'OUR WEDDING DAY WAS PERFECT!'

FORMER ENGLAND CAPTAIN STEVEN GERRARD AND HIS WIFE ALEX WELCOMED OK! INTO THEIR PORTUGUESE VILLA TO REFLECT ON THEIR LUXURIOUS WEDDING AND THEIR PLANS FOR MORE CHILDREN

- LISA BLAKE

To celebrate their first wedding anniversary in 2008, Alex and Steven Gerrard invited OK! into their luxury villa in Portugal. The couple soaked up the sunshine on loungers, splashed around in their private swimming pool with daughters Lilly-Ella, who was four, and Lexie, who was two, and posed for photographs in their fuchsia pink furnished living room.

At the time, Liverpool midfielder Steven played for England and told OK! the trip to the hideaway, which is near Faro in the Algarve region, was a much-needed break from his busy training schedule.

“As soon as I knew how much time I was going to have off, Alex and I sat down and planned what we were going to do,” Steven, now 40, said. He added it was exactly 12 months since he wed Alex at Cliveden House luxury hotel on the border of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, the same luxurious venue where the Duchess of Sussex stayed the night before her wedding to Prince Harry.

High-profile guests at Alex and Steven’s big day included footballers Peter Crouch, Rio Ferdinand, Jamie Redknapp, Ashley Cole and Ashley’s then-wife, Cheryl Cole. “We can’t believe the anniversary has already come round,” Steven said, revealing he had planned something special to do with Alex to celebrate.

Reflecting on the 2007 event, model Alex said she wished she could do it all again because she was so “nervous” on the day. And Steven also admitted he felt “anxious” in the run-up to it, but described the big day as “perfect”.