TV presenter Clare Balding is back on our screens as she shares the stories of Britain’s most iconic rivers and its surrounding areas.
Tales From The Riverbank with Clare Balding on Channel 5 features the magnificent Severn, which flows from a brook in the Welsh Cambrian mountains, along a course of 220 miles, all the way to Bristol and the shores of the Severn Estuary.
She will also drop by in surrounding towns and meet the communities that make these areas so special. Tales from the Riverbank with Clare Balding begins Thursday, February 13 at 8pm on Channel 5, with six episodes for fans to look forward to.
After 30 years in broadcasting, Balding has become one of the nation’s most respected and recognisable hosts, having also fronted other huge sporting events like the Olympics, Paralympic Games, Grand National, Commonwealth Games and Wimbledon.
Her popularity with viewers has seen the spotlight cast over her life away from the cameras, however, with her personal life, relationships and even some controversies making headlines over the years.
Here’s everything you need to know about Balding’s life outside of the studio, from her fears over revealing her sexuality and her ‘appalling’ ex-boyfriend to the ‘inexcusable’ remark that remains one of her biggest regrets.
Famous wife and ‘appalling’ boyfriend
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(Image: Getty))
Balding met her wife, broadcaster Alice Arnold, in 1999 when they were both working for the BBC. At first, the pair were just good friends but started dating in 2002, when Balding’s sexuality was made public by a national newspaper.
The couple entered into a civil partnership in 2006 before tying the knot in a private ceremony in 2015 following the legalisation of gay marriage in the UK, with their marriage then back-dated to 2006.
Alice Arnold was a newsreader and continuity announcer on BBC Radio 4 for more than twenty years and she currently works for Bauer Media Audio UK hosting on Mellow Magic.
Reflecting on their first meeting, Balding said she noticed Arnold at a BBC show, but did not know who she was at the time. “I saw her and thought ‘Oh, she’s really interesting and rather beautiful’,” she said. “We started chatting and she’s very funny. We were friends for at least two years.”
Describing her wife as “fiercely loyal”, the 53-year-old added: “She would protect me and it’s an incredible quality to have. It’s like having your own little guard dog – it’s amazing.”
The BBC Sport presenter had previously dated men and was even proposed to by one of her former boyfriends. However, she turned it down and had no regrets about it, as she revealed he went on to “behave appallingly”.
“I had a few boyfriends, not like loads. But I had one very serious boyfriend for two or three years,” she said. “He asked me to marry him and he was in the Army and he was going off. And I thought ‘he’s only asking me because he thinks he’s in danger and, according to romantic films, I’m meant to say yes at this point’.
“I knew I didn’t want to. I said ‘Look, that’s a lovely thing to say but ask me again when you come back’. When he came back he didn’t ask me again, and I thought ”Thank God”. I thought ‘I don’t trust you and I’ll never trust you’ – and funnily enough I was absolutely spot on as his ex-wife told me not that long ago.”
She added: “That relationship ended not very well with him behaving appallingly. I think I was damaged by that, but that doesn’t make you gay. I just think when I first fell in love with a woman it was completely different.”
Cancer diagnosis
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clarebalding/Instagram)
In 2009, Balding revealed she had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
The presenter was diagnosed with the illness after noting a lump on her throat while watching herself on TV, with symptoms including a lump in the neck, a sore throat and difficulty swallowing that does not get better.
She underwent radioactive iodine treatment to halt the spread of the disease, having had a cyst, her thyroid gland and a lymph node removed. But while she feared the potential impacts of the illness on her voice and her career, she received the all-clear at the end of 2010.
“I had to have a little operation just before Christmas to take out a nasty little lymph node and there was a worry that I might have to have more treatment,” she revealed at the time. “But I had a lovely letter from my oncologist just after Christmas saying, ‘Hurrah, no more treatment’, so I’m very happy about that. 2011 is going to be a good one.”
In a later interview, she admitted she had gone through a “dark stage” with the illness, adding: “When I recovered, my attitude to life changed. I feel happy most days, grateful for all I have.”
Inside Clare Balding’s home life
Clare Balding lives with her wife Alice Arnold in the London suburb of Chiswick. The pair have always lived in Chiswick after Alice cheekily said “we can live anywhere you want, as long as it’s Chiswick’.”
Clare and Alice opened the doors to their home for an episode of Celebrity Googlebox. The cosy space is painted grey with a cream sofa and patterned red cushions, making for a cosy space for the couple to cuddle up with their cats and enjoy TV.
Snapshots on Instagram flaunt Clare’s culinary corner, boasting pristine white kitchen units against sleek black countertops, all underpinned by harmonious light wooden floors.
Speaking at the 2021 Spring Lectures for The Upper Room, Clare spoke of her love for being at home. “I make sure I walk every day, so the tow path between Chiswick Bridge and Kew Bridge is very well trodden for me. I try and do five miles a day minimum… I understand much more now what I need to keep me on track.”
Backlash over live TV comment
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BBC)
While Balding is one of the UK’s most respected presenters, she found herself at the centre of a row while presenting the Olympics in Paris last year.
Speaking to former Olympic swimming champion Rebecca Adlington, the presenter seemed “incredulous” in response to the swimmer’s admission that no Olympians had visited her school while she was growing up, leading many viewers to accuse her of classism.
Fellow pundit Mark Foster had been explaining how a visit from Duncan Goodhew to his local swimming club had “inspired” him as a child, when Adlington was asked if she’d had a similar experience.
However, she replied: “To be fair, I didn’t have somebody like that,” with a surprised-sounding Balding, who was privately educated, asking: “No one came to your school?!”
The remark left some viewers fuming, with one writing: “Of course Balding thought it TOTALLY NORMAL for Olympic medal winners to visit schools – because being privately educated and descended from nobility and privilege, this kind of thing is part of the cultural experience they expect.”
The presenter was defended by her BBC colleague Gabby Logan, however, as she responded to one viewer: “I’m sure lots of what you say may be true about private school experiences, but it’s certainly not true about the whole of the BBC. I went to a state school nobody visited, teachers were striking in the 80’s, and no school trips. NB ‘Speakers for Schools’ is great charity.”
Logan then added: “Also to be clear I love my colleague and she’s a great broadcaster. But a sweeping statement about the BBC needed addressing. Look at our OG line up across the day, we are a mixed bag from different backgrounds bringing all our many experiences to the way we communicate.”
It was not the first time that Balding had landed herself in hot water with a comment, as she drew controversy for a remark she made about the late jockey Liam Treadwell moments after he had won the Grand National.
Joking that he would be able to have his teeth fixed with the prize money, Balding said: “Liam, just give us a big grin to the camera, let’s see your teeth. He hasn’t got the best teeth in the world, but you can afford to go and get them done now if you like.”
Treadwell, who died in 2020 aged just 34, responded: “Well I could do, but I ain’t complaining. It might be bringing on bad luck if I do that, though.”
The comments enraged viewers, with more than 2,000 complaints made to Ofcom after the race. Balding later admitted: “It was a terrible thing to do. It coincided with my illness and I believed that was it for me – I would never work again. It was inexcusable and it taught me a big lesson.”
Source: Mirror
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