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Dad-of-22 Noel Radford criticised for 'retiring' from pie shop to spend more time with kids
28 February 2023, 08:06 | Updated: 28 February 2023, 08:07
Noel Radford announces he's retiring
22 Kids and Counting's Noel Radford told viewers he'd baked his last loaf before 'retiring' to spend more time with his kids.
Dad-of-22 Noel Radford has been criticised after he ‘retired' in the latest episode of 22 Kids and Counting.
The father of Britain's biggest family has run his own bakery in Morecambe called the Radford Pie Company since 1999 with the help of some of his children.
But in the most recent episode of the show, he decided he wanted to give it up to spend more time with his family.
"No more getting up early. Hang up my gloves, time to move on," Noel told his wife Sue Radford.
He was then seen putting his daughter Chloe, 27, and son Luke, 22, up against each other to see who should take over the family business.
After eventually handing over the responsibilities, Noel struggled to help Sue around the house, admitting: “I've no idea what I'm doing here.”
- Mum-of-22 Sue Radford forced to defend luxury holiday to the Maldives
- Mum-of-22 Sue Radford attends glitzy award ceremony as pie business is up for prize
But despite going through all that, Noel eventually decided he found retirement boring and had to practically beg his kids to give him his job back.
Noel told his wife: “I'm not past my best-by date yet, I think I'm going back,” to which Sue then replied: “There actually one problem there, actually, two.
“You can't go back to being a control freak. You're going to have to ask Luke and Chloe if you can have your job back.”
As he asked to be let back into the bakery, Chloe could be heard saying: “You're only an employee now.”
Fans at home weren’t impressed, with one writing on Twitter: "What a load of nonsense. We all know he’s not retired.”
"This week Noel’s pretending he’s going to retire,” said someone else.
This comes after Noel and Sue were forced to defend their luxury trip to the Maldives, just days after complaining about the cost of living crisis.
Radfords trust their kids with the weekly shop
To celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary, the couple splashed out on business class tickets for the first part of their journey and stayed in a beautiful resort where private villas cost £897 a night.
Noel said: “You know we're really spoiling ourselves. But... 30 years... why shouldn't we.”
Sue added: “We've worked really hard, haven't we? Not just with the work, and family life, but we've had to work on our marriage as well, haven't we?”
