Clare Balding is happily married to wife Alice Arnold – but it hasn’t always been rosy for the couple.
Presenter Clare, 54, has been a staple on screens for years – hosting the likes of Wimbledon, the Olympics, Channel 4’s Paralympics and America’s Biggest Dog Show: Westminster 2025 – which is on today (April 12).
Away from the showbiz and TV world, Clare lives a very wholesome personal life. She is in a happy marriage to her wife, Alice Arnold, 63, – who she has been with for more than two decades.
But when did they first get together? Who was Clare’s “handsome” army officer boyfriend? And why did Alice threaten to leave Clare? Here, we’re taking a look inside the couple’s romance.
Clare Balding had ‘handsome’ boyfriend before wife Alice
Before finding love with Alice, when Clare was younger, she struck up a romance with a “so damn handsome” army officer, who was on leave.
The pair met at a party – and it seemed Clare was smitten, as she told MailOnline in 2012 that when he kissed her, “my knees went trembly”.
Clare and her army officer continued their romance, albeit long-distance – and he eventually asked her to marry him, just before he headed to the first Gulf War.
However, when he had returned “it had become clear that we were better in long-distance letters than we were in person. He did not propose again”.
Clare met Alice when she was in a relationship
Clare eventually met Alice Arnold in 1999 at work, when the latter was a BBC Radio 4 announcer and newsreader. At first, the pair were good friends, and both were in other relationships.
“I thought you [Alice] were great at what you did, but a relationship with her was so not on the cards for me,” Clare said on the Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth podcast. She added: “I just knew I liked her and she was fun.”
However, when Alice’s relationship broke down Clare became a supportive friend to her, before things blossomed into a romance.
Alice said on the podcast: “She came to my place. I don’t really drink, so I didn’t have any alcohol in the flat. Clare came in and I said: ‘I haven’t got any drink, so why don’t I go and get some, I’ll go to the off-licence, and you stay here.'”
Alice added: “But Clare took that as ‘you stay here forever’. She never left. So basically I went out to get a bottle of wine and when I got back her toothbrush was unpacked, she had basically moved into my flat. Gyles, it worked.”
Clare’s ‘struggles’ at the start of romance
By 2002, Clare and Alice were officially together. However, at the very start of their romance, Clare “struggled” with it.
Speaking in 2018, Clare opened up about her relationship with Alice – and the early days of their romance.
“We were very much friends at first and didn’t get together until the autumn of 2002. Alice had always been ‘out’ but I wasn’t and really struggled with it,” Clare told Country Town & House.
Clare went on to explain: “The environment was very different back then – I felt ashamed because I was hiding something from my family and colleagues at work. When I finally decided to tell people about my sexuality it was a huge relief. I was happy, comfortable and not constantly worried about being found out.”
Clare Balding’s mum had ‘suspicions’ about wife Alice
As well as Clare’s “struggles”, the pair also had to deal with Clare’s mum at the start of their romance, as she wasn’t too keen on Alice.
“My mother, think, was a bit suspicious from early on as, A) Alice is from London,” Clare revealed on Gyles Brandreth’s Rosebud podcast.
Alice then interjected: “And, wasn’t a country girl.” Clare continued: “And secondly, she was an actress at that time and both of those things were a little bit, ooh.”
Alice chimed in and quipped: “I might as well have been a prostitute.”
Clare Balding on why she and wife never had kids
Back in 2006, before gay marriage was legalised in the UK, Clare and Alice entered into a civil partnership. The happy couple celebrated with friends and family in an 18th-century Palladian villa in Chiswick.
Nine years later and in April 2015, Clare and Alice married in a private ceremony at the same venue.
And while some people would expect the pair to have settled down with children, Clare “never had the urge” to have kids of their own.
“It’s my choice, but of course, it’s not something that’s going to happen by accident,” she told Radio Times in 2015.
The TV legend went on: “Yes, it could happen if I wished it to. I have two nephews, a niece and eight godchildren, and I love that. But I don’t want kids. I just never had that urge.”
Alice’s ultimatum to Clare
With Clare being a regular on TV screens, it turns out there is one show she will not do; but when she was offered to do it, Alice was not too happy about it…
Appearing on the Smart TV podcast, Clare spoke about turning down the chance to appear on Strictly Come Dancing.
Talking about her dance skills, Clare said: “It’s not something anybody needs to see, it’s not.”
She then went on to share how Alice reacted when the Strictly offer was put forward.
“Alice has very strong feelings about this. When the request came through she said: ‘You can say yes to that if you like, but I won’t be here when you come back,'” Clare revealed.
Podcast host Alison Hammond – who appeared on Strictly in 2014 – then said she understood the “ultimatum”. And alluding to the show’s curse, she claimed that the show “does split people up”.
Watch Clare on America’s Biggest Dog Show: Westminster 2025 on Saturday (April 12) at 2:40pm on Channel 4.
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