TV’s golden couple Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan have dished the dirt on the earlier days of their romance, when they crossed paths through the entertainment world at Granada.
In their new Channel 5 documentary Richard and Judy: Our Best Bits – In Our Own Words, the pair delve into their storied history on the telly; from solo gigs, to becoming a dynamic duo, and their iconic 13-year stint on This Morning.
Reflecting on the moment they fell for one another, the presenter recalled being “in the darkness” of a taxi when “something shifted” between them. Judy added: “Nothing happened, not for a long time after that. It was just, our perceptions of each other changed.”
After romance blossomed over time, the pair took their relationship to the next level and walked down the aisle in 1986. In the film, ex TV executive Dianne Nelmes recalls how she brushed off the whispers of an office romance between them at first before discovering the truth.
She shared: “Rumours started that Richard and Judy were having an affair and I simply didn’t believe it. I remember at one point I got a few journalists together and read the riot act and said, ‘Will you stop all this gossip they’ve got a great chemistry on screen and they are just good friends, so stop it’. Well, I never live that down.”
(Image: GETTY)
Off the back of her recollection, Richard said there was a “kind of jealously, resentment [and] disapproval” from their bosses who thought their relationship was “not quite on”. He added: “They separated us, professionally, and that went on for, even after we got married in 1986. Even then, that somehow wasn’t enough,” reports the Express.
Despite being married, Richard and Judy were made to work separately, except for one occasion when they hosted ITV’s Telethon.
During this time, in the background, executives were looking for the perfect pair to host a new daytime chat show, which would later become This Morning.
Recalling how they landed the job, the Good Morning Britain star said: “Suddenly one of them, Steve Morrison, the managing director, looked at the TV which had been flickering away for the last 15 hours, and there’s me and Judy presenting together. And he went… ‘Them! They’re married. They’ve got kids. They’re a real couple, them. And they all went, ‘yeah!'”
The next day, both Richard and Judy received separate calls from the bosses asking if they’d like to do a pilot for the show, and went on to front the show for 13 years.
While hosting the programme, they also balanced parenting their children Chloe, 36, and Jack, 38, who were infants at the time. Judy also has two older children from her previous marriage to David Henshaw.
The couple are also doting grandparents to Chloe’s daughter, who will be celebrating her second birthday next month, and Jack’s two children.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
