Yahoo News The Chase's Mark Labbett's love life - from marrying cousin to tragic split with girlfriend
Mark Labbett, 59, has been a mainstay of popular ITV show The Chase since the late 2000s, a show on which he appears as quizzing expert ‘The Beast’. Alongside this, he has appeared on shows such as Mastermind and Only Connect.
Outside of televisual fame, he has been in two serious relationships and has recently broken up with his girlfriend, television presenter Hayley Palmer, 42, after just a single year. However, before Hayley, Mark was married for six years to his second cousin Katie.
Hello! reported that Mark married Katie in 2014, four years after they met on Facebook in 2010. Two years after their first e-meet, Katie was invited to watch a celebrity special of The Chase and from there, the pair’s romance took off, leading to their marriage two years later.
Although they didn’t know it at the time of their marriage, the pair were related. Discussing the curious discovery on Loose Women three years into his marriage, Mark said: “It wasn't something we were aware of at the time - it was one of those things that happened.”
As to why they divorced in 2020, two years after the birth of their son Lawrence in 2018, the pair said it was a combination of the coronavirus pandemic, their age gap, his mental health, and the fact Katie had been dating someone else for 18 months.
On said boyfriend, Mark remarked to the Sun that he was “pragmatic” and that he did his best to make sure their son was taken into consideration as they began the process of separating.
He said: “When Katie first came clean to me about her boyfriend, I'd had an inkling. But right from the start, my attitude was quite pragmatic — this was spilt milk, what could we do about the situation to make it OK? We had a family. We couldn't just throw that away lightly.”
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Despite their break-up, the pair have been able to co-parent their son as they both attempted to move on separately. In 2023, Mark revealed he had started dating Hayley Palmer.
However, this relationship came to a shock end just a few weeks after the couple celebrated their first anniversary, with Mark tragically admitting their 17-year age gap played a role.
Speaking to The Sun he summarised: “She's a lovely lady and I was very lucky to date her for a year, and as I said...it's me, I got old. There's been no one since Hayley, I'm not saying there won't be another one. But I'm certainly not looking.”
As well as making changes to his personal life and updating fans, Mark has been open about his health after revealing he had recently been diagnosed with diabetes and was trying to lose weight.
Reflecting on his weight loss journey on Loose Women earlier this year Mark said: “This is the lightest I've been in 25 years. I'm now under 20 stone, and I am really feeling the difference, as well as seeing it. My knees really feel the difference. I will never be athletic again but I just move so much better for not carrying that extra weight."
“I am gradually dropping Xs off my size. I've gone from 5XL to 4XL, and it looks like the next time I go shopping, I'll be able to squeeze into XL underpants. I've lost 10 stone. I was 29 stone when I was a full-time teacher in 2003, and I was in danger of high blood pressure.”
