Former England cricket captain Sir Andrew Strauss has married for the second time – almost seven years to the day after the tragic passing of his first wife Ruth, the Daily Mail can reveal.
The 48-year-old walked down the aisle with Antonia Linnaeus-Peat, 30, on December 17, in the wine town of Franschhoek, South Africa, the country of his birth.
Photos from the ceremony showed the happy couple surrounded by family in the sunshine at the La Clé vineyard around 50 miles east of Cape Town.
The new Mr and Mrs Strauss, who got together around two years ago, looked delighted on their big day last week.
There was also a poignant, and warm, picture of them smiling with his sons Samuel and Luca, who lost their mother on December 29, 2018.
Fans and friends have reacted with great joy to the news that Strauss has found love and happiness again after the tragic death of his first wife Ruth. She died aged 46 following a battle with a rare form of lung cancer.
A happy Sir Andrew Strauss, 48, with his new wife Antonia Linnaeus-Peat, 30, on their wedding day last Wednesday
The happy couple with Sir Andrew’s sons, Luca (left) and Samuel (right)
Only close family attended the ceremony in a South African vineyard
Sir Andrew with his first wife Ruth (right) who died aged 46 following a battle with lung cancer
Sir Andrew has dedicated much of his energy to the Ruth Strauss Foundation, which supports families facing the incurable cancer diagnosis as well as funding research into non-smoking lung cancers.
The new Strauss wedding was planned by Mosaic Weddings, photographed by Celeste Prince at La Clè Vineyard.
Flowers were by Botanica and hair and make up by Danielle Jacobs.
Strauss revealed on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast in November that only family had been invited to the ceremony, held last Wednesday.
The former England captain is not in Australia for England’s disastrous the Ashes series because of his wedding.
The happy couple were first spotted together in public two years ago after leaving an exclusive restaurant in London, understood to have been in a relationship already for several months.
The couple were also seen together in the Royal Box at this summer’s Wimbledon Championships, joining a host of sports stars on day six from footballer Jamie Redknapp to Olympics hero Dame Laura Kenny.
Ms Linnaeus-Peat, who used to work as a PR executive and now is a company director of Linnaeus Fine Art Advisory Limited, grew up in Hong Kong and attended £40,000-a-year St Mary’s Calne school for girls.
The former England captain’s new marriage comes seven years after his first wife Ruth McDonald died aged 46 following a battle with a rare form of lung cancer on December 29, 2018.
Married to Ruth for 15 years, Strauss had two sons with the Australian actress, Samuel and Luca, who are now aged 19 and 17 respectively.
England cricket legend Andrew Strauss, 48, fell in love with the PR exec around two years ago
The couple are pictured at this summer’s Wimbledon Championships in the Royal Box
She grew up in Hong Kong and attended £40,000-a-year St Mary’s Calne school for girls
Shortly after his wife’s upsetting death, Strauss founded the Ruth Strauss Foundation in her memory in 2019, a charity which supports families facing the death of a parent from the illness and funds vital research into non-smoking lung cancers.
The foundation’s annual ‘Red for Ruth’ campaign has become a regular fixture in the cricketing calendar, with players, coaches and fans encouraged to wear red in support of the charity during an England Test match in July.
Strauss has been open about how his wife’s death just days after Christmas in 2018 wholly changed his outlook on life.
Sharing how grief has affected him in a 2023 interview with The Telegraph, he said: ‘Our time is limited, and therefore I need to be more conscious about what I do and don’t do.
‘This might mean experiencing things that weren’t appealing to me before, or saying no to things even though I don’t want to let people down. But most of all, it means keeping the people most important to me happy.’
Strauss and Ruth had two sons, Samuel (right) and Luca (left) – pictured in May 2022
The Ruth Strauss Foundation’s annual ‘Red for Ruth’ campaign has become a regular fixture in the cricketing calendar, with players and staff encouraged to wear red in support of the charity
The former England captain went on to urge others to open up more in a message of support for those struggling.
‘It’s is still far too much of a taboo,’ he added. ‘Many people feel very uncomfortable, not knowing what to say to those who are going through it. They shudder, almost wanting to pretend that it’s not going on.
‘It’s absurd, because we’re all going to be touched by death in life. Grief still feels very beneath the surface to me. And that has to change, because otherwise there will be people devoid of support or knowledge.
‘You can be in your own little room grieving, without knowing where to turn.’
In a statement revealing Ruth had passed away, Strauss said in 2018: ‘Anyone who has met Ruth will know how loving, caring and passionately protective she was of her family and it gives us huge comfort that she was in Australia, the land of her birth, surrounded by those who love her, in her final moments.’
Meanwhile in Australia, the Ashes cricket has been a disaster for England.
Sir Andrew, the last England captain to win an away Ashes series 15 years ago, has warned removing Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes will not be enough to change a ‘depressingly one-sided story’ in Australia.
Strauss led a remarkable 3-1 triumph in 2010-11 but the trail has gone stone cold ever since, with England losing 16 and drawing just two of the last 18 Tests Down Under.
The heat is now on McCullum as head coach, while Stokes may find it hard to stay if their current 3-0 predicament becomes a 5-0 whitewash.
But Strauss has urged those within the game to look beyond the short-term fix of firing and hiring.
In the aftermath of England’s previous defeat in Australia, a 4-0 loss in 2021-22, he was employed by the England and Wales Cricket Board to conduct a high-performance review into the domestic game.
His eventual report made numerous suggestions, including cutting the number of first-class matches and restructuring the County Championship divisions and focusing on incentivising elite player development, but they were largely thrown out by the counties themselves.
Although he made no reference to the review in a wide-ranging post on the social network LinkedIn, he appears to be arguing for a fresh look at such proposals.
Strauss wrote: ‘So there it is, another ambitious set of England cricketers made the journey to Australia, full of hope and optimism only for their dreams to come crashing down around them after only 11 days of cricket.
‘McCullum and Stokes and will come under extreme scrutiny for the decisions they took in preparation for this tour in the same way that (Ashley) Giles and (Chris) Silverwood did after the last tour. And Andy Flower after 2013-14 and Duncan Fletcher after 2006/07.
‘While they will know that this goes with the territory, none of the above are responsible for England losing so incredibly consistently in Australia since 1986-87. We have been badly mauled time after time over there because Australia are a better team, served by a better high performance system.
‘If we are genuinely serious about changing this depressingly one-sided story, then we need to look beyond sacking England coaches and captains and ask whether we are genuinely willing to make the changes necessary to break the trend.’
Strauss served as director of cricket at the ECB after retiring and later acted as a strategic advisor to the board, parting ways in May 2023 after his reforms were rejected.
