Fatima Whitbread MBE, aka Fatima Vedad, recently appeared in I’m A Celeb and ended up in third place. The 62-year-old retired javelin thrower appeared in the show in 2011 and ended up at the same place, though she revealed some of her secrets that time.
Whitbread began throwing javelin at eleven and had an abusive biological mother. Looking at her love for sports and poor conditions, she was adopted by a javelin coach, Margaret Whitbread. In 2003, Fatima stated that her love for sports made her meet her real mother (the adoptive mother).
Apart from sports, Fatima appeared on television and radio. She recently received the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. She is Christian but calls herself ‘not devout.’ Her career was affected after 1986 due to her long-term shoulder injury, and she formally retired in 1992.
Fatima Whitbread Partner
We do not know whether Fatima Whitbread is currently single. Her only reported partner is Andrew (Andy) Norman. Thanks to her autobiography, published in 2012. Andy worked for the British Athletics Federation as a promoter in the 1980s and 1990s and later became her manager.
Apart from that, Whitbread’s 2012 autobiography states that Andy was IAAF Member Federation, AAF Advertising Commissioner, and the forerunner to the UK Athletics. Whitbread began a relationship with Andy soon after his divorce in 1986. His ex-wife got custody of their children, Stephen and Kirsti.
Andy ran British Athletics and worked with several famous athletes. Moreover, he played a key role in several athletes’ careers, especially in the beginning. Andy and Whitbread announced their engagement in 1992.
Eleven years after Andy divorced his ex-wife Gerd White, Whitbread married him in St John The Evangelist Church in Copthorne, West Sussex. They tried having a baby through IVF because she reportedly struggled to conceive naturally. The baby born in the second round showed no signs of life after birth. Finally, their son Ryan Norman was born in the third round on 25 February 1998.
Whitbread divorced Andy in 2006, and their eighteen-year age gap was a different topic for gossip. However, the couple remained friends after that.
Whitbread and Ryan worked together for charity. They appeared in Celebrity Cash in the Attic in 2011 and helped Action for Children financially by climbing Mont Blanc in 2022. Andy died of a heart attack at sixty-four in 2007, and Whitbread raised Ryan alone.
After Andy’s Death
Andy’s ex-wife, Gerd White, watched Whitbread on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! (2011) and recollected her bitter memories. She confessed to The Mirror that she never expected her husband, Andy Norman, to leave her for Whitbread due to their gap of eighteen years.
Gerd White also stated that Andy enthusiastically talked about Fatima, the javelin thrower. On the other hand, the I’m A Celeb series revealed one more secret. Whitbread was allegedly offered a role in one of the Bond films, Octopussy, where she had to appear as Lady Fatima and sit on James in a fight scene.
Octopussy is the thirteenth James Bond film produced by Eon Productions and a 1983 spy film. Andy allegedly did not allow Whitbread to accept the offer, which would have been a milestone for her. Whitbread left the show I’m A Celeb when she was in the third position.
In 2012, Whitbread was reportedly ready to find another partner after divorcing Andy because she was retired and her son, who was fourteen, wanted his personal space. She realized it after getting some time from her year-long busy schedule.
Thus, Whitbread thought she deserved a partner and a few dates. However, she did not reveal the status of her current relationship. Moreover, she did not reveal her other relationships, which indicates she prioritizes her privacy.
Andrew (Andy) Norman
Born on 21 September 1943 in Suffolk, UK, Andy worked as a police officer before turning to sports. He was linked to a British athletics journalist, Clifford Geoffrey Temple’s suicide case. Clifford began an investigation into the business affairs of Andy and Whitbread.
Thus, Andy threatened Clifford to sue him for sexually harassing a young athlete if he did not stop poking his nose in their business. However, Clifford did not listen to Andy, and their war began.
The duo reportedly had this conversation over the telephone, and Andy was shortly dismissed from his high-profile job in British athletics after Clifford’s tragic death. On the other hand, the jury reportedly did not find any evidence of Clifford sexually harassing anyone. Thus, his good name was cleared.
