Jamie Oliver looked unrecognisable in a throwback snap of him and wife Jools on their first holiday together in Crete he shared on Sunday.
The TV chef and the midwife, both 51, quipped ‘we haven’t changed one bit’ alongside the photo from their youth.
In the picture the young chef sported long blond locks while wearing matching baseball caps with ab-flashing Jools.
He captioned the post: ‘Throwback! Look at this photo of @joolsoliver and me on our very first holiday together all those years ago in Crete on Peninsula Spinalogkas… We haven’t changed a bit, right?’
Jamie and Jools met as teenagers after they were set up on a double date.
At the time, Jools, then aged 17, relocated to Tokyo for three months for work – with Jamie writing her love letters every day.
They managed to keep their romance alive and went on to tie the knot in 2000 and welcomed five children together: Poppy Honey Rose, 24, Daisy Boo Pamela, 23, Petal Blossom Rainbow, 17, Buddy Bear Maurice, 15, and River Rocket Blue Dallas, nine.
Jamie Oliver looked unrecognisable in a throwback snap of him and wife Jools, both 51, on their first holiday together in Crete he shared on Sunday
The TV chef and the midwife, both 51, quipped ‘we haven’t changed one bit’ alongside the photo from their youth
Jamie met his future wife in 1992 during a double date with his friend Jimmy Doherty, who went on to become a TV presenter.
In an interview with the Daily Mail in 2018, Jamie explained how Jimmy introduced him to Jools when he was 18 years old.
He said: ‘We went on a double date to the cinema in Cambridge – me, Jamie, Juliette and Sue Stump.
‘He had a Fiesta with big fog lights and an exhaust like a tractor on it. We were going over a hill listening to Bob Marley, Buffalo Soldier.
‘We’re all singing, the guy braked in front of us and Jamie smashed into him and knocked his front lights out.’
Oliver added: ‘My fog lights were hanging off so I just ripped them out and threw them away. I was so upset.’
‘Your car’s everything at that age,’ says Jimmy. ‘Juliette must have thought, “What the hell?”‘
Shortly after, Jools moved to Tokyo for a job and detailed how Jamie wrote to her every single day for three months straight.
Jamie and Jools met as teenagers after they were set up on a double date
They managed to keep their romance alive and went on to tie the knot in 2000 and welcomed five children together
In 2017, she posted a snap of the letter she has kept from her time away, writing: ‘When I was 17 I worked in Tokyo for three months and every single day Jamie sent me a letter or a fax without fail! These are only half of them.’
Reflecting on this time, Jamie admitted that they were heavily reliant on Jools’ job to survive in London.
He told Flow Magazine: ‘I was as poor as a church mouse; at the end of the month, I’d hardly have £100 left, and without Jools’ tips things would have been really grim.’
It didn’t take Jamie long to ask Jools’ father for his permission to propose. However, he was told they were too young to tie the knot.
Sadly, when Jools reached 22, her father passed away.
As Jamie could no longer ask him for permission, he decided to find a way to work his late father-in-law into his romantic proposal.
He explained: ‘I proposed to Jools in the pouring rain on Christmas Eve over his grave, which sounds really sad, but it was more out of respect for wanting to do it in front of him, even though he wasn’t alive.
‘It was a vile, dark time – but such a beautiful thing.’
In 1999, Jamie skyrocketed to fame when his show The Naked Chef premiered on BBC Two.
He went on to release a series of best-selling cookbooks, which helped turn him into a household name.
