Inside Andrew Symonds’ life of ‘paradise’ with wife Laura and their two kids

Andrew Symonds might have been best known for his contribution to Australian cricket, but it was life off the field that was “his paradise”.

Andrew Symonds might have been best known as a legend of Australian cricket, but it was his life with wife Laura and their two children that was “his paradise”.

The 46-year-old was killed overnight in a single-car accident outside Townsville, where the family-of-four lived, when his vehicle left the road and rolled. Paramedics tried to save him but were unable to.

Symonds’ family confirmed the devastating news this morning, with Laura telling The Courier-Mail: “We are still in shock – I’m just thinking of the two kids.”

“He was such a big person and there is just so much of him in his kids,” she added.

“He was the most laid back person. Nothing stressed him out. He was an extremely chilled operator. So practical.

“He was never good with his phone but he always had time for everyone.”

Laura, their daughter Chloe and son Billy flew from Sydney to Townsville this morning after being informed of Symonds’ death.

Symonds with his wife Laura and their two children Chloe and Billy in 2016. Picture: Mark Cranitch

The legend described his kids as ‘two rippers’. Picture: Instagram

Symonds with his son at a State of Origin match in 2020. Picture: Instagram

‘It’s his paradise’

Symonds married Laura in 2014, 12 months after the birth of their son.

The couple met when she was studying a Bachelor of Exercise and Movement Science at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), and was assigned work experience with the Queensland Bulls’ strength and conditioning department in 2004.

Both were in relationships at the time, but struck up a friendship and on Melbourne Cup Day in 2009, Symonds texted Laura asking if she had a tip. When the horse won and Symonds cleaned up as a result, he asked her to his Brisbane home for dinner to celebrate.

“He’d caught these crabs and fish and laid the table with all this beautiful seafood, and I didn’t eat seafood at the time. I thought, oh no, how am I going to get through this?” Laura recalled in a 2016 interview with The Courier-Mail.

He won her over, though, and the pair were together ever since.

Symonds and Laura at the NQ Jelly Baby Gala Ball.

When Laura was pregnant with their daughter – and was set to give birth during the sixth IPL season – Symonds chose to retire.

“He was over the game at the time,” Laura said. “Not his teammates, but the politics and the negativity. He needed to get back up here (to Townsville). He has everything he needs to be happy up here. It’s his paradise.”

In the same interview, Symonds said the couple had “moved to the next stage in our lives”.

“We’ve got a good set-up here, two ripper kids,” he said.

Speaking to the Nine Network this morning, former Australian captain Allan Border said the big-hitting all-rounder “loved” his life away from the spotlight.

“People liked his very laid-back style. He lived in Townsville. When I spoke to him, I think he still had a hundred head of cattle to muster,” he said.

“Simmo away from the cameras and away from the spotlight, loved, I think, a bit of solitude and that is why he loved his fishing. Loved his own time.”

Symonds welcomed his son into the world in September 2013. Picture: Instagram

Symonds celebrating Father’s Day with his children in 2020. Picture: Instagram

Symonds ‘never met’ his birth parents

Born in England on June 9, 1975, Symonds moved to Australia with his adoptive parents, English schoolteachers Ken and Barbara Symonds, when he was just 18 months old.

“I’m an adopted child, right, so I don’t actually know my natural parents. I’ve never met them,” he told The Brett Lee Podcast of his adoption late last month.

“But when I was six-weeks-old, my mother and father went to the clinic and they applied to adopt a child. And so the way that things worked back in those days was, they got to take me home for a week and just trial me. A test drive.

“And I remember mum tells the story that they took me home for the week and I played up and cried and was terrible, and so they went back to the clinic and were asked, ‘How did he go?’ and she goes, ‘You know, he was an angel. He was perfect. We’d like to keep him’.

“So they signed all the paperwork and I became Andrew Symonds, going home with Kenneth Walter Symonds and Barbara Symonds as their son.”

Listen to Andrew Symonds in his final interview by searching for The Brett Lee Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, or press play here:

It was during his childhood that he earned his longstanding nickname “Roy”, given to him by a junior sports coach for his likeness to basketballer Leroy Loggins.

The family settled on the Gold Coast in 1988, when Symonds’ dad Ken was appointed deputy headmaster at All Saints.

Marriage to childhood sweetheart Brooke Marshall

The Anglican school was where Symonds met his childhood sweetheart, Brooke Marshall, who he married 11 years later on April 24, 2004 at St John’s Anglican cathedral in Brisbane.

“He’s N.o 1 and he makes me feel that way too,” Ms Marshall said at the time of the nuptials.

“He might have a rough exterior but he’s a softie inside and knows how to look after his girl.”

But it wasn’t set to last – the couple went their separate ways just over a year later, in September 2005.

In his 2006 book, Roy: Going for Broke, Symonds revealed he was on the verge of calling it quits from cricket in a bid to save his marriage.

“I seriously thought about stepping down from it and cricket altogether. My reasoning was that if there was any chance of rebuilding my marriage then perhaps I was better off without cricket,” he wrote.

Andrew Symonds and Brooke Marshall at their Brisbane wedding on April 24, 2004. Picture: Jamie Hanson

The couple were childhood sweethearts, marrying 11 years after they first met. Picture: Jamie Hanson

It sadly wasn’t meant to last, with the pair separating the following September. Picture: Jamie Hanson

“I spoke at length with Brooke and (psychologist) Phil Jauncey, and Phil said that while giving up cricket would have shown commitment, I needed to ask myself whether I was prepared to lose the two things I loved, because if things didn’t work out with Brooke I would have nothing.

“I decided if we were going to make the most of a second chance it would have to involve cricket because that was one of the few things I could rely upon to give us a future.”

Symonds concluded that he was “sorry Brooke had to deal with what she did and if I had my time again I would do things differently, but I believe you learn a lot more from your mistakes than your successes and I have emerged a changed person”.