Naga Munchetty of BBC Breakfast fame – who is on The Chase tonight (Sunday, April 28) – has been married to husband James Haggar since 2004.
Here’s an inside look at their marriage, including why they never wanted kids and the secret behind their long relationship…
Naga Munchetty and husband James Haggar row
Back in 2004, Naga and TV director James tied the knot. This year, they will celebrate 20 years of marriage.
Whilst has previously confessed that she and James don’t row, they did have a tense moment back in 2013.
The couple were training for a marathon when James accused his wife of “lying”. She spoke of the incident back in 2020 during an appearance on Louise Minchin‘s podcast, Her Spirit.
“James and I don’t row and he’s a lovely, lovely man, he’s definitely the better half,” Naga said at the time.
“So I roped him into training for the marathon and it was horrible, the weather was horrible, it had snowed, it was cold, it was miserable,” she then continued.
“So we started training in October and then the gadgets weren’t brilliant so I think I had my phone and an app, and my phone signal kept dropping out and we were going out doing this 12 miler or 13 miler, it was like November and you have to build up to 20 don’t you?” she then said.
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James accuses Naga of lying
Naga then continued, saying: “Anyway, we were running and he hated it. He didn’t want to do it, he got roped into it, he moaned all the time. Every time I said, ‘Let’s go for a run’, he would moan and would be moaning the whole time, like miserable. So it was literally a case of me dragging him along.
“We probably had two miles to go home up a hill and he said, ‘How long does it say?’ And I said, ‘Oh, it’s saying eight’,” she then said.
“Well, I won’t tell you what he said, but he actually had a meltdown in the road,” she then said.
Mimicking James, she said: “‘You’re lying to me, I’m sick of you lying about how far we’re going to go, lying about this, I don’t want to do this, you made me!’
“Standing in the street, in the freezing cold, screaming and I just stood there and I went, ‘The thing is James, we still have to run up that hill, either way, we’ve got to get home, so you can scream and shout, the thing is dropping out – you can’t do anything’,” she then said.
“He was raging and that was one of the huge rows.”
Naga Munchetty on reason she and husband James Haggar never wanted kids
Last year, Naga revealed that she and James have never wanted children.
Naga shared that their busy schedules meant that they have never had the desire to have kids. She also added that they’ve “never tried” to have children.
Naga was diagnosed with womb condition adenomyosis – which she revealed last year. She has been told that having children may help her condition “get better”.
“We never tried and I never miscarried, we just never really wanted them. We kept putting the decision off, then life got better for us, we became more selfish . . . and just didn’t find the time,” she told The Times last year.
She has previously revealed that she has been called “wicked” for “denying” her mum grandchildren.
“It’s quite interesting, isn’t it, how people react,” she told The Sun once.
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Naga on the secret behind her relationship with James
Back in 2016, Naga opened up on the secret to a happy marriage.
“When James and I got married almost 12 years ago, one of his aunts said to us:the best bit of advice I can give you is to simply be kind to one another. She was right,” she told The Guardian at the time.
She also said that they enjoy spending quality time together on the golf course.
“James and I are both golfers, and I think it’s great for our relationship,” she said.
“It gives us a few hours together when we’re walking and talking and catching up; it really makes a difference. Golf takes you on a journey together, and it means you stay in touch with one another.”
The Chase Celebrity Special airs tonight (Sunday, April 28) at 5.30pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
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