Clare Balding has revealed that she found love with her wife Alice Arnold after skirting round a marriage proposal from an army boyfriend 21 years ago.
The couple, who have appeared together on Celebrity Gogglebox, met in 1999 when Alice was a Radio 4 announcer and newsreader – becoming friends first, as they were both with partners, before their own relationship began and progressed.
Clare said she never fully fell for boyfriends she had before she found true love with Arnold, and was only saved from her boyfriend’s proposal when he was posted away.
She and Alice married in 2015, but while those close to them knew they were a couple, they did not go public at first.
But Clare 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.
Clare Balding has revealed that she found love with her wife Alice Arnold after skirting round a marriage proposal from an army boyfriend 21 years ago
Balding, who currently presents sport for several channels, said: ‘I had a few boyfriends, not like loads. But I had one very serious boyfriend for two or three years.
‘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: ‘But 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.’
The couple met in 1999 and became friends first, as they were both with partners, before their own relationship began and progressed
Alice described Balding as very positive and ‘phenomenally kind’.
She said: ‘Clare is asked constantly for favours. Clare would do everything that anybody asked her to.’
Clare described Alice as ‘fiercely loyal’, adding: ‘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 star said she first noticed Alice at a BBC show, but did not know who she was.
She added: ‘I saw her and thought ‘Oh, she’s really interesting and rather beautiful. We started chatting and she’s very funny. We were friends for at least two years.’
That first meeting did not have the same impact on Arnold as she said: ‘I didn’t think anything. We were both in other relationships.
‘Then she came to dinner. I thought you were great at what you did, but a relationship with her was so not on the cards for me. I just knew I liked her and she was fun.’
It was only when Arnold’s relationship ended that their own began after Balding went round to try and comfort Arnold as a shoulder to cry on.
Arnold continued: ‘She came to my place. I don’t really drink, so I didn’t have any alcohol in the flat. Clare came in and I said ‘I haven’t got any drink, so why don’t I go and get some, I’ll go to the off-licence, and you stay here’.
‘But Clare took that as ‘you stay here forever’. She never left.
‘So basically I went out to get a bottle of wine and when I got back her toothbrush was unpacked, she had basically moved into my flat.’
Clare said: ‘Gyles, it worked.’
It was on a trip to the ski slope at Milton Keynes that Alice first told Clare she loved her
It was on a trip to the ski slope at Milton Keynes that Arnold first told Balding she loved her.
Arnold said: ‘Clare was so sweet with me, and kind, and lovely, and gentle. I think I said in the car on the way back ”I love you”.
Balding said: ‘I think I’d said it 1,500 times by then. I used to leave notes on the stairs.’
They said they now enjoy playing golf together and currently have big plans for a new dream house.
Balding said: ‘We’ve got big plans for knocking down and building a house.’
