Richard Madeley joins Strictly, Towie and Coronation Street stars who admit sleep ‘divorce’ SAVED their marriage
SEPARATE bedrooms used to signal the beginning of the end for doomed couples – but these days it’s being sold as the key to saving marriages.
Richard Madeley confessed he sleeps in the spare room to avoid waking up Judy Finnigan, his wife of 38 years. Here we take a look at the celebrities who admit to having their own space:
Sam Faiers
TOWIE star Sam Faiers admits still sleeping in separate rooms from her partner Paul.
In fact they haven’t shared the same bed in SIX years.
She told the Parenting Hell podcast last year: “Me and Paul haven’t shared a bed for six years. We’re still in separate rooms. I’m in the spare room with Edward, who I’ve recently got into the cot, but he’s still in the room with just me.”
Sam added: “Before [youngest child] Edward came along it was just like two and two – like one adult and one child. And we’ve never kind of gotten out of it.
“Obviously I love Paul – and I’m actually quite an affectionate person – but he’s a bit of a night owl. So I go to bed earlier and when he does come in it’s like football highlights’.
“It’s a big, bright (screen), and I don’t like sleeping with the telly on, If it was me and him he’d put the telly on and then leave it on and fall asleep.”
Suranne Jones
ACTRESS Suranne Jones says she prefers to sleep apart from her husband Laurence Akers.
The 45-year-old has been married to the screenwriter for 10 years and share a son, eight.
Defending the decision to have space from each other every night, Suranne said: “A separate bed – there’s stigma against that.
“But if we are just tired and I need a good night’s sleep, and I want to get to bed at nine o’clock and I don’t want to put my ear plugs in or I don’t need to be disturbed by snores, then that’s OK, to say ‘I just need my space’.
Katherine Ryan
COMIC Katherine Ryan doesn’t share a bed with her husband Bobby Kootstra either.
Instead, the happy couple co-sleep with their two children in separate rooms.
The 41-year-old sleeps with their daughter Fenna, while Bobby shares a different room with their son Fred.
Speaking on Katherine Ryan: Parental Guidance, Bobby revealed: “Katherine and I co-sleep. I like to call it ‘man-to-man defence’.
“We did try to have everyone in the same room but the babies were kind of waking each other up, so we had to switch to separate rooms, which is a bit better but also I do kind of miss sleeping with my sexy wife.
“It’s probably not been great for our intimacy. So we kind of are missing a couple of different important connections I think for any relationship really.”
Katherine told him: “I miss sleeping with you, I do.”
Prue Leith
BAKE Off judge Prue Leith has gone one step further from having separate bedrooms – she and her husband John Playfair have separate houses too.
The 84-year-old – who was widowed in 2002 – married the fashion designer, 78, in 2016 after five years together.
Prue explained: “We live together in my house, sleep together in my house each night, but the thing is, he still has his house where all his stuff is.
“When we wake up in the morning, he makes me a cup of tea – I get it in bed, he goes back to his house and cleans the shoes, including mine!
“We are both too old and have too much stuff, imagine, me having to move half my clobber out the house for his, he is the most untidy man I have ever met, I am neat and organised, it would be awful!”
Richard Madeley
TV legend Richard Madeley chooses to sleep separately from Judi Finnigan to avoid waking her in the middle of the night.
He revealed it’s all because of his 6am start time on the ITV breakfast show, Good Morning Britain.
Speaking to Kate Thornton on her White Wine Question Time podcast, he said: “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.
On the notion of disrupting Judy’s 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.”
Fellow morning presenter Amol Rajan was mentioned by Kate as someone who claims to “sleep better” with his spouse, despite being parents to four children under seven.
Richard joked: “Amol Rajan’s wife must be a saint.”