Stuart Broad said he decided to retire from cricket because he wanted to spend more time with fiancée Mollie King and their daughter Annabella.
The former England cricketer, 37, appeared on Good Morning Britain on Thursday – when he also spoke about how stepping back from the sport had given him more time to plan his wedding to the former The Saturdays singer, 36. Mollie gave birth to their one year old daughter Annabella in November 2022 – and Stuart said becoming a dad had “tweaked his mindset” about what was important in life.
Speaking to Susanna Reid and Ben Shephard about his retirement on GMB, he added: “I’ve got a bit more time on my hands to get married now.”
Ben asked if Mollie was dragging him into the wedding preparations and Stuart replied: “Exactly.”
The ex cricketer then added: “Annabella’s been an absolute dream. It’s one of the most incredible things – to be a parent and be a dad and that’s played a huge part in me moving away from the playing side.
“With cricket, you do travel so much, it’s so uncontrolled. You’re told you’re going on tour for 12 weeks here, eight weeks there.
“I’ve loved every moment of that, but definitely family life tweaks your mindset a lot and you definitely realise what’s important. Annabella won’t be small for a long period of time and these first four or five years are so important.”
Fast bowler Stuart enjoyed a fairytale ending to his England cricket career in July this year. It came at the end of the iconic Ashes test match series against Australia.
He hit a six from the last ball he ever faced with the bat and then took Australia’s final wicket with the last ball he ever bowled – to win the test match for England, leading to a draw in the series overall.
Stuart – whose father Chris Broad was also an England cricketer – said on GMB: “I got a bit lucky. On the Friday night, on day two, I was humming and harring about whether I should step away from the game. I was still loving it, bowling well, taking wickets, loving the environment, but ultimately in sport, your time comes at some stage.
“I thought, ’How long have I got left? I want to leave at the top’. So I knocked on Ben Stokes’ door, my captain, and said, ‘That’s me’ on the Friday night and if I’d have been asked to write a script of a fairytale ending, I actually don't think I’d have built it up as well as it had happened.”
He added: “To hit my last ball in cricket for six was pretty cool but my job as a bowler is to take wickets, so to take a wicket with my final ever ball to win an Ashes test match, having grown up in Ashes cricket – my dad played in the Ashes in 86/87, it’s something that’s been instilled in my family, so to feel as lucky as I did to take a wicket to win an Ashes test with my last ever ball was pretty cool.”
Stuart and Mollie got engaged on New Year’s Day in 2021 but they have yet to announce when their wedding day will be.
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