James Haskell: Chloe's dad wanted me to become a Madeley

15 January 2019

James Haskell has revealed his father-in-law Richard Madeley tried to get him to change his surname to Madeley.

James Haskell

The 33-year-old England rugby star recently tied the knot with Richard's daughter Chloe Madeley, 31, in an intimate ceremony at a church in Berkshire in front of friends and family, including the bride's TV presenter parents Richard and Judy Finnigan.

James has now spilled that Richard was keen for him to take on his family name because the newlyweds were filming an upcoming TV show with the ex-'This Morning' host and he wanted them to be referred to as 'Team Madeley'.

Speaking on 'Loose Women' on Tuesday (15.01.19) about what her surname is now, Chloe said: "I have such a really good and loyal audience now, I'm going to stay Chloe Madeley [on the books], which is a nice ode to my dad as well. But in everything else, I'm a Haskell!"

James then said: "He [Richard] tried to get me to be James Madeley. We did a show, I think that's coming out in the summer with Dermot O'Leary, and he made it 'Team Madeley' and tried to call me James Madeley and I was like, 'It's two Haskells and a Madeley!'. But he's British TV heritage, so I just did as I was told."

James and Chloe started dating back in 2014 and during his interview he admitted that he didn't want to be pressured into tying the knot and so made a rule that anytime someone mentioned an engagement he would "put back" his proposal plans by six months.

He said: "The last time I was allowed to come on this show - invited I should say - straight away the lovely ladies brought up, was I going to get engaged? I basically decided that any time anyone mentioned it, I was going to put it back six months, even though he always knew he was going to make Chloe his wife.

"I had this conversation with Chloe. I said, 'Listen if you keep talking about it, I'm going to put it back.' When I came on the show I was like, 'Right, OK, I see, trying to bully me into it.' But I folded in the end because I love her and I wanted to get married."