This mellowing owes much to his brush with his own mortality. In 2017, he underwent eight hours of surgery to repair a thoracic aortic aneurysm, often referred to as a “silent killer” because it can be fatal even without symptoms. “I sat with my surgeon, Ulrich Rosendahl, on a Monday and he said: ‘We’re going to have to operate.’ ‘What’s your time frame?’ I asked. ‘Well, I’ll clear the diary on Thursday.’ When I asked him afterwards whether we had done the right thing, he replied: ‘If you had got two more days out of that, I’d have been very surprised.’” One common after-effect of such a procedure is a heightened emotional vulnerability, to which Keys is far from immune. “He spent Christmas Day in tears,” Lucie says. “He gets overwhelmed.”
“I can’t explain it,” he concedes. “It’s something internal, where your body says, ‘You’re a bit lucky here.’”
On occasion, the capacity for introspection still deserts him. In January this year, he tripped up with the wording of a tribute to Logan’s father, Keys’s Coventry City idol Terry Yorath, on his death at the age of 75. “He was great for us at Coventry and the reason I got Gabby a job at Sky,” Keys wrote on X. “I had no idea who she was when we met. RIP Terry. Your daughter did you proud.” The instant backlash was captured by presenter Laura Woods’s withering verdict: “What a t–t. Said with zero surprise.” The remark plainly still rankles. “I would never, ever have described a senior member of my profession as a t–t,” he mutters. “A little bit more respect, please.”
What aggravates him even more, though, is a persistent depiction of Lucie as his daughter Jemma’s best friend. While it is true that the two socialised together in Doha, and that Jemma’s discovery of Lucie’s romantic connection to her father provoked intense anger, Keys is adamant the nature of the relationship has been misrepresented. “What’s damaging is that people presume I ran away with my daughter’s best mate, locked her in a room, and gave her no choice about whether she wanted to be with me or not. All of which is nonsense. Lucie’s one of the most powerful, strong-minded individuals you’ll come across. She’s deeply passionate about women’s rights. People see me as an easy target, but the narrative is not fair on her. It’s totally wrong.”
Seeking to restore some levity to the situation, he jokes that he has been struggling to decide who to ask for advice. “Most people would turn to the father-in-law,” he grins. “But he’s younger than me.” The comfort is that he and Lucie are no longer separated by time zones, with Keys choosing to part ways with beIN Sports at the end of his 13th season in Qatar. Although he has been a vocal advocate for the country, which gave him the chance of a professional renaissance without judgment, he grew tired of the pressures of sustaining a marriage from 3,500 miles away. “We’ve been together but apart for 10 years,” he says. “It’s enough.” These days, he derives contentment from simple pleasures, such as riding a Lime bike around London or preparing for Coventry’s imminent return to the Premier League after 25 years.
Even as he approaches 70, he also wants to be a father again. The revelation arrives out of nowhere, when I press him as to his future plans. “If something of that nature happened, I would be a very, very happy man,” he says, smiling. “I’ve looked around at men my age who have entered the fatherhood phase for a second time, and they all seem to be a lot more relaxed. They’re more understanding of the role they have. I’ve come to the conclusion that when you’re in your 20s, 30s, you’re pushing your shoulders to the wheel and you haven’t got time to be a good father. I’ve got plenty of time.” Given his “war-torn” past, as he puts it, he is relaxed about how all this is regarded. Gesturing towards Lucie, he reflects: “It is cathartic just to be able to sit for the first time and say: ‘Look, this is our story.’”
It is, by any gauge, an unexpected one. If there is a single unifying thread in the engrossing chaos of Keys’s life, it is that he continues to confound.
Go behind the scenes with Oliver Brown as he meets Richard Keys and his wife Lucie Rose in their home – sign up to the new Telegraph Total Football newsletter, in your inbox for free every Monday.