Clare Balding and her wife Alice Arnold have finally made a break from hectic London life to move to the country – or, at least, to the stockbroker belt, the Daily Mail has learned.
The couple have long spoken about wanting to up sticks and leave the smoke behind, but they have now swapped leafy Chiswick near the Thames for even leafier Esher, even though it’s only ten miles upstream.
While the move might not quite constitute a rural idyll, as Esher is only 23 minutes from London Waterloo, it may well give them a chance to indulge their love of dogs and horses.
Clare, 55, is one of the most familiar and well-loved faces on British TV – a reassuring, incisive presence gliding from the Olympics to Crufts, Wimbledon drama to Royal pageantry without breaking stride.
But away from the cameras and commentary, friends say the broadcaster’s real pride has long been the life she shares with Arnold, 63 – a partnership that has quietly become one of the most enduring and admired marriages in broadcasting.
The pair, who first got together more than two decades ago, have built a world revolving around laughter, dogs, close friends, books, food and a hard-earned sense of calm.
The couple (pictured) have long spoken about wanting to up sticks and leave the smoke behind, but they have now swapped leafy Chiswick near the Thames for even leafier Esher, even though it’s only ten miles upstream
For much of their relationship, the couple have lived in a £3million Victorian semi (pictured) in Chiswick, west London – popular with media types, professionals and anyone hankering after village atmosphere with proximity to central London
While the move might not quite constitute a rural idyll, as Esher (pictured, file photo) is only 23 minutes from London Waterloo, it may well give them a chance to indulge their love of dogs and horses
Now, however, after years in west London, they have waved goodbye to the capital in search of more space, more greenery and a slower pace of life.
Those who know them say it is less an escape than an evolution, and comes only months after the publication of Clare’s bestselling debut novel, appropriately titled Pastures New.
The couple first met back in 1999 when they were both working at the BBC, entering a civil partnership in 2006 before officially marrying in 2015.
Clare opened up to the Daily Mail this week about their love story in an exclusive interview and said ‘trust, honesty and laughter’ has been the foundation of their happy marriage.
Finding quality time in between their busy careers has never been an issue for the broadcasting legend and Mellow Magic host Alice, but now their escape, if not to the country, but at least to commuterland, opens new horizons.
‘London has been wonderful for them,’ says one family acquaintance. ‘But priorities shift. You start wanting gardens instead of traffic, birdsong instead of sirens.’
Clare told The Times last year they decided to move out of London ‘to have a bit more space and protection from the road so it’s a good environment for a dog’, she said.
When she first moved to London for work, Clare did not think she would be able to cope with living in a city after the freedom she had experienced growing up in the countryside. She said she found it suffocating.
For much of their relationship, the couple have lived in a £3million Victorian semi in Chiswick, one of west London’s leafier enclaves – popular with media types, professionals and anyone hankering after village atmosphere with proximity to central London.
There, friends say, they created a warm and unshowy domestic life far removed from celebrity flashiness.
The broadcaster herself has rarely offered glimpses behind the front door, but this week told the Daily Mail’s Lily Jobson what she saw as the secret of their long-lasting relationship.
‘Alice and I just have the most lovely time together, we have so much fun and we enjoy doing the same things to relax,’ she said.
‘But also we have the same work ethic, Alice works for Mellow Magic, she’s a radio person through and through. She totally understands the broadcast environment and she’s very honest with me and will say if she thinks I haven’t done something well or could do it better, so I think there’s that level of trust and honesty.
‘We laugh a lot and we are very aware of the value of our time together.
‘I want to do good work, I want to do quality work, but I really value my time with Alice, so it has to be pretty special to take me away from that.’
Balding has also said the key is ‘making each other laugh,’ adding that humour has always been central to their marriage.
Clare (pictured), 55, is one of the most familiar and well-loved faces on British TV – a reassuring, incisive presence gliding from the Olympics to Crufts, Wimbledon drama to Royal pageantry without breaking stride
But away from the cameras and commentary, friends say the broadcaster’s real pride has long been the life she shares with Arnold, 63 – a partnership that has quietly become one of the most enduring and admired marriages in broadcasting
Speaking previously, Balding said marriage was about equality and the ability simply to say, ‘I’m married’.
It was a characteristically straightforward statement from someone who has often preferred common sense to grandstanding.
Friends say the ceremony itself was entirely in keeping with them: private, understated and without any appetite for showbiz spectacle.
And then there’s the dogs.
Balding’s many fans know that animals have always played a central role in her emotional world. The couple doted on their beloved Tibetan terrier Archie, whose loss in 2020 left what Balding described as a ‘dog-shaped hole’ in their lives.
For Clare and Alice, friends say, animals often filled the affectionate, structuring role which children might for others – daily walks, routines, shared care and companionship.
It is partly this desire for an outdoor dog-friendly life that fuelled the idea of leaving London. Ms Arnold, born in North Surrey, is also believed to have family in the area.
Balding, raised amid horses, fields and racing yards, has never entirely lost her rural instincts.
Born into one of Britain’s best-known racing families, she grew up surrounded by animals and open land. Friends say country life still feels natural to her in a way city life never fully can.
Her father was a racehorse trainer and ‘would have my brother and me galloping on the back of a horse on the Downs near our home in Kingsclere, Hampshire, or, in winter, tying sledges to the back of his Subaru truck, flinging us around in the snow’.
For all Balding’s public success, those around her say home remains the anchor.
That may explain why, in an industry littered with ego and chaos, Clare Balding and Alice Arnold have endured.
Clare told the Daily Mail that the key to their happy marriage is ‘communicating’, especially if she is away travelling for work.
‘You know, we talk’, she said. ‘If I am away doing Winter Olympics or something like that, we talk twice or three times a day and I will message all the time.’
Clare previously said when she first started dating and going out with guys, it was a while before she realised she felt far more comfortable with women.
She said: ‘I had a few boyfriends, not like loads. But I had one very serious boyfriend for two or three years.
Clare has joined forces with BT to launch their new ‘Don’t Put Off The Switch’ campaign ahead of the nationwide digital landline switchover
‘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’.
‘And 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”.
‘And 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.’
Speaking to Gyles Brandreth on the Rosebud podcast, Clare said: ‘I wasn’t very nice I don’t think to men. There was part of me they were never going to be allowed to have. 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. Alice is by far and away the longest most serious relationship of my life.’
Clare has joined forces with BT to launch their new ‘Don’t Put Off The Switch’ campaign ahead of the nationwide digital landline switchover.
The TV star is raising awareness around how the UK’s 40-year old analogue landline network is due to be retired by January 2027, with many households still needing to move to a digital service.
With a particular focus on protecting vulnerable customers, Clare is urging BT users to act when contacted about switching to Digital Voice.
She said: ‘I’m very aware of people being a bit scared of technology and I think updates are always something that some people can be very resistant to, but actually the point about digital voice is that it has an inbuilt mechanism where it can stop the spam and scams calls.
‘I’ve had massive conversations with people who have been really close to being properly scammed through quite sophisticated groups that are using the old analogue lines, which is going to retire in January. So with digital voices coming, it’s really just a call to people to make sure that when they’re contacted by the landline provider, they get on and respond.’
‘BT will walk you through everything’, she reassured. ‘It’s really simple and it’s much, much better. That’s the reason I wanted to get involved because I think it makes people more secure and safer.
‘It is an advancement, it’s an improvement, and I just don’t want people to feel that it’s something that they should delay, I don’t want them to get to Christmas, having delayed it, and then suddenly the analogue system’s being switched off in January and they haven’t done anything, and there’s a mad rush.
‘So I think it’s just about trying to get a message out there because most people aren’t aware.’
Those who had lived close to the couple’s £2.5million home in Chiswick were sad to see them move out last week.
Neighbours today told the Daily Mail how Clare and Alice had been ‘wonderful’ and ‘it had been sad to see them go’.
One woman said: ‘Clare and Alice have lived there for 20 years and have been wonderful neighbours.
‘It is sad to see them go, but life moves on.
‘They have moved to somewhere further out.
‘They were part of the street WhatsApp group and they just posted a message that said “Good-Bye”.’
Another neighbour, a man, added: ‘Clare and Alice moved last week.
‘They were great fun.’
