Peter Crouch – international football icon and podcast king – recalls the moment he realised there was more to this whole Father Christmas malarkey than he’d been led to believe.
‘I remember my dad falling down the stairs after a few drinks,’ he laughs, fresh from his podcast studio, waiting to get his train back home. ‘I found out that it might not be Santa that delivered my stocking when I heard him swearing at midnight.’
The reason we’re talking about Christmas in early November is the release of Peter’s seasonal extravaganza for Debenhams Delivery, the ad in which he stars alongside Judi Love and Olivia Attwood, who actually says, ‘Too soon? Never!’ in the ad.
He’s wearing Burton’s for Debenhams and apparently Boss Bottled Beyond – as he shouts, ‘Come on, Christmas! Let’s have it!’ – to advertise the fact that you can now order up all your presents and be ahead of the Christmas curve.
‘It feels like it gets earlier and earlier, doesn’t it?’ Peter tells Metro. ‘But if you’re going to start early, you’ve got to start with a bang, which I think we did. It’s very glittery. You wouldn’t believe the size of the whole production.’
As for the actual service he’s promoting, he reckons it’s absolutely something he would use himself.
‘Without a doubt! I hate shopping so if there’s one place where I can get every base covered, that’s definitely what I’d do… Until I get it totally wrong and then I nip out last minute on Christmas Eve.’ It’s a male tradition.
‘The hard one for me is Abbey [Clancy, his model wife], because I always get it wrong. She drops hints throughout the year and as long as I keep up to date, I’m covered. She’s good at hinting. But I’ve made mistakes in the past. I’ve had her in tears on Christmas Day by buying her the wrong thing.’
And they do Christmas properly in the Crouch/Clancy household, which includes four Santa-believing-age children. ‘We love it,’ says Peter. ‘We’re very much the all-matching-pyjama, Christmas-tree vibe kind of family.’ A bit of Home Alone, Gavin & Stacey, Only Fools and Horses Christmas Special.
‘Don’t get me wrong, going to the pub on Christmas morning has been known, especially when my dad’s over. And I’m looking after him, right?’ he justifies. ‘I’m hosting! So we would go to the pub and Abbey’s been in charge of the cooking… We went for a little bit too long one year and I remember being told in no uncertain terms not to do that again.’
One of the reasons Christmas is such a big deal for Peter now is that, as a football player, this was always the busiest part of the year.
‘You train on Christmas Day and play on Boxing Day. Play the 28th, play the first. So I never really celebrated Christmas until I retired and thankfully my kids are still young enough for me to be able to share it with them. So I let myself loose and let myself eat what I like and drink what I like. It’s like I’m living my life backwards.’
Best Christmas present he ever got? ‘The England shell suit from the 1990 World Cup in Italy, the one Paul Gascoigne wore. I was nine years old.’
It’s funny that since that retirement, it’s almost like Peter’s career has taken off in a whole new direction with the success of his two podcasts, the football-centric That Peter Crouch Podcast, and the one he does with Abbey called The Therapy Crouch. ‘I didn’t realise how big it would go,’ he says.
‘It’s taken us to some amazing places. Kensington Palace to interview Prince William. That is a big deal, right? I was like, “How did I get here?” Elton John, we’ve had Rod Stewart, Idris Elba… And the one I do with Abbey has gone pretty big quite quickly. I think the reason that one’s worked is that it resonates with people who’ve got the same problems as us.’
It’s also gone big because Abbey is unexpectedly hilarious. ‘I think there may have been a misconception of her,’ says Peter, who towers over her, 6’7 to 5’9. ‘The person I see every day is incredibly funny and intelligent, warm, loving and I knew the minute we did this together that people would love her as much as I do. As amazing as she looks, she’s so down to earth and funny.’
When did Peter Crouch and Abbey Clancey first meet?
You wouldn’t usually expect a 23-year-old football player meeting a 19-year-old model in a nightclub – that’s their meet-cute story – to be the start of a 20-year relationship, no disrespect to footballers, models or nightclubs but it was definitely a meeting of souls.
The couple are now proud parents to four children.
Peter remembers their first proper date at a pub near where he lived when Abbey was still living at home. ‘She’d got a tenner off her mum. And as I was going to the toilet, she said, “I’ll get you a drink” but only had enough money for my Guinness so she got herself a tap water.’ How could you not fall for that?
Not that Abbey is a football fan. Far from it. ‘She’s quite open with the fact that she’s got no interest whatsoever in football,’ says Peter, with an amused eye-roll.
‘But that works for me. When I was playing for England or for Liverpool in the Champions League and I’d come home having had a bad game, she’d just change the subject. In all honestly, that’s probably what I needed. I don’t need to stew on a bad performance, so I’d come home and she’d give me a whole new set of problems.’
Even when she did make the effort to go and see him play, there were always distractions. ‘I was playing for England and scored a hat-trick at Old Trafford,’ he remembers, ‘and she said, “Well done on your goal!” and I said, “Which one?” Turns out she was first at the buffet and missed my other two.’
And still she quibbles about staying too long at the pub on Christmas Day!
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