Inside Michail Antonio’s household life together with divorce that left him ‘mentally drained’
Footballer and father-of-four Michail Antonio usually keeps his family life private but this year the striker opened up about the impact of his divorce while talking about the importance of therapy
Michail Antonio received an outpouring of love after news broke of his horror crash – especially from his ex-wife.
Debbie Whittle, mum to his four kids, rushed from Manchester to London to be by his bedside after he smashed his 208mph Ferrari into a tree last Saturday. The Hammers striker broke his leg and is lucky to be alive after the incident in Theydon Bois, Essex.
He has had surgery on a lower limb fracture and will be monitored in hospital over the coming days, West Ham United confirmed. And below, we take a closer look inside the family life of Antonio, who has been open about his personal struggles in recent times.
READ MORE: Michail Antonio’s 11-word response after horror car crash flung him into passenger seat
READ MORE: Michail Antonio has surgery as West Ham give health update after horror crash
Marriage
Debbie Whittle was described as Antonio’s best friend after they met in January 2011 when the attacker was on loan at Colchester United.
They formed a romantic relationship and wed in Staffordshire in July 2017 – just 20 minutes from St George’s Park.
Explaining the location, Antonio, 34, told The Mirror: “We planned it just in case I got a call-up for England. We really wanted to do the wedding in Italy. But we decided, just in case I received a call-up, that we’ll just do it there. And then I got injured.
“Obviously my missus Debbie was like, ‘So we could have got married in Italy’ But at least I was there for the honeymoon.”
The couple have four children together – Junior, Miles, Myla and a fourth – and the eldest three have featured on Antonio’s Instagram page where he has 400,000 followers.
Speaking on the Original Penguin X Campaign Against Living Miserably Under The Surface podcast, Antonio also credited Debbie with stopping him from quitting football.
This was after he revealed that he fantasised about getting injured to get away from the sport. Revealing what kept him playing, he said: “Me talking to my Mrs, my brother and my agent took a bit of the weight off me, enough for me to keep going to training and stuff like that…”
However, earlier this year, Antonio opened up on the High Performance Podcast about his divorce from Debbie. They split after she gave birth to their fourth child.
Speaking about his mixed emotions after winning the Europa Conference League with the Hammers, he said: “I was going through my divorce and stuff, and I honestly couldn’t get my head around it.
“After we won, the whole team went out, the gaffer (David Moyes) went out, got steaming, a couple of boys didn’t sleep for two days, just got drunk for two days.
“I was asleep on the coach and went back to the hotel. I was just mentally drained because of everything that was going on outside of my football and then I went back to the hotel and went to sleep while everyone was out partying.
“It wasn’t until probably December where I was in a better place where I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve won a European championship.’”
The footballer has relied on professional help throughout his career and he said: “I started therapy because I was really struggling. And how I grew up, it was never a thing. I thought therapy was for crazy people. But therapy changed my life.
“At first it was awkward, I’m not going to lie. You’re sat in the room, someone was there and goes, ‘How are you?’
“And your natural response is ‘Fine’. So, he’s like, ‘So why are you here?’ I was like, ‘To be honest, like, football, I’m struggling with football, I split up with my missus’.”
Fatherhood
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Antonio helped homeschool his children while Debbie gave birth to their fourth child.
And giving a rare insight into fatherhood, he told West Ham TV: “I’ve got three kids and my wife was pregnant until she had a baby on Sunday, so it was difficult home schooling and getting the time to go for runs and stuff, but knowing that the season was going to get back on, we just needed to get on top of it and ensure we stayed fit because we knew we weren’t going to have much time to get back into it.
“Aaaarghhhhh! I feel like home schooling should be a torture! If someone is doing something wrong, you should send kids to them and go ‘’teach these kids!’’ because, do you know what, it was the hardest thing I’ve done in my life and it made me emotional. Teachers, I appreciate you!”
He continued: “We sat down and they’d be looking at the work and you’d explain the work to them as simple as you can, and they would just sit there, look at the work and ask to go to the toilet.
“They’d go to the toilet, come back and ask for a drink. You’d go to the fridge, get them a drink, come back, they’d have a drink and they’d say they don’t understand.
“It was literally a circle of toilet, drink and ”I don’t understand” and you’d be there for five hours and just want to pull your hair out!
“They liked PE, obviously, and didn’t like English because of the comprehension and stuff you have to deal with! It brought be back, it brought me back.”
Hammer for life
West Ham United host Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League tonight – the first fixture since Antonio crashed his £250,000 supercar.
The club’s all-time Premier League top goalscorer will no doubt be on the minds of fans and players at The London Stadium during the match.
In their latest update, a spokesperson for the Hammers wrote: “West Ham United can confirm Michail Antonio has undergone surgery on a lower limb fracture following a road traffic accident on Saturday afternoon.
“Michail will continue to be monitored in hospital over the coming days.
“Everyone at the Club wishes Michail a speedy recovery and wishes to express its sincere gratitude to the football family at large for the overwhelming support shown since yesterday’s news, as well as extending a heartfelt thank you to the emergency services and first responders who attended to Michail in the immediate aftermath of the incident, and the medical team who continue to aid him in his recovery.
“The Club will provide further updates when appropriate.”
