BBC Weather presenter Carol Kirkwood has spoken candidly about her marriage to Steve Randall, who she married in 2021. Steve, a police officer, is fourteen years Carol’s junior, and the presenter revealed that people enjoy making “make a fuss” about their age gap.
Carol also let slip her plans to eventually quit the BBC when she turns 65 in order to travel around Europe with her husband. The pair particularly enjoy holidaying in Mallorca, which also served as inspiration for Carol’s latest novel, reports The Mirror.
Discussing her fifth novel ‘Meet Me at Sunset’, which was released this month, the 63-year-old told PA that her husband is “very romantic and very generous.” She added: “He’s just a lovely man. I pinch myself. I’m punching, I’m really punching.” Nevertheless, Carol also revealed that Steve believes he is the one “punching above his weight.”
The couple were initially introduced as friends, and Carol described getting to know him as “nice”, calling him “kind” whilst discussing her latest book. Last year, when questioned whether Steve was content to move into her home when they decided to cohabit, she told The Times: “I offered to sell my home so we could buy a place together, but he’s happy living here. He’s a keeper. He’s a very good cook and tidy as well, tidier than I am.”
Carol, renowned for her television weather presenting, is also a bestselling novelist. She commented: “There’s so many things going on in the world, it’s nice just to stick your nose in a book and forget about it for a time.”
The fresh novel centres around a fashion designer named Camille Fontaine, who is “running away from a shattered love affair” and whose secret-laden past threatens to spill into her present, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Offering a glimpse into what is in store for readers, Carol said: “I really hope you think at the end of it, ‘I didn’t see that coming.”
Born into a family of eight children with parents who ran hotels, Carol’s passion for sparkle and sophistication stems from watching Cary Grant, Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn films during her childhood. She explained: “These are the movies my mum would watch and enjoy, and they were always so glamorous – and then you’d see Marilyn Monroe.”
The former Strictly Come Dancing participant strives to appear her “best” and remain “healthy”. Her motivation for this is to enjoy a “long life with my gorgeous husband, for as long as I can.”
Carol has begun taking lengthy walks with Steve each weekend, and has eliminated nibbling from her eating habits, confessing: “I don’t know what it is, you sit down with a cup of tea and you think, ‘I’ll have a Twix’. Or in the evening, with a glass of wine, you think, ‘I want some Pringles.””
Steve proposed during a romantic picnic beside the River Thames close to the pair’s Berkshire residence. Just over a year afterwards, the duo exchanged vows in a breathtaking winter celebration at Cliveden House in Berkshire.
During her stint on The One Show, she revealed to presenters Alex Jones and Anita Rani: “It was the perfect day, it was a small intimate wedding, it was beautiful and very romantic but there was a storm, can you believe it? Storm Gerrit.”
She also discussed her previous relationships, explaining: “I was married before (to property developer Jimmy Kirkwood, they split in 2008), and we got divorced, and it’s always sad when that happens. But of course, there isn’t such a thing I don’t think as a perfect romance, where you’re never going to fall out or have cross words. Of course you are, that’s life. I feel sad when relationships break down.”
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