She has achieved an incredible amount over the course of her broadcasting career, covering everything from the Olympics to Wimbledon to the coronation of King Charles since she started more than 30 years ago. But one of Clare Balding’s greatest achievements is surely her happy marriage. Next year she and her partner Alice Arnold, also a broadcaster, will celebrate 20 years of marriage (their civil partnership was in 2006 and they cemented this as soon as same-sex marriage was made legal in 2015). As Clare speaks exclusively to HELLO! before the publication of her debut novel, Pastures New, it’s this partnership she cites as an inspiration.
“One of the things I wanted to write about in my novel was about falling in love because I thought ‘I know that’,” says Clare. “I know what real, deep love is and meeting someone I want to grow old with. Lucky, lucky me.” The couple savour their time together. There’s golf, though Clare admits: “I’m not as good as Alice, who’s a seven-handicap golfer, but I’m working on getting better.” Cruising is another shared passion. “Alice and I are about to go from New York up to Quebec and back again and we’re going to Japan on a cruise next year. We love being on the water and then ending up in a new place.”
And of course, there’s television. Appearing together on Celebrity Gogglebox has brought them a lot of pleasure, Clare says, and she loves it when she’s approached in public and told by passers-by how “funny” Alice is. “I always tell them, yes, she’s so much funnier than me.” Clare, 54, is clearly in a great place. Moreover, she’s enjoying her new svelte figure, which is the result of a concerted effort to take her diet in hand.
Healthy lifestyle
“I’ve worked hard at it and feel better. I got into my 50s and thought, ‘I’m just going to be fat and happy’, but then a friend talked about a low-carb diet and the late Michael Mosley publicised this form of weight loss, too, and I thought, I’ll give it one more go – as I’ve tried so many diets over the years – and see if it works. And it did!” She says she no longer eats bread or pasta and as little sugar as possible. “And if I want a drink, I have a gin and tonic instead of wine, so I don’t feel like I’m depriving myself of things.”
I know what real, deep love is and meeting someone I want to grow old with. Lucky, lucky me.
The result means Clare is enjoying being able to wear what she wants. “I’m never going to be stick thin – that’s just not me. I’ve got massive bones. But I can now put on a pair of trousers with a belt and my shirt tucked in and I went for years without being able to do that. That feels great.” Clare’s fitness is at a high level, too, and she thinks nothing of going for a brisk five- or six-mile walk – something she did on an almost daily basis while writing Pastures New. Being on the move allows her time to think, and that’s how she developed the story.
© Anthony Harvey/ShutterstockCreative process
“When I was working on the book, walking was very much part of my creative process,” Clare says. “I’d write some chunks and my reward for getting to a certain number of words would be to go for a walk. I was struggling for quite a long time with my heroine, Alex. And I walked and walked and then thought, ‘right, I now know what matters to her.’ ” It was a love of being in nature that served as the biggest inspiration for her novel, and in her research for the plot, Clare spent a lot of time with a Monmouthshire sheep farmer.
“You realise when you see a lot of our countryside, how much of the UK is shaped by farming,” Clare says. “But farmers are undervalued by us as a nation – a lot of them are really struggling and I wanted to generate an understanding of that. “I mean, if it’s impossible to make a living from farming, we’re in a lot of bother, aren’t we? Because it’s not something that anybody can just have a go at.”
© Helen MurrayHowever, one part of the book that didn’t require any research was the life of the fictional racehorse trainer, Dickon. Clare’s father, Ian Balding, was a successful trainer – including for the late Queen – and her brother Andrew followed in his footsteps, so it’s a world about which she knows a huge amount. In fact, Clare says some of her earliest memories are of watching horses being exercised on the Hampshire Downs and listening to their “thundering hooves on the gallops”.
Royal connections
Little wonder, then, that Clare is the television anchor for Trooping the Colour and other royal occasions. She does confess, however, that her most embarrassing moment came during the coronation in May 2023. “There’s something I said during the parade that made perfect sense to me, which was: ‘There’s the Princess Royal, who you may have seen make a hasty exit from Westminster Abbey, and she has been swiftly mounted.’ When I got home, my wife Alice said that other people may have interpreted this differently and I think a lot of people found it funny. Hopefully including the Princess Royal.”
Clare has a huge respect for the royal family and their equine knowledge. She’s sure the young generation, Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte, are being taught to ride “as their father, Prince William, is a seriously good rider”. And she says the Queen is very supportive of horse racing. “The one thing they really want to do, as the late Queen nearly did, is win the Derby at Epsom. As someone who’s been on the board at Epsom for many years, that is something I’d love to see. It would be wonderful.”
I’m never going to be stick thin – that’s just not me. I’ve got massive bones. But I can now put on a pair of trousers with a belt and my shirt tucked in and I went for years without being able to do that. That feels great.
© GettyBig move
As well as horses, Clare’s other animal passion is for dogs, which also figure in her novel. And, as the presenter of Crufts dog show and a keen advocate of the Dogs Trust charity, she reveals there’s a “canine-shaped hole” in her life, she and Alice having not replaced their beloved elderly Tibetan terrier, Archie, after he died in 2020. “We’re looking to move out of London in the near future and one of the main reasons for that is to have a bit more space and protection from the road so that it’s a good environment for a dog,” Clare says. “As soon as we’re settled, it’s definitely our plan – probably next spring. I just smile at the thought of having a dog back in our lives.”
To read the full exclusive interview, pick up the latest issue of HELLO! on sale in the UK on Monday. You can subscribe to HELLO! to get the magazine delivered free to your door every week or purchase the digital edition online via our Apple or Google apps.
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