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Privacy NoticeSteve Brown has become a familiar face amongst BBC viewers as part of the presenting team on Escape To The Country, joining names such as Jules Hudson, Alistair Appleton, and Melissa Porter to front the show. The TV presenter joined the series in early 2017, helping the public purchase their dream property in rural areas of the UK. After exploring each house, the presenter asks the buyers to guess the asking price before revealing it. However, alongside his TV work, Steve is actually a sportsman at heart and is a former member and captain of the Great Britain wheelchair rugby squad. He joined the squad in 2007 and was a member of the team which won gold in the IWRF European Championships. This led to a role reporting on Sky Sports’ Game Changers. Despite a myriad of accolades behind him, Steve keeps his personal life fairly out of the limelight. Here, OK! takes a look at his life behind the scenes…
Steve had a brief romance with Alton Towers crash survivor Vicky Balch in 2017
(Image: Sunday Mirror)
Previous relationships Steve is not known to have a partner at the moment, with no signs of a relationship on his social media – where he has 4.6K followers. While romance is something the presenter has rarely spoken openly about, he did find love with Vicky Balch, a victim of the 2015 Alton Towers crash, while filming a TV show together in 2017. The pair were filming for BBC’s Without Limits at the time, a show where six people with different disabilities adventured across Vietnam. At the time, the romance was revealed and sources said that Steve and Vicky were ‘inseparable’. However, the romance appeared short-lived and the couple split later that year, with Vicky getting married in 2021. Family and home life Steve was born and raised in Sittingbourne, Kent and has a tight-knit relationship with his family, particularly his two brothers. He is also an uncle to two boys, often taking them out to spend time together. Previously talking about the connection he has with his family, Steve shared his gratitude for them: ” “Me and my brothers are very close. I know that everyone has different family setups. I’m very happy and lucky with what I’ve got. I don’t take it for granted – my family are all very close. Talking with the Daily Express, he added that the brothers often enjoy spending time outdoors. “We go as a family to the beach or wherever. They’ll grab my chair and pull me across the stones and that sort of thing. And what is great is because we are close and they help me quite a lot, they know where my limitations are.” Sign up to OK!’s daily newsletter to get updates sent to your inbox for free
Steve has a close relationship with his brothers and nephews
Devastating accident Steve was not born in a wheelchair, but had an accident when he was 23 years old which left him paralysed. Working abroad for a holiday company at the time, the sportsman tripped and fell from a first floor balcony. Opening up about the incident previously, Steve explained: “So when my body stopped my head went back over my shoulders, like a severe whiplash.”
Steve began presenting Countryfile in 2017
(Image: PA)
He continued to The Telegraph: “It snapped my neck, dislocating the C7 [one of the cervical vertebra, below the skull] and trapping my spinal cord.” He also described the feeling of things being so ‘quiet’ and ‘still’ while lying on the ground after falling. Before the accident, Steve was a keen sportsman, often playing football and cricket and running cross-country at school. Stellar career Steve’s career began with sports, joining the wheelchair rugby team in 2007, three years after his accident, and winning gold. Going from strength to strength, he was then made captain of the team and came fifth at the London 2012 Paralympics. He retired from professionally playing the sport following the Paralympics, and moved into TV. He was then spotted on the small screen as a roving reporter for Game Changers on Sky Sports, presented ITV’s coverage of the BT World Wheelchair Rugby Challenge and served as a BBC commentator for the Invictus Games in 2014, 2016 and 2017. Moving over to Countryfile in 2017, this was similar to the dream that Steve had at school of being a wildlife presenter, before going down the sports route. He is now a well-known face on Escape To The Country, garnering an even wider audience. Steve is back with Escape To The Country on Friday, 11 October at 2.45pm on BBC OneStory SavedYou can find this story in My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.Follow OK! MagazineFacebookTwitterCommentMore OnIn the News
