Clare Balding on why she didn’t have children with wife Alice: ‘I just never had that urge’

Clare Balding previously opened up about her decision not to have children with wife Alice Arnold.

TV favourite Clare – who is on Crufts today (March 9) and journalist Alice have been together for over two decades. After meeting for the first time in the late ‘90s, the pair entered into a civil partnership in 2006, before getting married in 2015.

And while some people would expect the pair to have settled down with children, Clare “never had the urge” to have kids of their their own.

Clare Balding on why she didn’t have kids with wife

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, but things progressed into something more, and they got together in 2002.

Fast forward to 2025 and the pair are still going strong. And speaking in 2015, Clare opened up about not having children – revealing she never “had that urge”.

“It’s my choice, but of course, it’s not something that’s going to happen by accident,” she told Radio Times.

‘I just never had that urge’

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.”

Clare also shared the intrusive question she and Alice ‘never got asked.

“One of the many benefits of being gay is that people don’t assume you want children, so they don’t ask you,” she said.

Clare explained: “My brother Andrew’s relationship with his wife Anna Lisa is almost as long-standing as mine with Alice, and all they were ever asked is ‘When are you getting married?’ and ‘When are you having children?’. We never got that from anybody.”

Clare Balding’s marriage to Alice

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 previously said: “It’s about equality.”

She said 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, no that, actually married. I think it’s great.”

Watch Clare on Crufts on Sunday (March 9) at 2:00pm on Channel 4.

Read more: Clare Balding on condition wife Alice Arnold enforced before they moved in together