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Privacy NoticeClare Balding has candidly spoken about a time when her mum wasn’t exactly a fan of Alice Arnold, her partner of two decades. The couple first met at the BBC in 1999 via a mutual friend and quickly fell for each other. They took their relationship to the next level when they entered into a civil partnership in 2006 and later married after same-sex marriage was legalised. During an intimate discussion together, Alice noted that it was evident early on in their relationship that they were “destined to be together for a very long time”. Recalling their love story’s initial stages, Clare, who is hosting the BBC’s coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics, revealed that her mum wasn’t entirely smitten with Alice initially due to her London roots and job at the time.
Clare and Alice first met in 1999
(Image: clarebalding/Instagram)
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The sports commentator said: “My mother, I think, was a bit suspicious from early on as, A) Alice is from London,” before being cut-off by Alice adding, “And, wasn’t a country girl,” reports the Mirror. She continued: “And secondly, [she] was an actress at that time and both of those things were a little bit, ‘ooh’.” Alice humorously responded by saying: “I might as well have been a prostitute. I think she was wary of me, but then we had a sort of cottage down in the countryside that we rented from Clare’s uncle, and it was pouring with rain one day. “And, I was out in the garden in, kind of, a boiler suit digging and I think when she saw that she thought, ‘Oh you’re alright then, you can do digging in the garden.'” On Gyles Brandreth’s Rosebud podcast, Clare recalled Alice’s messy garden chore being the “turning point” in her relationship with Clare’s mum. “I think she forgave the actress thing because I was prepared to get muddy,” Alice said.
Clare Balding admitted that her mother wasn’t the biggest fan of Alice at first
(Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
As well as initial hesitations from Clare’s mother at first, the presenter disclosed on Loose Women that Alice had also put a list of reasons why they shouldn’t date on their fridge. Quizzed on the reasons by the show’s panellists, Clare said there were “lots of things” on the list, but one of the main ones being that she is a presenter. “It’s OK, 20 years later I’ve managed to convince her,” she chuckled. Over the past few years, Channel 4 viewers have seen an insight into the pair’s relationship through Celebrity Gogglebox. In addition to this, Alice hosts Mellow Magic on weekend mornings and fronts a theatre podcast, while Clare continues her broadcasting career across various platforms and is also an author. Today, she begins presenting coverage of the Olympics from the River Seine, where around 10,500 athletes will compete in 329 events across 32 sports over 16 days.Story SavedYou can find this story in  My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.Follow OK! MagazineFacebookTwitterCommentMore OnGoggleboxLoose WomenOlympics
