She is best known as the wife of Gary Neville, the former Manchester United and England defender who now works as a Sky Sports pundit. For most of their marriage she gave no interviews and made only occasional public appearances. That changed from 2023 onward, when she began speaking about her own experience of early menopause and started an online community called This Is Me, which now has close to 40,000 followers.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full name | Emma Hadfield, now working under the name Emma Neville |
| Husband | Gary Neville, former Manchester United and England defender, now a Sky Sports pundit |
| Married | 16 June 2007, Manchester Cathedral |
| Children | Two daughters, Molly and Sophie, born 2009 and 2010 |
| Current work | Counsellor and menopause coach, founder of This Is Me |
Table of Contents
How Did Emma Hadfield Meet Gary Neville?
Emma Hadfield met Gary Neville in 2004 on a night out, when she was 23 and he was already an established defender for Manchester United and England. She has since said the early relationship took some adjusting to, including Neville’s habit of going to bed early during the football season, something she found strange at first and got used to over time. They married three years later.
Why Did She Take The Sun To Court In 2005?
In the summer of 2004, while Neville was away with England at Euro 2004, The Sun published a story accusing Hadfield of being unfaithful. She denied it, and when the paper refused to retract the claim, she took the matter to the High Court in London.
The case never reached trial. In May 2005, The Sun’s publisher accepted that the story was untrue and had no basis, apologised in full, and paid Hadfield £75,000 in damages along with her legal costs. She gave no interviews about the case at the time, and has said very little about it since.
When Did She Marry Gary Neville?
Gary Neville and Emma Hadfield married on 16 June 2007 at Manchester Cathedral. Guests included Wayne Rooney and his then girlfriend Colleen McLoughlin, former Manchester United captain Bryan Robson, and several of Neville’s teammates from the Class of ’92.
In the years that followed, the couple made few joint public appearances beyond events tied to Gary Neville’s career, including the 2013 premiere of the Class of ’92 documentary in London. Hadfield did not give interviews of her own during this period.
Does Emma Hadfield Have Children?
Yes. Emma Hadfield and Gary Neville have two daughters, Molly and Sophie, born in 2009 and 2010. Both are now teenagers. Hadfield has said one reason she started speaking publicly about menopause was to make sure her daughters grew up understanding it.
Why Did She Become A Menopause Coach?
Emma Hadfield was approaching her 40th birthday in 2019, near the end of five years of training as a counsellor that included voluntary work at Bury Cancer Centre, when she began noticing changes she did not recognise. She struggled to concentrate, cried without warning, and felt unlike herself. The final part of her course was disrupted by the Covid lockdown, which pushed her training online at an already difficult time. She was later diagnosed with premature ovarian insufficiency at 41, a form of menopause that arrives well before the UK average age of 51.
She has described that period as lonely, and said she had little idea how to support herself through it at the time. She went on to complete a further qualification as a menopause coach, training through a course run by Adele Johnston, known professionally as The Menopause Coach, and launched This Is Me in 2023.
What Does Emma Neville Do Now?
This Is Me now has close to 40,000 followers on Instagram, where Emma Neville posts short videos filmed with women she meets around Manchester, along with her own reflections on menopause and mental health. Over the past two years, she has:
- Spoken at the University of Salford during Menopause Awareness Month
- Partnered with the skincare brand ESPA on managing menopause symptoms
- Taken on the role of Wellness Ambassador at UA92, the university Gary Neville helped set up
- Appeared with her husband on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast, recorded live at the Happy Place Festival in August 2024
- Presented the Great Mancunian Ball alongside Gary Neville in November 2024, raising money for St Ann’s Hospice
She also spoke at a Women in Property breakfast event in Manchester in January 2026.
Gary Neville has built several businesses since retiring from football, including Salford City, Hotel Football and the media company The Overlap, in which he sold a majority stake to Global Media and Entertainment this January. Emma Neville’s own public work began with a menopause diagnosis and a coaching course she took during lockdown. Her next public talk on the subject takes place in London this October, at the Menopause in Aesthetics event.
