Gary Speed widow Louise finds love again after tragic losses

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-Credit: (Image: PA)


Louise Speed, the widow of former footballer Gary Speed, has spoken out about finding love again with businessman Andrew Dickens.

Louise, 53, was left heartbroken after Gary's passing in 2011 and later married Quinton Bird in 2021, only to lose him to brain cancer six months later. However, she has now found happiness with Dickens, 45, a millionaire property developer from the same village in North Wales.

Dickens told The Mail: "Funnily enough we are from the same small village in North Wales and only lived a few hundred yards from each other. It was only in recent years that we became good friends." A family member confirmed the couple are living together in Wrexham, saying: "They are currently on holiday together in the South of France. They make a lovely couple.", reports the Mirror.

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Louise, who has also started a business with Dickens, was consumed by grief after Gary's death in 2011. The couple had been together since their first date at 15. She found love again with Bird 10 years later, and they married at a Cheshire castle in November 2021. Tragically, he passed away months later due to an aggressive brain tumour.

Louise opened up about how her pet bird had been a solace during the deep loneliness she felt after the tragic death of Gary, a former Leeds and Newcastle star.

Reflecting on the harrowing events back in 2021, she shared, "There were no answers and no Gary walking through the door again," adding, "Nothing was ever going to be right again. I was trudging through life, just functioning. If I could have been anybody else apart from me, for a long time, I would have happily taken it."

Ten years on, she notes the age-old saying that time heals, acknowledging, "But we are 10 years on now. It's a cliche but time is a healer even if it takes years. I have learned that life can be good again, can be great again."

Louise admits the profound change in herself since then: "I don't think you move on from something like this as the same person. I have become wiser. I am probably more confident than I was."

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She also candidly confessed to building emotional defences: "But I tend to wear a body of armour around me the whole time, if I am honest - so that I cannot be hurt again. I don't know if that body of armour has developed over time or whether I deliberately put it on at some point. All I know is that it is there now and it wasn't 10 years ago."

Ending on a note of self-preservation, Louise expressed, "I just want to protect myself from life. I don't want to feel or go through anything like that ever again. I hope that makes sense."