Annabel Croft tells how much she is looking forward to becoming a grandmother this year in an exclusive interview with HELLO! The tennis pundit and Strictly Come Dancing star, who will be part of the BBC’s commentary team when the Wimbledon championships start next week (30 June), is also preparing to see her son get this summer – two joyful family events following the death of Annabel’s husband Mel Coleman two years ago.
While Annabel’s son Charlie, 29, will marry Boodles heiress Honour Wainwright in August, daughter, Amber, 31, is due to give birth to her first child with husband Hector in September, shortly before Annabel embarks on her first ever theatre speaking tour. Meanwhile her younger daughter Lily, 27, lives in Dubai with her partner of five years, Felix.
“It’s given us something so positive to look forward to,” she says Annabel. “I feel really fortunate that my children have the most wonderful partners. We all love being in each other’s company.
“I’m really excited to become a grandmother. When you have children yourself, it’s such a whirlwind and you spend your life sort of treading water, and you don’t enjoy the good bits. But now I’m looking forward to just enjoying every second.
“I love babies. They’re so full of personality, and because everything is new to them they re-engage you with the world in a very simplistic way. When you deal with what we’ve dealt with as a family, you start to live in the moment, and that’s our motto.”
Naturally, Annabel feels Mel’s absence all the more acutely as she navigates these major life events and milestones without him. The investment banker and yachtsman died from sepsis in May 2023, age 60, a few weeks before their 30th wedding anniversary and just four months after being diagnosed with incurable colon cancer.
© Getty Images“It’s been horrendous. Mel was my rock. He gave me huge amounts of confidence. I don’t think I’d be who I am today without him, that’s for sure. And he was so funny; his humour is what I miss the most.”
However, she takes comfort from a sense that her late husband is still around her. On a recent photoshoot one of the crew, a medium, remarked on an unusual light in the images, and interpreted it as Mel’s energy. A photographer friend of Annabel’s agreed.
© PA Images via Getty Images“He said you can see energy in photos and that he’d never seen light like that before. He told me: ‘That’s an angel’,” she says. “And then when I came back from Paris, there was a white feather on the staircase. We find them all the time; sometimes they’re tucked into my clothes. So it’s quite comforting to hear that and you do try and hang on to those things.”
As for finding love again, she says: “I don’t even consider it. It’s not something I’m thinking about at all. I’m not in that headspace – it’s way too soon.”
© BBC“The tour will give me something other than going back to an empty house in that wintery period. I’m somebody who’s always thought: ‘When a door opens, go and explore.’ It’s very easy to say no but at my age, and with everything that’s happened, I’m not afraid to fail. I just think: ‘Let’s go and have a go and see what comes of it.’”
In the meantime, she continues to keep herself busy, seek new adventures and appreciate the small, precious things in life. “I’m still figuring things out,” she says. “I can’t say: ‘Oh, life’s wonderful’, but I just try and stay busy. Nothing will ever fill the void, but I just try to stay positive.”
For the full interview pick up a copy of this week’s Hello! Magazine.
For tickets for Annabel’s speaking tour From Tennis Balls to Glitter Balls go to annabelcroft.com
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