Clare Balding is happily married to wife Alice Arnold – but the beloved TV star’s love life hasn’t always been a walk in the park.
For years, Clare has been a staple on screens – hosting coverage on Wimbledon, the Olympics and Channel 4’s Paralympics – which is on screens all weekend.
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 – who she has been with for over two decades.
However, it hasn’t always been rosy for Clare. Keep reading to take a look inside her love life…
Clare Balding had army officer boyfriend before wife
Speaking to MailOnline in 2012, Clare recalled how when she was younger, she met an army officer, who was on leave, at a party.
When he kissed me, my knees went trembly.
“He had dark, floppy hair, olive skin and sparkling eyes, and was so damned handsome I could not believe he was talking to me. When he kissed me, my knees went trembly,” she said.
Clare noted how she didn’t think he could bother to call but he did – with the pair “inseparable” until his leave came to an end. The pair continued to write to each other every day – but Clare said: “It was soon put to the test.”
Clare Balding’s ex ‘disappointed’ over weight gain
Clare recalled that during their romance, she was sent to France by her mum to improve her language skills. While there, she indulged heavily in food and put on weight.
But when she finally met up with her army officer beau after 12 weeks apart, Clare said she “will never forget the look on his face”.
She went on to claim how the Army officer did not “appreciate” her “new-found curves”, as “disappointment registered in his eyes” when she met him.
“‘You’ve been eating well,’ he said as we embraced,” noted Clare. She added how her ex-beau “obviously” loved her more “when she was thin”.
‘He did not propose again’
What’s more, just as he was about to be sent to the first Gulf War, Clare’s boyfriend asked to marry her – to which Clare told him to ask her again when he came back.
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.”
‘Looking in wrong section of library’
After Clare and the army officer split, she revealed she “went out with a few more boys. Because that’s what I thought I was meant to do”.
She added: “I was taking them out like books from the library and returning them when I didn’t get into the story. It was another few years before I realised I’d been looking in the wrong section of the library,” Clare said.
Clare 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 in other relationships. But things progressed into something more and they got together in 2002.
Clare Balding and wife Alice: ‘It’s about equality’
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. Speaking about her marriage Clare told previously said: “It’s about equality.”
She continued on The Jonathan Ross Show: “It’s just about knowing that you can. And knowing that you can say: ‘I’m married’ and nobody’s going to think that’s married in inverted commas. I think it’s great.”
Watch Clare on the Paralympics all weekend on Channel 4.
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Read more: Countdown’s Colin Murray on ‘hugely upsetting’ backlash over Clare Balding comment
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