Reason Jason Manford’s marriage to first wife Catherine ‘disintegrated’ in his own words
Comedian Jason Manford has been happily married to wife Lucy Dyke since 2017, and the couple share two children together.
But years before finding love again, the stand-up star was previously married to first wife, Catherine. Jason, who fronts the National Lottery’s Biggest Night of Musicals this weekend (December 27), shares four children with Catherine.
The pair spent six years as husband and wife before going their separate ways. And Jason later opened up about the breakdown of their relationship. Speaking candidly, he admitted their marriage eventually “disintegrated” after he failed to devote enough care and time to it.
At the time, Jason said he was working relentlessly in a bid to provide a better life for their children. But acknowledged that the pressure took its toll on their relationship behind the scenes.
Comedian Jason is now married to second wife Lucy (Credit: Gary Mitchell/IPA/INSTARimages.com)
Jason Manford on marriage breakdown
Jason and Charlotte welcomed twin daughters in 2009, a daughter in 2010 and a son in 2012.
And he told The Mirror in 2021: “My first marriage really disintegrated on my theory of, I don’t want my children to have the childhood I had. So I was out working all the time and I didn’t put the care and time into that relationship that it deserved and needed.
“It’s only now I’m starting to realise, oh, I’m not giving the children the childhood I had, which is good in one thing but bad in another. Because I got to spend so much time and we had laughs with my parents.”
He has another two children with second wife Lucy, who has vowed to never leave him.
He added: “My wife says to me: ‘I would never break up with you now because I couldn’t be bothered training someone else up to be a husband. It’s taken me too long to get you good at it.'”
Jason is married to producer Lucy (Credit: Cover Images/John Rainford)
‘Testing’ his wife
The comedian met Lucy after his first marriage broke down and they tied the knot in a sweet ceremony in 2017. The couple were wed in Manchester in a private ceremony attended by friends and family.
Lucy works as a producer in showbiz, and has worked on The Split, Black Mirror, Ripper Street and many others. But Jason has admitted to testing his wife’s patience previously.
He said on the Manatomy podcast: “When I was Caractacus Potts in Chitty [Chitty Bang Bang] I grew big sideburns and I got them right down to here, right down to below the lip and my wife hated them.
“Once you are married and they can’t leave you for trivial reasons, like having mutton chops, you can do what you like. But if you have dated someone once and they have got mutton chops, you don’t have to have a second date. But once you have got kids, that’s a really trivial reason to go through the process of divorce.
“So I think we as men do things that sort of annoy our wives. But it’s sort of like us testing the boundaries. I knew she hated it, but I still grew them and I was in that show for 18 months.”
Read more: Jason Manford: Sexting scandal that almost ruined his career, weight loss journey, and why he had to leave Twitter after tragedy
Jason hosts The Biggest Night Of Musicals by the National Lottery on December 27 at 6.45pm on BBC One.
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