New Lives in the Wild presenter Ben Fogle talks exclusively to the Mirror about a future in politics… and tells why we may see him in the Strictly Come Dancing ballroom yet
Intrepid adventurer Ben Fogle has climbed Everest, rowed across the Atlantic, run the Marathon des Sables, walked to the South Pole, and been to some of the most remote places in the world. But there is one territory he is yet to conquer … the world of politics. The former Royal Navy Reservist tells The Mirror: “I’ve always been drawn to politics.”
While experiencing extreme lifestyles in remote parts of the globe holds no fear for Ben, 52, whose new show New Lives in the Wild starts on 5 on Thursday (15th), he admits to some trepidation when it comes to pursuing his political ambitions. “Politics have become so tribal now that I don’t know that I will ever be able to actually scratch that itch,” he says.
Making people happy is also important to Ben, who thinks that could be difficult if he ever reached Number 10. “I don’t know if I could hack being Prime Minister,” he admits. “The problem is I’m a people pleaser. By the very nature of a democratic nation, half the nation is going to hate you, whoever you are, however good you are. I’m not sure I can take that. So I might stick to just spending time with interesting people in interesting places.”
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Ben encountered another fear, besides politics, when filming his new show and meeting a woman living on the road in America. He says: “I joined her, she lives on the motorway on the hard shoulder, and I found it terrifying. I don’t really trust cars and trucks and when you’re living on the hard shoulder, moving up and down it, and you’re sleeping in it in a tiny little wooden carriage, it’s pretty scary.
“For me, nature and the wilderness is a sort of friend. I think when you’ve endured expeditions, you realise that as long as you respect the environment, it’s actually not quite as scary as we think it is. I think the thing I’m most scared of is people. They’re unpredictable.”
The author of nine books, Ben – who moved recently from London to South Oxfordshire with his wife Marina, 47, a writer, broadcaster and antenatal teacher, and their two children, Ludo, 16, and Iona, 14 – loves the characters on Lives in the Wild. He says: “What makes these people interesting is that while most people on the telly go out of their way to be discovered, these are the opposite.
“I’m amazed at how little some of them live off. I met a woman in America who lived off $2,000 a year. We are all seduced by what consumerism offers us. We look at other people – their homes, their cars. We’ve made our lives really complicated, because we’re constantly chasing what others are tempting us with or what other people have. But when you’ve gone to live off grid, you’re not trying to impress anyone. You’re not chasing anything. You have simplified your life to the absolute basics.
“A lot of them make me feel very guilty about how I choose to live.” Ben, who married in 2006 after meeting his wife on a dog walk, says he’d love to live off grid, but Marina and the kids are having none of it.
“I’ve said for many years, I’d love to do that as a family. I’d love to live in a little Scandi cabin, on the beach, on a little island in Sweden or Norway. But, you know, when you’re a family, your dreams and aspirations are more than just one individual, which happens to be mine. So I actually think we’ve found quite a good compromise. We live in a beautiful rural part of South Oxfordshire with lots of animals – five horses, two dogs – Storm and Swift – and five Indian runner ducks.”
It’s been 25 years since Ben shot to fame as the breakout star of Castaway, the BBC’s first reality show – which saw 36 men, women, and children marooned on a remote Scottish island for a year and tasked with building a community. “I spent many years trying to distance myself from the reality show from which I started and think I managed it,” he says.
Now an established TV presenter, with a CV filled with documentaries as well as established shows like Country File, he has travelled to over 200 countries in his role as a broadcaster. But he’s come full circle and feels ready to do reality TV again.
“Life’s about having fun and they look like a laugh,” he says of the current output. I think there’s some brilliant reality TV out there. It went through a period that was pretty nasty, I think, in the sort of 2000s. It was pretty exploitative. But there are some brilliant shows now, like The Traitors.”
He would even consider doing Strictly. “You never know. Although, dancing really is not my forte, I’d be out the first week,” he laughs. While he feels reality TV has got nicer, Ben thinks the online world has got nastier – telling his 687,000 Instagram followers that he was thinking of leaving social media.
He says: “When I started, at the of height of Twitter – which was 15 years ago or so – it felt really honest and authentic. But now, on all platforms, the more hateful and divisive the content, the more it gets pushed by algorithms and by social media companies and the more hopeful and happy and kind and beautiful content gets absolutely zero engagement.
“Hate and anger are infectious. When you consume too much of it, it can have a really detrimental effect on you. I genuinely believe our mental health crisis is partly being fueled by so much anger, hatred and negativity.
“In the same way that you are what you eat, if you just consume junk food and sugary fatty food, you’re not going to feel particularly good are you? And the same goes with our digital nutrition. The online content that we consume, the interactions we have with other people. Because it is a faceless medium, largely, it means people say things they would never ever say to your face. A lot of the kindness there was has gone, the gloves are off and it feels like it’s making us an unkinder species generally.”
He tries to monitor his children’s usage. “It’s part of our culture now so, rather than being Luddites and banning it, I show them my good and bad interactions. We have some rules in place too, and I see it a bit like drinking – I’d rather they did it at home, where we know about it, than binge drinking in a bar with people that aren’t us.”
Winding up our chat, Ben’s wife pops in to look for one of the dogs, who is nestled at Ben’s feet. It’s time for a dog walk. “He never leaves my side,” he says fondly. “So I best be off.”
*The four-part series Ben Fogle: New Lives in The Wild launches on Thursday 15 January 2026 on 5 at 9pm and is then on catch-up. His Ben Fogle: Wild UK Tour 2026 starts in February. For more information see HERE
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Source: Mirror
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