By John Jones

Copyright walesonline

Few rugby players have transcended the sport in the same way as Gavin Henson did, with the former Wales international drawing comparisons to David Beckham for the talent he showed on the pitch and the life he lived away from it. The flamboyant back was one of the most naturally gifted players of his generation, captivating audiences as he shone on the international stage, single-handedly turning matches around on more than one occasion. In addition to earning 33 caps for Wales and touring with the British and Irish Lions in 2005, Henson played for three of the four Welsh regions – the Ospreys, Dragons and Cardiff – and also had stints in England with Saracens, Bath, Bristol and London Welsh, as well as in France with Toulon. He experienced great success with Wales, being part of two Grand Slam campaigns in 2005 and 2008, while he also won two domestic titles and the Anglo-Welsh Cup with the Ospreys . However, his life away from rugby often made as many headlines as his on-field success. Most notably, Henson’s relationship with singer Charlotte Church – who is one of 19 famous faces participating in the BBC’s new series of Celebrity Traitors – dominated newspaper headlines throughout much of the 2000s, as they became one of the most high-profile couples in British sport. Henson would later star on reality TV programmes, including Strictly Come Dancing, but things now look very different for the former rugby star, who is now 43 years old. From his relationship with Church to running his own pub, here’s what you need to know about Henson’s life away from the rugby field. Church, who rose to fame as a classical singer before pursuing a pop career, sparked a media frenzy when she was first spotted with Henson in public in April 2005, shortly after her split from previous boyfriend Kyle Johnson. Speaking on her BBC podcast, Kicking Back With the Cardiffians, Church revealed she actively sought out the rugby player after watching him on TV, recalling: “I remember watching on this television, Wales vs England, when Gavin kicked the kick over. “Then that night – I didn’t know Gav before that – I was like, I’m going to go out and find him in town. He is nice. Actually, I was going round asking everybody, ‘Do you know Gavin Henson? Where will he go out drinking afterwards?’ Nobody knew – but I did find him.” The celebrity duo moved in together the following year, while in March 2007, Church announced she was expecting the couple’s first child. They welcomed daughter Ruby later that year, with their second child, son Dexter, arriving in January 2009. The pair looked to be going from strength to strength, with Henson proposing to Church on her 24th birthday in February 2010, the same month she landed a major TV gig on BBC singing competition Over The Rainbow. However, everything crumbled just six weeks later, as the couple confirmed they were separating after five years together. It was later revealed that the decision was mutual, with Church explaining: “When he proposed, I was overjoyed. It was amazing. I really was going to marry Gav and spend the rest of my life with him. But then he came back from Norway, and he’d changed, and I’d had time to think. We had both had a change of heart – so we were both of the same mind.” Church later condemned the “insane” media intrusion she endured before and throughout her relationship with Henson, having also alleged that her phone was hacked by the News of The World, for which she later received an apology and substantial damages. “The press intrusion was insane, there was all sorts of dark stuff going on,” she said. “There were stories in the papers all the time and lots of things were blown up, misconstrued and made seedy – when they really weren’t. “There was a lot of shame being thrown at me, with the press desperately trying to make me a figure of sin and push this ‘fallen angel’ narrative. If I had let that shame in, or internalised it, my life could have gone in a very different way.” Today, Henson and Church maintain a good relationship and co-parent Dexter. Both have found love again, with the former rugby star marrying long-term partner Katie Wilson Mould in 2019, and Church tying the knot with musician Jonathan Powell in 2017, after seeking Henson’s blessing before they began dating. Beyond his relationship with Church, Henson made headlines for the wrong reasons on more than one occasion during his career, sometimes landing himself in trouble with the law and his clubs. In 2007, he and three other men were charged with disorderly conduct for drunken behaviour on a train journey between London and Cardiff. However, the case was dropped due to insufficient evidence. In 2009, he received a police caution for his behaviour during a night out in Cardiff following Wales’ Six Nations victory over England. Henson also found himself in trouble after some drinking sessions went too far. In 2012, he was sacked by Cardiff after playing just eight games for them, following his “inexcusable” and “inappropriate” drunken behaviour on a flight back from a match in Glasgow. A year later, a drunken comment he made to new Bath team-mate Carl Fearns resulted in the two-time Grand Slam winner being knocked out by the flanker during a team bonding evening, with the incident captured on CCTV. However, Henson has since opened up on his past behaviour and revealed he has been able to understand himself better after discovering the ‘chimp’ that had been running his mind, leading him to put boozing behind him. Having “battled for a long time” with his own mind, Henson was captivated by Professor Steve Peters’ mind-management book The Chimp Paradox, which outlined how to control the ‘chimp’, or “the voice which tells you to do things you maybe shouldn’t. “I didn’t understand the thoughts I was having after games where I wanted to go out and drink,” he explained in an interview with MailOnline. “They were a million miles away from my core values and goals in rugby. “Now, having read the book, I understand that for most of my rugby career, the chimp was controlling me and running my life more than I was. If I’d found the book while I was still playing rugby, I’d 100 per cent have been a better player and maybe I wouldn’t have made the mistakes I did. “In social interactions, I probably need a drink because I’m an introvert,” he continued. “If I have a drink, I become more of an extrovert and the chimp has more confidence! I can be good fun on a night out! But now I choose not to go into those environments. I’m not tee-total. In the last year, I’ve probably had one good drink. There’s a place in rugby for sharing a drink with your team-mates”. While Henson has heavily reduced his own alcohol consumption, these days he can be found pulling pints, having become the landlord of The Fox and Hounds pub in St Brides Major, Vale of Glamorgan in 2019. After carrying out an extensive refurbishment and restaurant upgrade, the former Wales international shortened the name of the pub to The Fox and manages the venue with his wife Katie. Discussing the venture in an interview with The Times, Henson said: “I was coming to the end of my career, and it [the pub] had been sat here for 18 months, two years. It was not nice for the village, and I needed something to do after rugby and to be busy, not to mourn rugby and get depressed, as they say everyone does. “But be careful what you wish for because this is so full-on. We want to feel like we’ve achieved something with the pub. We’re perfectionists. We’re all about the detail.” Henson – who is believed to have a net worth of around £800,000 having once earned around £120,000 annually at the peak of his career – has also recently laced up his rugby boots once more. Last September, he made his comeback with boyhood team Pencoed and is now in his second campaign in League 2 West Central in the fourth tier of Welsh rugby. Speaking to BBC Scrum V, Henson said he is “loving” being back in the sport, explaining: “I’m 43 now, so a bit old, as my wife tells me. But I’ve missed it, I’ve missed the physicality of it, and being in a team environment again and trying to win. “I’m very competitive, I like trying to win, that’s the main thing. We have a good group of boys. We’re aiming for promotion, so hopefully it will be a good season and great for the club. I’m playing 10, I would like to play 12 but I am just not quite big enough yet. So I’ll still try to aim to get there but 10 at the moment.”