Mail Online

Agony for Annabel as her husband dies weeks after being told he had cancer

By Alison Boshoff Showbusiness Writer

FORMER tennis star Annabel Croft has been left devastated after the sudden death of her husband, a few weeks after he was diagnosed with cancer.

Broadcaster Ms Croft, 56, married former professional yachtsman Mel Coleman in 1992.

Around eight weeks ago after complaining of stomach pain, Mr Coleman was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer. He died earlier this week, aged 60.

Mr Coleman, a successful investment banker who took part in the America’s Cup and more recently ran a tennis school with his wife, was noted for his apparently perfect health and, like Ms Croft, enjoyed an active outdoors lifestyle. After Covid lockdowns, the two of them converted an old delivery van into a mobile home and took it around the country and into Europe on walking holidays.

Last night, Ms Croft said: ‘ My beloved husband Mel passed away peacefully on Wednesday morning after a short battle with cancer. My family and I are completely heartbroken and ask for privacy at this very sad time.’

A friend said: ‘This has come as an extreme shock to everyone – the diagnosis was out of the blue and Mel did not seem unwell at the time.

‘Sadly the cancer progressed brutally... and he passed earlier this week. Everyone is devastated and horrified, and Annabel is absolutely shattered.

‘The two of them have been together forever and were a wonderful couple.’

They have three grown-up children Charlie, Amber and Lilly.

The pair met just before Ms Croft quit the tennis tour and he was her first serious boyfriend.

Earlier this year Ms Croft, a former British number one, recalled that her path crossed with Mr Coleman’s quite by chance when she was at a crisis point.

Aged 21, she was at the US Open having a pep talk from fellow player John Newcombe, who suggested that she should think about what she wanted to do with her life as she seemed unhappy. She had been on the tennis tour for nearly six years and was lonely, stressed and lost by the demands of incessantly competing.

‘As we were having this chat, I got a text from my mother saying the BBC production office in Belfast were asking whether I’d be interested in filming a programme about yacht racing.

‘I’d never been on a yacht before, but it ended up with me, Eamonn Holmes and Peter Skellern going off to Guernsey to shoot a programme where we learnt how to race a yacht.

‘Mel, who had just got back from Australia after the Americas Cup, was one of the yachtsmen and that is how we met.

‘After a day’s filming we’d all go the pub, have dinner – it sounds

‘Completely heartbroken’

‘A wonderful couple’

weird, but I’d never really done that – and I remember thinking, gosh this is really fun and normal, and I want a bit more of this rather than getting up and putting on a tracksuit and stressing about whether my backhand is working today.’

They married six years later. Ms Croft has long been a fixture in the BBC’s Wimbledon coverage and also covers tennis tournaments around the world. The family lives in Coombe, Surrey, near to Wimbledon.

In a recent interview with the Daily Mail she spoke about her excitement at the prospect of going travelling with her husband in their van post-lockdown.

She said: ‘I think we will be OK, given how long we have been together. It’s about the freedom and the sense of adventure.’

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2023-05-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-05-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

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