Gary Lineker Wife: Danielle Bux Biography, Career, Family and Life Story

For years, the search phrase “Gary Lineker wife” has led people to Danielle Bux, the Welsh model and actress who became the second wife of the former England football star. Yet Danielle Bux’s story is considerably richer than her connection to one of Britain’s most recognizable sporting personalities. Born and raised in Cardiff, she experienced family changes and difficulties during childhood, entered the modelling world while still young, worked as a flight attendant, moved into television and eventually developed an acting career. Her relationship with Gary Lineker brought enormous public attention, but it was only one chapter in a life that has continued to evolve.

Danielle Maria Bux was born on 15 June 1979 in Cardiff, Wales. She later became known professionally as Danielle Bux and, during her marriage to Lineker, as Danielle Lineker. She has worked as a model, television personality and actress, appearing in productions including Silent Witness, Aquarius, Kicking Off and The Wedding Year. Her professional journey is especially interesting because she did not remain confined to one career. Instead, she repeatedly moved into new areas of entertainment while balancing motherhood, relationships, charitable interests and life in the public eye.

Danielle Bux Quick Facts

The basic facts about Danielle Bux’s birth, education, career and family are documented by biographical and entertainment sources. Her exact personal wealth, however, is not publicly verified, so online celebrity-net-worth estimates should be treated as speculation rather than established financial fact.

Early Life and Childhood in Cardiff

Danielle Bux’s early life was far removed from the glamorous celebrity world that would later surround her. She was born in Cardiff to Kim Lewis and Roy Bux, whose relationship ended when Danielle was very young. Her mother subsequently remarried Alex Mohammed, and Danielle grew up within a blended family that included additional siblings. She attended Cantonian High School in Fairwater, Cardiff, and her childhood experiences later became an important part of the way she discussed family relationships publicly.

In an interview with The Independent, Danielle explained that she grew up moving between her separated parents’ homes. Her experience gave her a firsthand understanding of what it meant to grow up in a stepfamily, something that later became especially relevant when she married Gary Lineker and became a stepmother to his four sons. She also spoke about the difficulties she experienced as a child, including racist bullying connected with her Indian heritage.

Her childhood therefore helped shape an unusually practical understanding of family dynamics. Rather than treating family relationships as simple or perfect, Danielle later acknowledged that blended families can involve complicated emotions, adjustments and boundaries. This perspective became more than a personal observation when she created material about stepfamilies and used her own experiences to discuss an issue affecting many modern households.

Education, Family Background and Personal Values

Danielle attended Cantonian High School in Cardiff, where she spent an important part of her formative years. Public biographies do not suggest that she followed a conventional university-based career path. Instead, her professional life developed through employment, modelling opportunities and later television and acting work. Her journey demonstrates how entertainment careers can emerge through practical experience and opportunities rather than a single formal qualification.

Her family background was also significant because she was not raised in a celebrity environment. Her parents were shop workers, according to The Independent, and her mother’s later marriage created a larger blended family. Danielle’s own daughter, Ella, was also part of a stepfamily before she married Gary, meaning that she had experienced both sides of blended-family life — first as a child and later as a parent and stepmother.

These experiences appear to have contributed to Danielle’s interest in family relationships and personal independence. She later emphasized that stepfamilies require communication and realistic expectations rather than assuming that everyone will immediately settle into a perfect family structure. Her public comments on the subject gave her biography a more thoughtful dimension than the glamorous image often attached to the phrase “Gary Lineker wife.”

Danielle Bux’s Modelling Career

Danielle began modelling as a young woman and received an important early opportunity in 1999 when she won a place in the Miss Hawaiian Tropic contest in Las Vegas. The experience helped establish her in the modelling industry and eventually led to appearances in magazines and commercial campaigns. She went on to work with publications including Maxim, HELLO! and OK!, building recognition before her relationship with Gary Lineker became a major part of her public profile.

Her early professional life was not limited to fashion. While modelling part-time, Danielle worked as a flight attendant for Virgin Atlantic. That combination of conventional employment and modelling illustrates the gradual nature of her career development. She was not simply handed a celebrity career; she worked in different industries before modelling became a more substantial professional direction.

The modelling world gave Danielle the confidence and exposure to move toward television and entertainment. Her appearance in magazines helped establish her as a recognizable public figure, but she subsequently sought opportunities that allowed her to do more than appear in photographs. That desire for professional expansion eventually took her into television, theatre and film.

Television Career and Public Recognition

Danielle’s television career developed alongside her modelling work. She competed in the 2009 series of ITV’s Hell’s Kitchen, where she finished third, and she later appeared as a guest panellist on Loose Women. These appearances introduced her to audiences in a more conversational format and helped establish her as a television personality rather than solely a fashion model.

She also became involved in projects dealing with family life. Her experiences as a stepmother inspired Danielle Lineker – My New Stepfamily, a project connected with BBC programming. In discussing the subject, she emphasized the shortage of accessible guidance for people entering stepfamilies and explained why she believed these families needed more open discussion.

Her television work was important because it allowed the public to see a different side of Danielle. Modelling depends heavily on visual presentation, whereas television requires personality, communication and the ability to respond naturally in front of an audience. Moving between those worlds helped her develop a broader entertainment profile and prepared the way for her later interest in acting.

Acting Career and Professional Reinvention

One of Danielle Bux’s most significant career changes came when she moved into acting. She made her stage debut in Calendar Girls at the Bristol Hippodrome in 2011 and later appeared in the play Responsible Other. Her transition from modelling into theatre required her to develop a different set of professional skills and demonstrated that she was interested in building a career beyond her appearance and celebrity associations.

Her screen credits subsequently included BBC One’s Silent Witness and the American television series Aquarius. She also appeared in films including We Are the Freaks, Kicking Off, Curse of the Witching Tree, One Thing Left to Do and The Wedding Year. These credits gave her experience across British television, independent film and international productions.

Gary Lineker himself praised Danielle’s acting ambitions during their marriage. In a 2014 interview, he described her as a serious actress who was working hard to establish herself, while Danielle and Lineker also developed an interest in supporting theatre companies and attending productions together. Their shared enthusiasm for theatre became one of the more interesting aspects of their relationship because it demonstrated that Danielle’s creative ambitions were taken seriously within their household.

Gary Lineker and Danielle Bux’s Relationship

Gary Lineker and Danielle Bux began dating in the mid-2000s, when Lineker was already an established former England footballer and broadcaster. Danielle was considerably younger and had her own career in modelling and entertainment. Their relationship attracted significant media attention, partly because of Lineker’s fame and partly because of their age difference. Despite the publicity, the couple generally attempted to keep the most private aspects of their relationship away from the press.

The couple married on 2 September 2009 in Ravello, Italy. At the time, Lineker had four sons from his first marriage to Michelle Cockayne, while Danielle had a daughter from an earlier relationship. Their marriage therefore brought together two existing family structures and created a blended family environment.

Their relationship also involved shared television and charity appearances. They hosted Northern Exposure and appeared together on ITV’s Mr & Mrs, where they won £30,000 for charity. Their public appearances presented them as a relaxed couple, while Danielle continued developing her own professional interests in acting and television.

Danielle Bux as Gary Lineker’s Stepmother

Becoming Gary Lineker’s wife meant that Danielle also became stepmother to his four sons: George, Harry, Tobias and Angus. This was not an entirely unfamiliar situation because Danielle had herself grown up in a stepfamily and had already experienced parenthood. Nevertheless, becoming part of an established family with four teenage boys presented its own challenges.

Rather than hiding those difficulties, Danielle discussed them publicly. She explained that nobody enters a stepfamily expecting every relationship to work perfectly from the beginning. Her perspective was that families needed to communicate honestly about the pressures involved instead of pretending that complicated emotions did not exist.

Her experience eventually became part of her professional identity. By talking about stepfamilies, Danielle was able to turn a personal challenge into something constructive and potentially useful for other families. This is one of the strongest examples of how her private experiences influenced the projects she pursued publicly.

Why Did Gary Lineker and Danielle Bux Divorce?

Gary Lineker and Danielle Bux announced their divorce in January 2016 after approximately six years of marriage. The public explanation centered on their different views about having more children. Danielle wanted another child, while Gary did not want to begin raising another young family after already having four sons. The disagreement was ultimately treated as an incompatibility in future plans rather than a public celebrity feud.

The circumstances were notable because the couple apparently remained close after their marriage ended. In later interviews, Lineker described Danielle as a very close friend, and The Guardian reported in 2024 that they remained best friends and spoke daily. This continuing relationship is one reason their divorce remains an unusual part of Lineker’s personal history.

Their story illustrates an important reality about relationships: not every marriage ends because two people stop caring about each other. Sometimes two people simply discover that their plans for the future no longer match. In Danielle and Gary’s case, the ability to preserve friendship after divorce became almost as notable as their marriage itself.

Danielle Bux’s Marriage to Nate Greenwald

Following her divorce from Gary Lineker, Danielle began a relationship with American entertainment lawyer Nate Greenwald in 2016. Their relationship eventually developed into marriage, giving Danielle another major personal chapter after the end of her high-profile British marriage.

Danielle and Greenwald welcomed a daughter, Romy, in 2017. The couple later married privately in November 2019 on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. Unlike her wedding to Lineker, which attracted substantial British media interest, her second marriage was considerably more private.

The relationship also coincided with Danielle’s life becoming increasingly connected with the United States. Published profiles have associated the family with Los Angeles, where Danielle has continued her life away from the intense football-focused attention that surrounded her during her years as Lineker’s wife.

Danielle Bux’s Children and Family Life

Motherhood has been a central part of Danielle Bux’s story. She had her first daughter, Ella, with former Coventry City footballer Adam Willis when she was young. By the time she married Gary Lineker, she was already a mother and was entering another family structure involving Lineker’s four sons.

Her second daughter, Romy, was born after Danielle began her relationship with Nate Greenwald. This fulfilled a different stage of family life and followed the issue that had contributed to the end of her marriage to Lineker. Gary’s decision not to have more children and Danielle’s desire to become a mother again were ultimately incompatible, but Danielle later went on to build the family she wanted.

Family remains one of the most meaningful themes running through her biography. From growing up in a stepfamily to becoming a mother, then a stepmother and later a mother again, Danielle has experienced several different forms of family life. Those experiences have shaped both her public conversations and the choices she has made throughout adulthood.

Charity Work and Personal Interests

Danielle Bux has also been involved with charitable causes. She became a patron of the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation after her half-brother suffered a serious spinal injury following a fall at the age of 22. The experience gave the charity a deeply personal meaning for her and led to fundraising involvement.

She has also been associated with the Born Free Foundation, a charity focused on wildlife and conservation. These interests demonstrate that her public life has extended beyond fashion, television and celebrity relationships. Her charitable involvement has connected her to causes involving both medical research and animal welfare.

Another personal interest associated with Danielle is cross-country horse riding. This detail provides a glimpse into her life outside the entertainment industry and reinforces the impression of someone with interests extending well beyond the public image created by modelling and celebrity media coverage.

Danielle Bux Net Worth and Income

There is no reliable, independently verified public figure for Danielle Bux’s personal net worth. Celebrity websites frequently publish estimated fortunes, but such figures are rarely accompanied by financial records, audited accounts or verified information about property, investments and personal assets. For that reason, any precise net-worth figure attributed to Danielle should be treated cautiously.

Her career has nevertheless provided several potential income streams over the years. These have included professional modelling, television appearances, acting, theatre work and entertainment-related opportunities. She also benefited from a long career in public-facing industries rather than relying on one short period of fame.

It is also important to distinguish Danielle’s personal finances from the wealth associated with Gary Lineker. Being married to a highly successful footballer and broadcaster does not automatically establish an individual’s personal net worth. A balanced biography should therefore focus on Danielle’s own career accomplishments rather than presenting unverified financial estimates as fact.

Danielle Bux on Social Media

Danielle Bux has maintained an online public presence, particularly through Instagram. Her social-media identity gives followers a more direct way to see aspects of her life than traditional entertainment magazines once provided. Her public profile has been associated with the handle @daniellebux, although social-media usernames can change and should always be checked directly for the latest status.

Her online presence also reflects the transformation of celebrity culture. When Danielle first became known as a model, magazines and television programmes were the main ways audiences encountered her. Today, social platforms allow public figures to communicate more directly, share selected moments from their lives and maintain a relationship with followers without relying entirely on traditional media.

At the same time, Danielle’s life appears to have become more private compared with the period when she was married to Gary Lineker. Her online presence is therefore better understood as a window into selected aspects of her life rather than a complete picture of her family, career or daily routine.

Where Is Danielle Bux Now?

Danielle Bux is now 47 years old and has entered a very different stage of life from the period when she was known primarily as Gary Lineker’s wife. She is married to Nate Greenwald, is a mother of two daughters and has been associated with life in Los Angeles. Her career remains part of her identity, but family and personal life appear to occupy a much larger place in her current story.

Her continued friendship with Gary Lineker remains one of the most unusual aspects of her biography. Even after their divorce, they have maintained a close relationship, and Lineker has publicly described Danielle as one of his closest friends. The pair have also continued seeing each other socially, demonstrating that their separation did not erase the connection developed during their years together.

Professionally, Danielle’s existing acting and modelling work remains part of her legacy, although there is limited reliable public information about a major new long-term project currently defining her career. Her most recent public story is therefore less about chasing celebrity and more about maintaining family life while retaining the creative identity she developed over decades.

The Real Story Behind Gary Lineker’s Wife

The phrase “Gary Lineker wife” may be the search term that brings readers to Danielle Bux, but it only tells part of her story. She was a model before her marriage to Lineker, worked as a flight attendant, appeared on television, entered theatre and built an acting résumé that includes both British and American productions. Her career demonstrates a willingness to change direction and explore new opportunities rather than remain dependent on one public identity.

Her personal journey is equally layered. She experienced the complexities of a separated family during childhood, became a mother, entered a blended family as Gary Lineker’s wife and stepmother, experienced divorce, remarried and became a mother again. Rather than allowing any single chapter to define her permanently, she repeatedly adapted to new circumstances.

Ultimately, Danielle Bux’s story is one of reinvention. Fame may have increased dramatically when she married Gary Lineker, but her identity has always extended beyond that relationship. From Cardiff and the early days of modelling to acting, charity work, motherhood and a new life in America, her journey demonstrates that personal growth often comes through change. As Danielle continues to build her life on her own terms, her story remains a reminder that a meaningful legacy is not created by one famous relationship, but through resilience, independence, family, work and the courage to begin new chapters when life changes direction.