Steffan Thomas meets Josh Navidi and his wife Ellé to find out about their new life after he was forced to walk away from the sport that meant so much
Josh Navidi and his wife Ellé (Image: John Myers)
There are few rugby players in Wales quite as recognisable, or as loved, as Josh Navidi.
More than three years have passed since the former Wales back-rower called time on a distinguished playing career, but the affection for him has hardly diminished.
Now, that career is receiving the recognition it richly deserves.
Navidi, 35, has been awarded a testimonial year; a fitting tribute to a player who earned 33 caps for Wales and spent the entirety of his club career with Cardiff.
But while the testimonial year will rightly celebrate everything Navidi achieved on the field, there is another story to tell about the man who walked away from rugby and the life he has built since.
It is early morning when I catch up with Navidi and his wife, Ellé. And as the conversation unfolds, it quickly becomes clear that life is about far more than rugby these days.
“Life is a lot busier now than when I was playing,” Navidi tells WalesOnline.
“I think learning to balance my time and schedule things in was a big one as I’m guilty of trying to cram as much as I can in to my day and my diary ends up looking nuts, but with rugby it’s a bit more structured where you know when you’re eating, when you’re going to the gym, and when you’re training and stuff.
“Everything’s done for you when it comes to time management, I think that’s the massive adjustment.
“But yeah, it’s a big, big change, but you just try to adapt as quickly as possible to life after rugby.
“I’m always working, whether it’s at my bar or DJing.”
Ellé interjects.
“I woke up yesterday morning and there was a digger in our garden with no warnings,” she laughs at the sight of her husband working outside at the couple’s rural home in Llantwit Major.
“You just don’t stop. You’re just here, there and everywhere.
“But it’s a good thing. I think the nice thing since you’ve retired is you’ve kind of just hit the ground running in the things you loved before as well.
“So with the DJing for instance, it just allows you to spend more time doing those things you enjoy, which has been really nice to see for me.
“After rugby you worry a bit about your partner and how they’re going to cope with the retirement and adjusting to a new type of life, whereas actually he just picked up the things he was enjoying as a hobby while playing and really turned it into a positive.
Life has been hectic for former Wales star Josh Navidi since retirement(Image: John Myers)
“We then had our little girl, so I just think you retired and instead of everything slowing down like we thought it would, things picked up massively, but in a really good way.”
Since retirement, Navidi has combined his entrepreneurial instincts with his musical pursuits, launching a pop-up bar, aptly named Navidi’s Bar.
He is also a respected DJ in Cardiff.
“With the DJ’ing this summer’s been quite busy where I’ve had two, three gigs a week doing stuff from festivals, rugby clubs and corporate stuff,” he says.
“I also do nightclubs as well and then I’ve also got my pink mobile bar which has been going really well.
“I’ve got another bar on the way now which is going to be easier to tow around.
“The plan is to be able to drop it to venues, events, wherever it needs to go really and it will have a DJ booth on top like my other bar.
“And then I’ve got a mini one, which is more for weddings and golf days, anything like that, with two pumps on it.”
Josh Navidi as DJ at half-time of the Wales v Italy game during the Six Nations
He has also retained links with the world he left behind.
“I do one day a week with Bearhug where I’m head of brand and athlete partnerships, I used Bearhug’s products while I was playing and I swore by them for recovery, injury prevention and just support at times,” he said.“It got me through our 2019 Grand Slam with my hamstring.
“I probably wouldn’t have played in one of the games because it was a bit twingy, but it got me through it.”
While Navidi has thrown himself into life after rugby, Ellé has been doing much the same.
She is enjoying a successful career in PR and marketing and now runs her own business.
“When I fell pregnant and during my maternity leave I’d been thinking for a while I wanted to go out and do something on my own,” she says.
“But having my little girl gave me that push in to realising that I was serious and I wanted to build something of my own and set that example for her.
“Ultimately everything we do is for her and her future and nothing is more important than that.
Former Wales international Josh Navidi and his wife Ellé (Image: John Myers)
“So when my maternity leave finished, I handed my notice in, which was so bittersweet because I really loved the job I was in and everyone I worked with, I had the best team around me, but it felt like the right time.
“So for about a year and a half now, I’ve been working for myself building my own little business and I love it.
“It’s been amazing. I couldn’t have asked for a better start. I’ve got the most amazing clients and it’s been such a positive experience for me.
“I think just going out on my own and knowing I can do it myself it has been the biggest thing.“I know it sounds silly, but I think sometimes you get so comfortable working in a team and relying on them for support and success comes as a group effort, and it’s been quite nice to sort of do that on my own and know my own capabilities, and obviously Josh has been massively supportive.
“Then on top of that I’m also running around with Josh for everything he’s doing, so things really are non-stop. But I wouldn’t change any of it.”
Navidi’s testimonial year will get under way with a Beaujolais Day celebration at the Principality Stadium on November 19, followed by a programme of events throughout the next 12 months, including golf days, padel tournaments and Q&A sessions at local rugby clubs.
Alongside the celebrations, Navidi will use his testimonial to raise money for the Maxwell Family Genomics Fund, and other charities he supports throughout the year helping to give the year a purpose beyond the rugby field.
For all the attention that will be lavished on the player, though, there is another side to Navidi’s career that is perhaps easier to understand from the perspective of the person who was beside him throughout it.
Ellé experienced the highs and she also experienced the lows.
Josh Navidi in action for Wales(Image: Chris Fairweather/Huw Evans Agency)
And she experienced the fear that came with watching someone she loved repeatedly put his body on the line.
“I remember being at a game with one of my friends once. I saw Josh come out of a scrum and he just had blood all down his face,” she says.
“And I remember my friend saying ‘Oh my God, he’s bleeding.’ It was almost like I’d become so desensitised to it that I was like, ‘Oh, he’s fine. Don’t worry.’
“You’ve got to harden up to it because otherwise, if you’re going to sit there wincing the entire game, you will never watch a game and enjoy it.
“I think I always used to go into the games thinking, ‘he’s doing what he loves’, and I think when you’re there and you’re watching them, and I’d see him come out of the tunnel in a Cardiff or Welsh jersey, you’d have this sense of pride that would overcome anything you were anxious about.
“But then when an injury happened, you’d come crashing back down then. I think when it was injuries like an elbow or your shoulder or stuff, those are things you can kind of deal with.
“But then when he injured his neck, that’s when I really struggled with it.”
The serious neck injury was very different, indeed.
Navidi had suffered it during Wales’ tour of South Africa in 2022 and would never fully recover. He eventually announced his retirement the following year at the age of just 32.
But before the end came, there was surgery, rehabilitation and the hope he might somehow make it back.
For Ellé, watching that process unfold and eventually finish her husband’s career, was devastating.
Former Wales star Josh Navidi has been awarded a testimonial year(Image: John Myers)
“With things like neck injuries, it’s not something you can just brush off, it’s really scary,” she says.
“We always used to joke about how much time I’d spent in the hospital with him after his surgeries. The funny thing was the hospital he was in was opposite one of my old offices.
“So I’d be in work, and then I’d go across and see him.
“But I think when he had surgery on his neck, that was soul-destroying to watch.
“I think that’s the worst you’ve ever had to deal with.”
There was another reason why the injury hit particularly hard.
At the time, Josh and Ellé were thinking about starting a family, as the injury occurred just before they got married.
The possibility that rugby could have consequences far beyond his playing career suddenly became impossible to ignore.
“I remember talking to you about it, and I was just like, ‘I’ll never tell you that you shouldn’t play anymore, that decision has to be yours’” Ellé says.
“But I know we were thinking about having a family and what life was going to look like for us, and I was just thinking, ‘I know how much you want kids, and I know how much you want that family life,’ and it gets to a point where that might be taken away.
“That’s kind of where it becomes a little bit scary, and you’ve got to think about it a bit more logically.”
That was the point when the conversation changed. It wasn’t simply about whether Navidi could get back on a rugby pitch. It was about what might happen if he did.
And Ellé was never going to make that decision for him.
“You and your surgeon after your neck surgery came to that decision together,” she says.
“I didn’t really have to get involved, I was just there to support you whatever the outcome.
“But I remember after that injury the process of trying to get you recovered, it was in the back of my mind that we needed to sit down and really talk about it, because it’s your quality of life after rugby that I worried about the most.”
Navidi ultimately had to accept that the career he had built his life around was over.
It was a brutal way for it to end.
But when he looks back now, there is no sense that the injury has taken away his appreciation of what came before it.
Quite the opposite.
He looks back on his rugby career with immense pride, carrying with him a store of treasured memories.
“Winning my first cap was a special moment and I’ll always remember being in the changing rooms after the 2019 Grand Slam game against Ireland,” he says.
“Running out as captain for a pre-World Cup friendly, that was a massive honour.
“I never thought I’d go on a Lions tour, so that was the cherry on top for me.
“I really do treasure the memories of being in that changing room after games with the boys. I think that’s the thing that sticks with you the most.
Those memories belong to Ellé too.
Watching Josh play for Cardiff in Bilbao remains one of her favourites.
“We hadn’t long met and had been together for under a year,” she says.
“I remember coming home and not knowing what had hit me after being part of the celebrations when you won the Challenge Cup. It was wild.
“That was such an incredible weekend.”
Then there was Japan.
“That was an incredible experience, we were with family and a lot of the other partners had come out too and it was just such a lovely feeling to be a part of something like that.
“I know it sounds silly, but obviously you’re in a big city like Tokyo and there was just so many Welsh people there and faces you knew.
“I bumped into people from where I’m from even on the street in Tokyo.”
Those were the big rugby memories but perhaps the memory that means the most now came after Navidi had stopped playing professionally.
It happened at a touch rugby festival at the Arms Park.
Josh and Ellé took their daughter along.
For the first time, she got to see her dad running around a rugby pitch among the people who had adored him.
“She was enthralled by it, Ellé says.
“She was on the side shouting, ‘Run, Daddy, run’, she was so excited watching him run around the pitch.
“That was so special for us because she never got to see him when he was playing and Josh never had that experience of having her there.
“We took her for a little walk down the tunnel and stuff, and she could see you on the board, that was amazing.”
Rugby may have given Navidi some of the most important moments of his 35 years, but more than three years into retirement, he is discovering there is a pretty good life after too.
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