Jamie and Jools Oliver have reflected on 25 years together and lifted the lid on the secret to a happy marriage.
The couple, who married in 2000 and share five children, are gracing the cover of the Good Housekeeping UK’s Christmas cover this year.
Keeping on theme, Jools, 50, wears an array of glam red ensembles – including a chic maroon satin suit.
Elsewhere Jools cosied up to her husband, also 50, in a red silk boat-neck gown as well as a one-shoulder bow design red midi-dress.
During the chat, Jamie gushed over his wife as he admitted ‘opposites attract’ and said he feels ‘very blessed’ to have been married for 25 years.
Jamie told Good Housekeeping UK: ‘I wouldn’t be the first to say opposites attract. We get on very well and we genuinely like each other, but we’re also very different.
Jamie and Jools Oliver have reflected on 25 years together and lifted the lid on the secret to a happy marriage to Good Housekeeping UK
The couple, who married in 2000 and share five children, are gracing the cover of the Good Housekeeping UK’s Christmas cover this year
‘That can create a certain tension, but it also seems to work, and I feel very blessed to have had 25 years.’
Elsewhere, Jools shared a glimpse into what an Oliver family Christmas looks like ahead of the festive season.
Jamie and Jools share daughters Poppy, 23, Daisy, 22, and Petal, 16, and sons Buddy, 14, and River, eight.
Jools said: ‘Some years, we’ve done marshmallows around the fire or pork pies and picky plates on Christmas Eve with family and friends, but then it’s been quite nice to keep Christmas Day just for us. Jamie works so hard and it’s nice just to keep it small and really chilled.
‘We still get woken about 5am. And it’s really unpopular but we normally have lunch by 1pm.
‘I think we’ve been having babies for so long that we’re used to being up super early.’
She added: ‘What’s great about River [their youngest] is that he reminds the others about the magic of childhood.
‘He draws it out of the older ones and they’ve got no choice really but to go along with it, because they all adore him.’
Jools cosied up to her husband, also 50, in a red silk boat-neck gown as well as a one-shoulder bow design red midi-dress
Keeping on theme, Jools, 50, wears an array of glam red ensembles – including a chic maroon satin suit
During the chat, Jamie gushed over his wife as he admitted ‘opposites attract’ and said he feels ‘very blessed’ to have been married for 25 years
Jamie told Good Housekeeping UK : ‘I wouldn’t be the first to say opposites attract. We get on very well and we genuinely like each other, but we’re also very different’
It comes after Jamie revealed wife Jools is neurodivergent – three months after confirming that some of the couple’s five children have also been diagnosed.
The celebrity chef spoke candidly about his former model wife to Davina McCall on her podcast Begin Again and admitted Jools’ condition can make life ‘really challenging’.
Jamie told Davina: ‘She’s quite in the background and she’s done that on purpose. She’s definitely the rock.
‘She’s got incredible instinct, she’s incredibly kind, very funny. I love her to bits. I can’t really talk for her but she has neurodiversities that make her life really interesting and really challenging.
‘Of course there’s positives, but there’s loads of things that, you know – she makes us the way that we are. And I’m very grateful for Jools… and an amazing mum.’
Neurodivergent is a term that describes people whose brains function differently, encompassing conditions like autism, ADHD, and dyslexia.
Jamie married Jools in 2000 and the couple renewed their wedding vows in 2023 in the Maldives with their children present.
The celebrity chef spoke candidly about his wife to Davina McCall on her podcast Begin Again (pictured with their kids in 2023)
Jamie married Jools in 2000 and the couple renewed their wedding vows in 2023 in the Maldives with their children present (pictured in 2001)
Speaking about how he met his wife, Jamie said he was just 18 years old.
He gushed: ‘She was just very beautiful and pure and just, gorgeous and natural, and quite quirky, quite clumsy.
‘Very cute, and she was always like the odd dresser, she wore really cool clothes, like bonkers stuff.’
Recalling his dates with the former model, Jamie joked how she would always leave men speechless with her looks.
He said: ‘I remember going on dates with her and we’d go past building estates with all the geezers up the scaffolding and they’d just look at her and go “oh yeah” these long legs and these big boobs and all they could say was “fashion, fashion!” and I was like “is that the best you can do” she just baffled them.’
