Andrew Symonds has married twice. Before his current wife Laura, he was married to his childhood sweetheart Brooke Marshall.
Symonds met his childhood sweetheart, Brooke Marshall, at the Anglican school and married 11 years later. The couple tied the knot on April 24, 2004, at St John’s Anglican cathedral in Brisbane.
Ms Marshall said at the time of the nuptials: “He’s N.o 1 and he makes me feel that way too. He might have a rough exterior but he’s a softie inside and knows how to look after his girl.”
However, their marriage didn’t last. The couple went their separate ways just over a year later, in September 2005.
Symonds revealed in his 2006 book, Roy: Going for Broke, that he was on the verge of calling it quits from cricket in a bid to save his marriage.
“I seriously thought about stepping down from it and cricket altogether. My reasoning was that if there was any chance of rebuilding my marriage then perhaps I was better off without cricket,” he wrote.
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“I spoke at length with Brooke and (psychologist) Phil Jauncey, and Phil said that while giving up cricket would have shown commitment, I needed to ask myself whether I was prepared to lose the two things I loved, because if things didn’t work out with Brooke I would have nothing.
“I decided if we were going to make the most of a second chance it would have to involve cricket because that was one of the few things I could rely upon to give us a future.”
“Sorry Brooke had to deal with what she did and if I had my time again I would do things differently, but I believe you learn a lot more from your mistakes than your successes and I have emerged a changed person” Symonds concluded.
