Sarah Beeny claimed her comment that her marriage to Graham Swift was ‘hanging on by fingernails’ was just a joke on a podcast.
The TV presenter, 51, was promoting her book, The Simple Life, on Lorraine on Tuesday when she revealed that her statement was, in fact, a ‘really funny joke’.
In October 2023, Sarah spoke to The Mid.Point podcast with Gabby Logan after she was given the all-clear in April following her breast cancer diagnosis in August 2022.
She said then: ‘We’re hanging on in there by our fingernails. I mean, it’s not easy, is it?’
Sarah married artist Graham, 50, in 2002, after meeting on a blind date when she was 18, and they share four children: Billy, 18; Charlie, 16; Rafferty, 14; and Laurie, 12.
Sarah Beeny told Lorraine Kelly on Tuesday that the comment she made that her marriage to Graham Swift was ‘hanging on by fingernails’ was just a joke on a podcast
The TV presenter, 51, was promoting her book, The Simple Life, when she revealed that her statement was, in fact, a ‘really funny joke’
She claimed that her statement about the state of their relationship was a joke despite stating that they admitted they only stayed together for their teenage children.
She told Lorraine: ‘I did a podcast with someone and I told them a funny joke, or which I thought was a funny joke about marriage and amazingly, it was all the headlines the next day.
‘Every single newspaper, the headlines were like ”marriage holds on by fingernails” and I was like, no, that was just a really funny joke.’
After Lorraine said that her cancer diagnosis has an effect on her marriage but in a way that has brought them to a stronger place, Sarah revealed that it is not easy, but she feels lucky that her husband and boys are so supportive.
She said: ‘I’m not going to say that it is easy because obviously it isn’t easy, but I think I am lucky that I have a husband and kids that are so supportive.’
The controversial comments came after the star released her documentary Sarah Beeny vs. Cancer in June.
It detailed her cancer journey, including her double mastectomy.
On the podcast, Sarah reflected on her relationship with Graham, who took a break from his lucrative art career to work on renovating their former dairy farm.
In October 2023, Sarah spoke to The Mid.Point podcast with Gabby Logan after she was given the all-clear in April following her breast cancer diagnosis in August 2022
Sarah married artist Graham, 50, in 2002, after meeting on a blind date when she was 18, and they share four children: Billy, 18; Charlie, 16; Rafferty, 14; and Laurie, 12
She claimed that her statement about the state of their relationship was a joke despite stating that they admitted they only stayed together for their teenage kids
Sarah said: ‘Graham always said, ‘The day we have to work at our marriage, I’m going to leave’. And I was like, ‘Really?’ But I think he has had to work at it to be honest.’
The star then admitted: ‘I was being particularly horrible because I have been a bit horrible in the last couple of years, to be honest at times.
‘I was being particularly horrible and he said, ‘you know the thing is Sarah, you’re not prepared to leave and have your children half the time, and neither am I, so we’re going to stay together.
‘And we’re going to stay together happily or unhappily, so which would you like it to be?’ And I was like, oh that is quite dark, isn’t it?
‘He said ‘you wanna be happy or unhappy, because either way we’re still going to live together’, so I was like, ‘OK we’ll do happy then, shall we?’ he was like, ‘what a good idea.
‘Maybe you should be a bit nicer?’ I was like, ‘yeah alright I will.’ So logical, isn’t it?’
Aside from his art, Graham has worked alongside Sarah on projects, including the dating app MySingleFriend, which they founded in 2004 after Sarah became notorious for setting her single friends up on dates.
Also, in the podcast chat, Sarah revealed that she didn’t even want to mention her breast cancer battle in her new book.
She released her memoir The Simple Life: How I Found Home this year but has now told how she wanted to omit her health issues as she was reluctant for her cancer to be the ‘defining thing in her life.
She said of the book: ‘It’s a funny journey and in some ways, it feels like I didn’t want it to be the defining thing in my life.
‘I didn’t want to be ‘Sarah Beeny had cancer’. I actually asked the publishers if I could not put it in and they said, ‘no, that’s not really going to work not putting it in’. I was like, ‘really? Are you sure we have to put in?’.’
She told Lorraine: ‘I did a podcast with someone and I told them a funny joke, or which I thought was a funny joke about marriage and amazingly, it was all the headlines the next day’
After Lorraine said that her cancer diagnosis has an effect on her marriage but in a way that has brought them to a stronger place, Sarah revealed that it is not easy, but she feels lucky that her husband and boys are so supportive
She added of how she dealt with her diagnosis and battle: ‘My friends laugh about it, but they say that my coping mechanism is to pick up the carpet and sweep everything underneath and then pop it back down and then move on.
‘I’m not saying it’s how anyone else should be, it isn’t; I’m sure many people would say that’s terrible, and you should process it.
‘We all own our own edit, I always think that’s kind the interesting thing in a way about life; I’ve been lucky enough to live on the planet 51 years and I couldn’t tell you anything about my life without taking 51 years to tell you about it, so I have to edit it down.
‘Then you choose what you want to edit in and edit out, and I kind of like to edit in the good bits.
‘I didn’t really think cancer was a good bit, so I thought I would prefer to edit out, so when I wrote the book, I intentionally kept it to one chapter which I thought that way, you could just not read that chapter if you didn’t want to.’
She also told how she had never imagined living past the age of 39 after her mother Ann died at that age from the same kind of cancer.
Sarah said: ‘When I got my diagnosis, it was something that I’d always imagined I would get in a way, and yet dreaded at the same time.
‘So, she died when she was 39, when I got to 40, I had a little tiny bit of a crisis because I was like, ‘well, what do I do now?’ It wasn’t like I thought I was going to die. I just couldn’t picture life past 39, so I got to 40 and was like, ‘God, this is really weird, now what do you do?’.’
It comes after Sarah recently revealed she’s undergone gene testing to determine her family’s risk of developing cancer after her own battle with the disease.
The star was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2022 and underwent gruelling chemotherapy, as well as a double mastectomy.
But the star has been incredibly open about her journey, and in a recent interview, she discussed how she has now discovered she has a gene mutation, which made her more likely to get the disease.
The results of the tests solidified Sarah’s decision to get a double mastectomy rather than a single, as the gene meant she had a 50/50 chance of getting cancer again in the future in the breast that wasn’t already affected.
It also meant there is a 50/50 chance she would pass the gene on to her children, sons Billy, Charlie, Rafferty and Laurie.
Sarah discovered that while she was negative for BRCA1 and BRCA2, she tested positive for PALB2, which could have broader implications for her children and potential future grandchildren.
The controversial comments came after the star released her documentary Sarah Beeny vs. Cancer in June. It detailed her cancer journey, including her double mastectomy
