25 February 2023 , 13:34
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Former Wales star Gavin Henson was once dubbed the 'David Beckham of rugby', but after injuries forced him to retire the 41-year-old is now content running his local pub The Fox in St Brides Major with his wife Katie.
Welsh rugby legend Phil Bennett notably compared him to Beckham in 2004, when a 22-year-old Henson first starred for Wales in their Autumn internationals. "There are clear similarities - the different hair-styles and colours, the flashy boots, the flair, the tendency to occasionally flirt with controversy," Bennett wrote in a column for a Welsh newspaper.
"Henson has become the golden boy of the Welsh game and I just hope he copes with it." However, Henson, who became an even bigger star when he started dating singer Charlotte Church the following year, was unable to truly fulfil his potential with a combination of injuries and a lack of motivation meaning he only played 33 times for Wales and just once for the British and Irish Lions.
"I just struggled with my body," he told the Times. "If I knew how to manage it a bit earlier, I'd have been a lot better for it. I am at peace with what I achieved.
"Where my weakness was — and I probably needed help on this — you look at [Cristiano] Ronaldo or [Lionel] Messi, [think] 'How do they keep on doing it?' I think they just set new goals.
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"My goal was always: play for Wales, play for British Lions. When I achieved that, I didn't set a new goal. I felt I'd achieved what I wanted. I got to the top of the mountain and there wasn’t much up there. I then flew down it."
Henson now runs a pub called The Fox in St Brides Major with his wife Katie (Mark Lewis)Henson and Church were even tipped to become the 'Posh and Becks' of rugby when they began dating. They have two children together and got engaged, planning to marry on an island hideaway.
A series of magazine cover shoots had set them on the road to stardom but they split within weeks of Henson proposing to the singer.
He admitted afterwards that the pair had been arguing for some time and knew they had to split for the good of their children, although they now have a civil relationship.
Gavin Henson and Charlotte ChurchHenson walked away from the sport in 2019 and bought the pub the same year, admitting he "needed something to after rugby" so as to not "mourn rugby and get depressed. "My friend was putting pressure on me to buy it," he added.
"I was coming to the end of my career and it 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."