Sara Cox is kicking off the longest ever Children In Need challenge today – here we look back at her relationship history, including two husbands and three kids
Radio legend Sara Cox kicks off the longest ever Children In Need challenge today – walking 135 miles, the equivalent of five marathons in just five days.
The BBC Radio 2 drivetime host, who originally hails from Bolton, will trek across four counties – Northumberland, Durham, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire – to complete the Great North Marathon Challenge and raise thousands for charity.
She’lll run, jog, and walk through sweeping moorland, steep ridges, and the rolling hills of northern England, with the support of towns, villages, and Radio 2 listeners, along the way.
But as her advertising executive husband Ben Cyzer, who she shares two children with, prepares to cheer her on, we look back on her love life up to meeting Ben and how many kids she’s got.
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Last year, Sara told fans how she had once been in a ‘very unhappy’ relationship when she first moved to London back in the mid Nineties- with an ex-boyfriend who she later discovered had actually stole money from her.
Speaking to the Times, Sara – who had moved to the Big Smoke to pursue a career in the music industry – shared: “I was in a very unhappy relationship when I first moved to London. I lived in Arnos Grove in Enfield, north London, in a converted church.
“I was with this person who turned out to be horrible and he stole from me. I felt emotionally stranded there. Then I binned him off and the MTV [from 1997] and Big Breakfast [from 1998] years began.”
Though she has never revealed who the horrible ex was, it clearly didn’t stop her finding love as in October 2001 she married first husband, DJ Jon Carter, now 55.
And it seems Sara is a bit of a fan of secret wedding as her and Jon tied the knot in a small ceremony at a North London registry office, reportedly followed by a small party for friends in a remote Irish hotel.
Together they welcomed Sara’s first child – her eldest daughter Lola, now 21 – in June 2004. But the former couple split a year later in 2005 after a series of rows.
Sara was linked to now husband Ben within weeks of her marriage to Jon falling apart, although at the time they were just good friends. But by 2006, things were hotting up between the pair and they eventually fell in love.
Sharing the lovely story of how they met, Sara said: “My most memorable Glastonbury Festival has got to be 2005. I met a very handsome, dashing, very, very funny, lovely person called Ben.
“And a few years later I married him. So it was the first time I met my now husband, father of two of my children. All thanks to Glastonbury.” She’s also hinted one of her children may have even been conceived at Worthy Farm as they worn a few months later in the following March.
Though they were living together by 2007, the pair didn’t actually tie the knot until June 2013. This was despite Sara once telling the Mirror that although she was happy and in love, she had no plans to walk down the aisle again.
At the time she said: “I am never getting married. Maybe when we are 60 I might get married and have a little party at the old folks’ home – but no.”
But of course she did walk down the aisle again – and it was another secret wedding for Sara – who only revealed the happy news on Twitter, formerly known as X, afterwards by tweeting a picture of herself in a wedding dress alongside her new husband.
By that point, the couple were already parents to son Isaac, who was born in 2008 and is now 17, and daughter Renee, who was born in 2010 and is 15. The family live together in north London, as well as having a horse called Nelly who is stabled in nearby Hertfordshire.
The couple also pranked fans in 2022 by getting ‘re-married’ at Camp Bestival in a ‘manky’ wedding dress while holding a can of Stella. But Sara later revealed it just a joke they signed up for the day before as a bit of a laugh.
She shared: “I don’t think I made it very clear in that post – it’s just a joke thing that you do at Camp Bestival. I mean, look at what I’m wearing! It’s an inflatable church, the DJ was called Jesus. Next to the inflatable church was a little marquee that had all these old wedding dresses, like these really manky wedding dresses, because obviously it’s a festival. They’ve been worn by hundreds of people before.”
Animal lover Sara also has three dogs named Daisy, Dolly and Pip, two cats named Watson and Peggy, and two “quite posh” tortoises called Tom and Chally. She is now toying with the idea of buying some land and expanding her menagerie to include pigs and hens – and says husband Ben is on board.
She told the Mirror: “It’s always been a bit of a pipe dream, but I’d love to have a little smallholding at some point. My dad’s a farmer, he’s got a beef farm up north in Bolton. I’d have Nelly and I’d love a rescue pony, because I’m an ambassador for World Horse Welfare, who have ponies that can’t be ridden but are good to be pals. Plus a couple of little pigs.”
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