Dubai, Feb 1(ANI): England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, the swashbuckling hero of the cricket field and star of famous booze-fuelled escapades has sobered up to be a doting father of three and a devoted husband to wife Rachael.
Flintoff, the man who made a new drinking phrase - to go out and get Freddied - is now clear-eyed and smartly suited.
"I'm not that wild lad any more. I was young, I made mistakes and it was never easy to phone Rachael explaining the latest stories about me and what I'd been up to," The Mirror quoted Flintoff, as saying.
Flintoff also admits that's it his responsibilities and especially his wife, pulled him back from the brink.
"I got wrapped up in all kinds of other nonsense off the field, that was my trouble, I didn't appreciate just what you had to do to maintain your place at the top, and it took Rachael to show me. She's very driven, a very focused kind of person, and I'm a laid-back kind of bloke, so it was always interesting to hear her telling me where I was going wrong," Flintoff said.
"In other words, she would give me a b******ing, and I would listen. I would appreciate what she was saying, honestly. I'll always reflect on those years, but I've done it. In the dressing room culture Freddie Flintoff was one of the lads. Now? He's a dad and a husband," he added.
Rachael says that Flintoff was never a bad person at heart, but he was just a bit of "a rascal, still growing up."
"I never had to threaten him, I never once said, 'Carry on like this and I'm off!', our relationship was never like that. I didn't have to hand out ultimatums, I simply let nature takes its course. He's now got three young children, and every morning at 7am they're jumping on his head, shouting for Daddy to get up and play," Rachael said.
"Andrew has changed over the years, that's obvious. There's less of the Freddie about him now. But actually he's always had a quiet, mellow side, it was just that the public never saw it," she added. (ANI)
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