Gary Lineker snubs BBC Sports Personality of the Year for a really cosy candlelit ‘Christmas tipple’ along with his ex-wife Danielle Bux

Gary Lineker skipped the 2024 BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony on Tuesday night for a cosy dinner with his ex-wife Danielle Bux.

Whilst his colleagues were gathering in MediaCityUK, Salford, the football pundit, 64, enjoyed a candlelit dinner and drinks with Danielle, eight years after their split.

Danielle, 45, who has remained close friends with her ex after their seven year marriage, shared Instagram photos of the night at Dorian Restaurant in Notting Hill.

Showing off their table set with salad and wine, the Welsh actress tagged Gary and wrote ‘Christmas tipple’ before sharing a cosy selfie of the two waiting for their night tube home.

It was announced in November that Gary was stepping down from hosting SPOTY after 23 years. His usual co-hosts Clare Balding, Gabby Logan and Alex Scott were all back for the 2024 ceremony.

The BBC pundit is also leaving Match of the Day at the end of the season, following 25 years as the show’s star. 

Gary has remained close to his ex-wife Danielle since their divorce, previously revealing how the Welsh beauty, who moved to Los Angeles after their split, stays with him whenever she returns to London. 

Danielle and Gary split over her desire to have children, while he was comfortable with his four sons, George, 32, Harry, 30, Tobias, 28 and Angus, 26. Danielle had daughter Ella, 22, from a previous relationship.

He previously told the Times: ‘Obviously I would have done, but she said, ‘It’s not fair on you’. Then I said, ‘Well, I’d feel terrible if I stop you doing it’.

Speaking on his friend Gaby Logan’s podcast The Mid-Point last year, Gary explained further: ‘It was purely down to children.

‘She already had a daughter, I had four boys, [but] then her body clock started ticking and she had the urge’.

‘In the end, we decided “Well, why don’t we just stay mates?”,’ he continued, adding that he wanted to leave her free to find someone who was also interested in having a baby.

‘She didn’t want me to do something that I didn’t really want, deep down – and I didn’t want to stop her from doing something that she really wanted, deep down, so we just came to a logical and sensible [split]’.

Danielle went on to marry Nate Greenwald, an American entertainment lawyer in 2019 two years after they welcomed their daughter Romy, seven. 

In 2019, Gary revealed that he speaks to Danielle three times a day, as he insisted they are still ‘best mates’. 

Admitting his bond with his wife is ‘unusual’, he told Mirror: ‘Danielle and I are best mates, we still speak three times a day, we text all the time.’

He added: ‘When she comes to London she stays with me, and when I go to Los Angeles I see her.’ 

Gary was first married Michelle Cockayne in 1986, during which time they welcomed four sons together.

They split after a 20-year marriage and three years later, in 2009, Gary married Danielle, who is 19 years his junior.

Despite Danielle remarrying, Gary has remained single since their divorce.

Back in 2021, he claimed to be ‘unbothered’ about intimacy – admitting he was at an age where his testosterone levels had dropped.

In an interview with The Times, Gary said: ‘I like being on my own… I don’t feel lonely. I have the odd date here and there, but nothing… 

‘Not in terms of a long relationship. I’ve been married most of my adult life. Two really good marriages, I’m friends with both.’  

‘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.’

Despite previously insisting he was remaining single, last month Gary was seen enjoying a night out at the popular Dorian restaurant with Leila Bartell, a friend of Johnny Depp’s former wife, Amber Heard.

The former England striker is rarely seen out with women but spent an evening with Leila, thought to be in her mid-40s, and mutual friend Jemima Khan in May.

Rumours were swirling then that Ms Khan and Lineker may have become an item. A year earlier, he attended her 50th birthday at her country estate, Kiddington Hall in Oxfordshire.