FEW TV couples are so iconic that they have a show named after them.
But over 38 years of marriage, Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan‘s chemistry on and off the screen has earned them millions of fans… and pounds.
Best known for hosting This Morning from 1988 to 2001 before moving on to their chat show, Richard & Judy, the pair have never been shy talking about their rollercoaster relationship – be it a morbid death pact or extremely frank revelations about their sex life.
From the very beginning, their romance has proved to be a rocky ride, having fallen for each other while both in unhappy marriages.
These days, Judy, 76, has stepped away from the spotlight to focus on writing while Richard, 68, hosts Good Morning Britain.
But tonight they are spilling all about about their incredible career and relationship in a new Channel 5 documentary.
Richard & Judy: Our Best Bits – In Our Own Words even addresses how bosses wanted to ban them from presenting together at Granada TV as a punishment for their fledging work romance.
This was until they hosted ITV Telethon, a televised fundraising event, and bosses needed hosts for a new daytime show.
Richard recalls: “Granada was having a last-minute polish-off treatment of what the programme could be, but they didn’t know who would present it.
“Then 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!”
The couple met in 1982 while working on two separate shows for Grenada Television. At the time, both were married – Judy to David Henshaw, and Richard to Lynda Hooley.
Recalling their earliest dates, Richard said in an interview: “[Colleagues at Granada] thought it was frivolous, but it wasn’t anything of the kind.
“It was actually very painful because we were very much in love, but it was very difficult.”
While Richard knew he wanted to marry from their third date, Judy wasn’t so sure. She was not convinced he was ready to be a stepfather to her twins, Dan and Tom, who were six at the time.
She explained: “I had to be absolutely convinced that Richard was mature enough and sure enough of his own mind that my boys weren’t going to be hurt.
“When we first got together I remember my mother said to him, ‘If you hurt those boys I’ll never forgive you’.”
So serious were Judy’s concerns, in fact, that she briefly called off the relationship.
But broken-hearted Richard responded with an incredible gesture that quickly won her back, taking a solo break to Greece specifically to study books about step-parenting to prove how serious he was.
“I only took hand luggage and my bag was heavy with books on step-parenting,” he wrote in his book.
“I knew Dan and Tom really well and they were smashing, they were terribly sweet, so I took it very seriously”, he later said.
“In the end, I knew, of course, that I could do it – I wanted to do it.”
Richard and Judy went on to have two kids of their own, Jack, 38, and Chloe, 36.
In 1994, a shoplifting scandal threatened to destroy the couple’s squeaky-clean image.
Richard was arrested when he failed to pay for items, including champagne, from a Tesco in Manchester.
He was later cleared of any wrongdoing after citing lapses in his memory.
Later talking about the incidents, he said: “I was just not concentrating. I put the food through the till, I forgot to take the champagne out.
“I can handle anything, I can juggle eight balls in the air, and actually, I came a horrible cropper. [But] I can joke about it now. But that year was horrible. The publicity was mortifying.
“If I’d been accused of robbing a bank, at least it’s got a bit of glamour to it, but f***ing shoplifting… Just horrible.”
In 2014, the couple shocked fans when they revealed that they had made a death pact should one of them fall seriously ill.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Richard said: “If Judy was really ill and in logical mind… I wouldn’t give a tuppenny if there was a risk of being prosecuted. I’d do what was right for my wife.
Doubling down on his point, Judy added: “And I’d do the same. Stuff it all! We’ve made ourselves give each other a pledge along those lines.”
Explaining further, Richard continued: “If, when the time came… Judy said to me, ‘But what about you? What about the risk of prosecution?’
“I’d say, ‘That’s my problem, I’ll deal with that, don’t worry about it.’ And for me, it would be the locked room, the bottle of whisky and the revolver. I wouldn’t want to mess around.”
Richard has often gone viral for his ‘Alan Partridge’ moments on live TV – many of which have often revealed a little too much about his marriage.
One such moment came when he explained some of the unorthodox methods he experimented with when they were trying for a baby.
He said: “When me and Judy were trying to conceive, I used to douse my balls in icy water before intercourse.” He later admitted that it did not yield any success.
A 2004 episode of their long-running Channel 4 daytime show Richard & Judy caused outrage when he appeared to make a sex confession.
The segment featured a bizarre experiment that saw a couple sent to the gym and a hotel to have sex to determine which activity burns the most calories.
When it was revealed that the couple burnt more calories during sex, Judy said that she and Richard would be going off to a local hotel.
He immediately quipped: “We have dressing rooms, Judy, for that kind of thing.”
As if appearing to admit to romps in the dressing room wasn’t enough, he went on to say: “The other night I marched into the bathroom and thought, ‘There’s another 30 calories gone.’
To which Judy replied: “Which for five seconds is not bad going.”
At the time, viewers weren’t too thrilled with the comments and criticised them for making the remarks during the 5-6pm timeslot.
While presenting Good Morning Britain, Richard’s gaff machine struck again as he revealed that daughter Chloe was accidentally conceived.
He admitted that while he and Judy had not planned for her, they decided to keep the pregnancy anyway.
He said: “Then Judy got pregnant again, it was an accident. Sorry Chloe, but you were – and you know it.”
His daughter doesn’t appear to have taken it to heart, thankfully, having ploughed ahead and forged her own TV career.
Maybe just take any presenting tips from mum, Chloe!
