Richard Madeley Defends Hair, Shares Youth Secret

Bleak news reports and daily soap operas aside, there are few constants in the fast moving and always fickle world of mainstream TV. 

Unless of course you're , whose full head of hair remains remarkably preserved despite the presenter, who turned 70 on May 13, being half-way through his sixth decade of broadcasting. 

Perhaps best known for his 13-year spell as co-host of flagship This Morning alongside wife Judy Finnigan, Madeley is now enjoying an Indian summer on , where he spends much of his time grilling under-fire politicians. 

One would assume a colourful career that began at Radio Carlisle in the 1970s might prompt an array of questions from fans, but Madeley says the dominant subject has always been his hair, notably its transition from dark brown to washed out blond.  

'I get very odd comments about my hair, people saying I’ve dyed it blond – and I haven’t,' he told The Telegraph.

According to Madeley, who says he had lighter hair as a child, its current shade is caused by basking in the sunshine at the holiday home he shares with Finnigan in the south-of-France. 

'It’s genetic,' he said. 'I promise you it’s not lemon juice or something you spray on.' 

Madeley says he's taken inspiration from his brother-in-law as he advances into old age - by choosing to disregard his own birthdays.  

'My brother-in-law, Cal, is in his early 80s and has been ignoring his birthday since he was 70, and he swears by it,' he explained. 

'I have to say, he looks fantastic. He’s active, fully engaged, fit, well, and he’s put it all down to ignoring his birthdays.'

Madeley

The couple first met in the 1980s while working at ITV Granada Television; at the time she was married to journalist David Henshaw, while he was in the midst of separating from his first wife, Lynda.

Speaking about their first meeting with Channel 5 in 2024, Finnigan said: 'I remember you coming into the newsroom on your first day, you were wearing a ridiculous sky blue suit... you just looked like a pr**.

'I was assigned as your minder, they had a system at Granada that the newbie would be assigned a father or a mother to show them the ropes literally, and I was your mother.'

Madeley recalled: 'I suddenly felt two hands on the back of my neck and I heard this voice saying ''I'm your mummy'' and I turned around and it was this beautiful blonde.

'It seemed an off thing to say so I was like ''what??'' So yeah she was my assigned mummy.'

Recalling their first kiss, Madeley revealed it was in the back of a black cab, after a working day in Lancashire. 

'We were filming in Blackpool, we spend a very long day filming promos, we really hit it off,' he said. 

'We ended up getting a black cab, because the crew had gone, we went back to Manchester which was a good hour's drive. It was in the darkness of the cab that we kind of fell for each other really, and kissed.'

When asked how her parents had sustained such a lengthy marriage, the couple's daughter Chloe told Closer magazine in 2024: 'They would honestly say the same thing - that the secret to them having such a long marriage is to not get divorced.

'They’ve been together for over 40 years and during that time there have been periods where they have really struggled, but they kept going and stayed together.

'I don’t think it was ever bad enough for them to split.'