As a lifelong on-screen singleton, Miranda Hart had ‘such fun’ when she found love with the man she coyly called her ‘Bristol Boy’.
But today the comedian’s secret husband can be revealed – as handsome divorcee Richard Fairs.
Last night the 60-year-old was pictured picking Ms Hart up from the Cheltenham Literature Festival – 24 hours after she divulged his first name on The Graham Norton Show.
Mr Fairs, who plays the drums in his local swing band, was previously married to schoolteacher Jeanne Speight. The couple, who have a son Jack and daughter Shula, split in around 2017 after more than 25 years of marriage.
More recently he is understood to have lived with an Indian homeopathic therapist called Dr Anjali Hariharan.
Comedian Miranda Hart pictured while attending the 75th Cheltenham Literature Festival
Miranda Hart leaves Cheltenham Literature Festival driven by mystery husband (pictured)
Miranda Hart leaves Cheltenham Literature Festival driven by her mystery husband
Last night the 60-year-old was pictured picking Ms Hart up from the Cheltenham Literature Festival
The mystery husband was pictured 24 hours after Miranda divulged his first name on The Graham Norton Show
At the Cheltenham Literature Festival last night, Ms Hart told fans she fell in love with him ‘almost immediately’
Mr Fairs, who plays the drums in his local swing band, was previously married to schoolteacher Jeanne Speight
Ms Hart, 51, first revealed that she had married in secret in July in her autobiography, I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You. (Miranda Hart leaves Cheltenham Literature Festival while driven by her mystery husband)
Ms Hart says in her book that they were on the brink of splitting when he proposed in January during a visit to Kew Gardens
Last night, one of Mr Fairs’ neighbours at his Somerset home told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I always found him a very pleasant man, very charming and charismatic. Recently I didn’t see a lot of him because he stays away from home a lot now, he rarely seems to sleep here.’
Another of his friends told how he is in the process of selling his bungalow – prompting speculation that he has moved in with Ms Hart at her home in Hammersmith, west London, where he has been seen by locals.
‘I’m pretty sure he’s now sold that house or at least it’s going through. It has been on the market for a while but I was told that he’s now managed to sell it,’ said the neighbour.
Ms Hart, 51, first revealed that she had married in secret in July in her autobiography, I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You, which was released last week. In it, she revealed she was married to a building surveyor she met when he came to sort the mould out in her house during lockdown. But it appears to have been an on-off relationship and Ms Hart says in her book that they were on the brink of splitting when he proposed in January during a visit to Kew Gardens.
At the Cheltenham Literature Festival last night, Ms Hart told fans she fell in love with him ‘almost immediately’ on their first date – a pizza supper at the height of the pandemic.
She said the pair were sitting in her living room talking for two hours while they waited for their pizza delivery.
She added: ‘Unfortunately mine had shunted its way across the box and turned into a calzone. I was going on and on about my shunted pizza and it did not seem to faze him.
‘We had already been talking for about two hours at that point, and I realised almost immediately that I was in love with him. It was our first date and to my surprise he came back for a second date, despite me having gone on and on about that pizza.’ A spokesman for Ms Hart declined to comment.
