As the king of daytime TV, Richard Madeley, celebrates his 69th birthday, the Mirror looks back at the very first moment he met his wife Judy and the cheeky nickname she gave herself that left him stunned
Richard revealed the cheeky nickname Judy used when she first introduced herself to him
For decades, Richard Madeley has been a fixture of British television, and this week he’s celebrating his 69th birthday. He and his wife Judy Finnigan, 76, have both enjoyed long and successful careers as television presenters – even being dubbed the king and queen of daytime by some fans.
The pair first met on Richard’s very first day working at Granada and they quickly became close, and have been together since 1986. However, the initial encounter did leave Richard more than a little bit stunned, he has since revealed, after his future wife introduced herself with a seriously cheeky nickname.
“I was sitting at my desk when this hand appeared on my shoulder and I looked up and this beautiful blonde said ‘Hi, I’m your mummy’ and I thought ‘whaaaaat?'” he explained to Best.
However, there was actually a good reason that Judy used this surprising nickname to introduce herself to Richard back in 1982: “At Granada, when someone new arrived, someone was appointed as their dad or their mum to show them around the canteen, the toilets and all that. So Judy was my ‘mum’.”
Judy and Richard met working in TV(Image: Getty Images)
Alongside this initial confusion, he also has admitted that he didn’t actually give the best first impression to his now-wife. Richard – who was then in his mid-twenties – said he dressed up smartly in a light blue linen suit for his first day at his new job, but the look didn’t exactly blow her away, with Richard revealing she thought he looked like a bit of a “prat” in the outfit.
For her part, Judy has told the Mirror previously about their first encounter, “I remember the first time I saw him. He walked into the newsroom and I was sitting at my desk at the other end…I remember exactly what he was wearing: a pale blue linen suit. I thought he looked nice. Tall, handsome, and all that but I thought the suit was a bit flash. Then, because he was a newbie, I was assigned the job of looking after him.”
The pair were both actually married to other people when they first worked together, but, eventually, after going out for dinner one night, things became romantic between them and they began having an affair. “It was actually very painful because we were very much in love but it was very difficult,” Richard has said.
In 1984, Judy, who is eight years older than Richard, decided to cut things off, because she was worried that Richard wasn’t ready to become a step-parent to her twin sons – Dan and Tom, who were only six at the time.
Judy Finnigan television presenter with her first husband David Henshaw (Image: Daily Mirror)
However, Richard was determined to be in Judy’s life, and her two boys. “I knew Dan and Tom really well and they were smashing, they were terribly sweet, so I took it very seriously. In the end I knew of course that I could do it – I wanted to do it,” he said previously.
It still took Judy another year to decide to formally take the plunge with Richard, but the pair finally married in 1986, and have been together ever since.
They started presenting This Morning together in 1988 and their presenting careers have gone from strength to strength. Richard still works on-screen, but Judy stepped away from the limelight a decade ago, and Richard makes sure his work schedule doesn’t impinge on his wife too much – even though that means they have to sleep in separate beds sometimes.
Richard explained on the White Wine Question Time podcast: “When I’m doing Good Morning Britain I sleep in the spare room. I do probably sleep a little bit better in bed with Judy but I’m okay on my own.” Pondering the notion of disrupting Judy’s precious rest, he quipped: “I wouldn’t think of doing that to Judy. Apart from anything else, Judy and her sleep, you do not mess with.”
He has also revealed the powerful impact presenting together had on any issues that came up in his private life with Judy, calling it a “cure” for any marital woes. “Well, I mean, sometimes, you’d have a row. And you’d get to work not talking,” he told his daughter Chloe on the first episode of Chloe Madeley: A Family Affair. “But the show was a cure.”
