Party-loving Wayne Lineker's life has taken a rather different turn of late. It is eight months since the 63-year-old businessman gave up drinking and swapped his hedonistic life in Ibiza for the quieter climes of Essex.
When the Daily Mail visited him at his new-build property last week, he was in a contemplative mood—not to mention in the middle of a seven-day fast.
Since becoming sober and healing a 17-year rift with his brother Gary, Wayne admits that everything in his life is coming together. And all that is missing is someone to share his new life of sobriety with.
He has been single for eight years since splitting from his ex-fiancée Danielle Sandhu, 33, who he dated for four years.
'I had a beautiful relationship with my ex, and I just found it difficult to replace her,' he shrugs. 'She was just perfect. She ended up getting a modelling career, and I was seeing less of her.'
Despite previously admitting on Celebs Go Dating that he has never dated a woman over 30, Wayne added: 'I don't want a party girl. I'm looking for someone a little bit older than what I'm used to, somewhere around 40ish.
'I'd love someone to settle down with. It's my ultimate goal now and the last piece in my jigsaw puzzle. Everything's coming together, I just need a girlfriend.'
It is eight months since Wayne Lineker gave up drinking and swapped his hedonistic life in Ibiza for the quieter climes of Essex...
Wayne's social media feeds have been a stream of Balearic sunsets and young clubbers on the island alongside poses with the likes of Conor McGregor.
Having consumed what he estimates to be 52,000 drinks over the past 13 years, as well as using drugs, he admits to living on 'vodka and Red Bull and cheese toasties'.
While he remains single, he has at least tentatively improved his relationship with his brother, the former England footballer Gary. While it is far from perfect and has yet to return to their previous closeness, he says he is more than happy with the direction it has taken after all these years.
'Our relationship now is good, and so it should be,' he says, speaking to the Daily Mail for the first time about the healing of a rift that has marked the past 17 years. 'Life is too short, and I think we both realise that.
'But we're not on the terms we used to be. We used to be so close; we used to play golf; we used to go down to his house for Sunday lunch. We're not at that level, but we're in a nice place now. And I'm very happy about that.'
The breakdown of the sibling relationship has been a sore point, which neither brother has ever discussed in any detail - although it was understood to be linked to a fallout over Gary's then-fiancee Danielle Bux, with whom Wayne 'didn't spark' when they first met.
But theirs was never going to be a straightforward bond given their obvious differences. Clean-cut Gary, 65, was the star England striker who went on to become one of the BBC's highest-paid presenters, while his younger brother Wayne crafted a public image that he freely admits led most people to think he was 'a bit of a d*'.
Twice-divorced Wayne's social media feeds have been a stream of Balearic sunsets and young clubbers attending his Ocean Beach bar, where he has his own champagne-soaked VIP table, and he was jailed for two and a half years in 2006 for his role in a money-laundering scam.
He has also taunted Gary on social media for his posts on Twitter (now X) criticising the UK Government's approach to the migrant crisis - posts which had led to Gary being suspended from Match Of The Day. Wayne had shared a distasteful photo of migrants in a small boat with the caption 'Where Gary Lineker's house?'
But that's all now water under the bridge, he explains. And it was family weddings that brought them back together.
A photograph from the big day shows Wayne wearing a broad smile, his arm wrapped around Gary.
'Gary and I are back as friends again,' he says positively. 'His son Harry got married in Ibiza, and I hadn't seen Gary or spoken to him for 15 years, other than our mum and dad's funerals. Apart from that, I haven't really had much contact with him. But then, at Harry's wedding, he sat at the table next to me, and it was like nothing had ever happened. It was weird.
'We started having a laugh, and the following morning I went to have breakfast with him at the hotel. It was a beautiful moment.'
That was followed by Tia's wedding in Majorca in August.
'Gary was there, and he came up to me after my speech and went, "Bro, that was incredible, that was one of the funniest speeches I've ever heard,"' he recalls.
Indeed, a photograph from the big day shows Wayne wearing a broad smile, his arm wrapped around Gary.
Perhaps age, and the fact that both brothers have seen huge changes in their lives recently, has helped them reassess their priorities.
For Wayne, it was a health scare that turned him towards sobriety.
Having consumed what he estimates to be 52,000 drinks over the past 13 years, as well as using drugs, he admits to living on 'vodka and Red Bull and cheese toasties'.
And behind the scenes, it was taking a huge toll on his family.
Wayne has three sons - Duane, 41; Sean, 33; and Freddie, 21 - along with daughter Tia, 27; and has previously said he is on good terms with the mothers of his children whose names have not all been disclosed.
He also has three grandchildren. But while he was collecting two of them from school a couple of days a week, his son Duane decided this was no longer safe because of the alcohol in his system.
'It became a burden on the family,' Wayne explained. 'Duane is very sensible and looked after me when I was in Ibiza. But he called me in the office one day and said, "Dad, we can't let you pick the girls up from school any more... sorry."
'I understood, but it was a big turning point for me. It hit me like a ton of bricks.
'Obviously my family speaks to each other without me there, saying how worried they are.'
Wayne had his last drink—a glass of red wine—at Ibiza airport on July 7 while he waited for a flight back to Stansted. He spent a few days at a spa before checking into The Priory Life Works House rehab facility in Surrey for six weeks.
'I was not behaving well and I didn't feel good. I didn't feel healthy and it finally caught up with me.
As well as getting sober for his family, Wayne had to make a change for the sake of his business.
Just weeks before going to rehab, a video went viral where he was heavily intoxicated and attempting to take over from the DJ at his Ibiza beach club while his business partner Tony Truman attempted to intervene.
'It all went completely wrong when that viral video of me came out behind the DJ box, which was not a good look. It was just so embarrassing. I was risking the business by behaving like that.
'Tony and my other business partners pulled me into the office and said, "You can't behave like this; it is not good for business."
'I was in denial at first, but I was actually excited to go to rehab in the end. It is the best decision of my life.'
Five months into his lifestyle revamp, he was whisked to hospital where he stayed for seven weeks after suffering two severe attacks of pneumonia.
That has been a wake-up call and he is now focused on living a healthier lifestyle. Today, he is strictly on water only as part of his seven-day fast.
He will go back to Ibiza - he is tentatively scheduled to return next month for the first two weeks of the season and will 'see how it goes'. He tried it sober in September and lasted only two days.
'Everyone wants a picture; everyone's chatting to me and it's a lot when you're sober and when they're drunk,' he said.
'It's just such a different life for me now. I jump out of bed. I can't wait for the day. I can't even describe how well I feel compared with how terrible I felt every day.
'I was anxious, aching and just so tired. But now, I feel fantastic.'