Gary Neville’s wife Emma has admitted she struggled with his habit of going to sleep at 9.30pm every night.

The couple met on a night out in 2004 while Neville was playing for Manchester United, before getting married three years later. They now have two daughters together and still live in the Manchester area.

They met while Neville was out drinking with Ryan Giggs after United had played away from home. While Emma immediately recognised the iconic right-back, she has now admitted to have been caught by surprise by his routine at home.

Neville has an infamous work ethic with a brutal daily schedule that sees him wake up at 5am everyday. That early wake-up leads to him having an early bedtime, one which surprised Emma when they were first dating.

“I’d gone to the game that day. At Walkabout in Manchester they have big screens and I’d been with my friend that day, went and watched it,” she told Stick to Football when asked about how they met.

“It’s a shock to your system really – I was 23 then and a lot younger. It is a different world, but Gary was really grounded, and his family were also very grounded. Our social time was us going for meals and it wasn’t really like anything else.

“Going to bed was strange – at half nine! I can’t get my head around how early that is. Now it’s fine but back then I just thought, ‘I can’t do this!’. We would watch a film, and he’d just fall asleep, and I’d get to the end of it.”

As well as Neville’s early bed-time, Emma also had to adapt to football’s punishing schedule. In particular, she highlighted the festive period as one she had to adjust to, as Neville shunned the traditional Christmas Dinner in favour of pasta.

“Christmas days were always weird – he was eating pastas and stuff which is a weird thing to do. Food would always just be timed and it’s still like this. I love football and was always an Oldham fan – had a season ticket for three years and I went with my dad,” Emma added.

“Football has always been in my family. Going to Gary [Neville’s] matches were good. At first, we would just literally go to the same places, and I’d be like, ‘I don’t want to go there every year’.

“We went to Malta every year – we made some amazing friends which we still have, but it was so planned out. Then, it was like, ‘Let’s go somewhere different’. I thought, ‘Oh he has got some adventure in him!’”

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