Jamie Oliver looked unrecognizable in a throwback photo of him and wife Jools on their first holiday together in Crete that he shared on Sunday.
The TV chef and midwife, both 51, joked “we haven’t changed a bit” with the photo from their youth.
In the photo, the young chef sported long blonde locks while wearing matching baseball caps 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 the Spinalogkas Peninsula… We haven’t changed a bit, have we?’
Jamie and Jools met as teenagers after going on a double date.
Jools, then 17 years old, moved to Tokyo for three months for work, with Jamie writing her love letters every day.
They managed to keep their romance alive and married 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 unrecognizable in a throwback photo of him and wife Jools, both 51, on their first holiday together in Crete that he shared on Sunday
The TV chef and midwife, both 51, joked ‘we haven’t changed a bit’ alongside the photo from their youth
Jamie met his future wife in 1992 on a double date with his friend Jimmy Doherty, who later became a TV presenter.
In an interview with the Daily Mail in 2018, Jamie explained how Jimmy introduced him to Jools at the age of 18.
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 walked over a hill and listened to Bob Marley, Buffalo Soldier.
“We’re all singing, the guy braked in front of us and Jamie crashed into him and knocked his headlights out.”
Oliver added: “My fog lights were hanging off so I just took them out and threw them away. I was so upset.’
“Your car is everything at that age,” says Jimmy. “Juliette must have thought, ‘What the hell?'”
Shortly afterwards, Jools moved to Tokyo for a job and explained how Jamie wrote to her every day for three months.
Jamie and Jools met as teenagers after going on a double date
They managed to keep their romance alive and tied the knot in 2000 and welcomed five children together
In 2017, she posted an excerpt of the letter she saved from her absence, writing: “When I was 17, I worked in Tokyo for three months and Jamie sent me a letter or a fax every day! This is only half of it.’
Looking back on this time, Jamie admitted that they relied heavily 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 would have barely £100 left, and without Jools’ tips it would have been very bleak.’
It didn’t take long for Jamie to ask Jools’ father for permission to propose. However, he was told that they were too young to tie the knot.
Unfortunately, her father died when Jools turned 22.
No longer able to ask his permission, Jamie decided to find a way to involve his late father-in-law in his romantic proposal.
He explained: ‘I proposed to Jools on Christmas Eve in the pouring rain over his grave, which sounds very sad, but it was more out of respect because I wanted to do it in his presence even though he was no longer alive.
‘It was a terrible, dark time, but so beautiful.’
In 1999, Jamie shot to fame when his show The Naked Chef premiered on BBC Two.
He went on to release a series of best-selling cookbooks that made him a household name.
