I think in some ways she was quite relieved.
"I think it's because she saw me as vulnerable as well. I spent a lot of time putting up a barrier playing sport and you tend to play up to that character all of the time, and in the end it got exhausting. I couldn't do it any longer."
Freddie Flintoff's children
Freddie and Rachael have four children together. Their first baby was a daughter, Holly, born in 2004. Shortly after they welcomed Corey, and then another son, Rocky, in 2008. In April 2020, the pair then announced that they had welcomed their fourth child, another boy, the previous Christmas. Freddie even revealed that they named their youngest Preston in tribute to the Lancashire city that Freddie grew up in.
Freddie Flintoff and wife Rachael welcomed their fourth son in December 2019
At the time he told talkSPORT: "Little Preston was born at Christmas - it is the first time I've actually spoken about it. But yeah, we have got another baby and it has been nice spending time with him." Freddie first announced his wife's pregnancy in October after Rachael revealed her bump at the Attitude Awards.
The couple's baby may have come as a welcomed surprise after the host previously admitted that he didn't think he and Rachael would have any more children after welcoming Rocky. In 2016, he told The Sun: "We thought about it. I originally wanted five but you have three and that felt like enough. I couldn't go back to the nappy stage now."
What has Freddie Flintoff said about his family in the past?
Freddie usually likes to keep his family life away from the spotlight, however the former England Cricketer did reveal that becoming a father made him a better sportsman. Just one year after his daughter Holly was born in 2004, Freddie made history with the 2005 Ashes victory over Australia. "My career at the time, I started doing really well," he told the First Time Dads podcast. "Everyone said that couldn't happen, but it put everything into perspective. I actually got better."
View post on InstagramFreddie with his cricket club, aged 11
He added: "You start thinking, 'You know what? I'm dressed in whites, we're chucking a ball around and trying to hit it.' Although it WAS the most important thing, it now isn't. It frees you up, especially with batting. I started scoring a lot of runs because I wasn't bothered about getting out."
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