Broadcaster Angela Rippon was the first female journalist to get a permanent role presenting the BBC’s national TV news – but behind the scenes her love life, including her divorce from her husband, has put her at the top of the news agenda.
She’s 80 now and, during her decades-long career, has covered Lady Diana’s wedding in 1981 for the BBC, and presented Strictly Come Dancing’s predecessor, Come Dancing, from 1988 to 1991.
She has also been married once, to Christopher Dare. They were together for 22 years – which, incidentally, was her age when they married. What else do we know about her love life, and was there a specific reason she didn’t remarry?
Angela Rippon marries husband Christopher Dare aged 22
Born in Plymouth, Devon in 1944, Angela – on Love Your Weekend this Sunday (February 2) – grew up in a working class family. Her dad was a Royal Marine – she didn’t see him until 1947, when he got back from the war. Her mum was Scottish, and worked at a fine china company.
At the age of 22, Angela married her childhood sweetheart. She and Chris Dare met at a YMCA dance when she was just 17. Five years later, they tied the knot.
They spent their married life in a 17th century cottage on the edge of Dartmoor, according to Modern & Mature magazine, which published an interview with Angela in around the time she turned 60 – 20 years ago.
Angela and Chris didn’t have any children together, although she wanted to adopt. Nevertheless, their separation “wasn’t acrimonious”, she says.
“It was a stress, of course it was. It was a very stressful period for all sorts of reasons. My immediate feeling was, oh God, I’ve failed at this.”
Angela is friends with ex-husband Chris’ partner Judy
“He and I are still good friends. I talk to him on the phone a couple of times a month. We email each other.”
When they separated, Angela waited a year before announcing it publicly. By that time, Chris was already living with Judy, a fellow divorcee.
“He lives in Spain now with his partner, with Judy. We exchange cards at birthdays and Christmas. Judy kind of updates me on what they’re doing with their home down in Spain. It’s a good relationship for all of us.”
Since her and Chris’ separation, Angela has maintained a policy of discretion regarding her private affairs.
‘Lust overtakes an awful lot of people’
“I was married for 25 years and when we were parting, Christopher told me: ‘I got fed up of people coming to our house all the time,'” OK! magazine quotes her as saying.
“It made me realise that when you do a job that’s public-facing, you have to respect the privacy of your partner. Hardly anybody – beyond my very close circle of friends – would know who my partners have been over the past several years.”
When Modern & Mature interviewed her in the mid 2000s, she refused to offer any kind of hints as to whether or not any of her “wonderful men friends” held a particularly special place in her heart.
“Even if I did, I wouldn’t say. I never do. I’m very discreet. I think it’s totally different when you’re 60. The passion can still be there and is still there but when you’re young, I think, perhaps lust overtakes an awful lot of people, rather than love very often.”
Why she won’t marry again
However, Angela doesn’t plan to walk down the aisle ever again.
She told MailOnline in 2015: “I’ve discovered I’m very happy being single. I suppose, if I’m honest, when your heart is broken it’s painful. And I don’t want to go there again.”
Love Your Weekend is on Sundays at 9.30am on BBC One. If you missed the live broadcast, catch Angela Rippon on Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh on ITVX.
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