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Former Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman splits from partner of 35 years for woman 30 years his junior

Jeremy Paxman with Elizabeth Clough, his former partner of 35 years - Alan Davidson/The Picture Library Ltd
Jeremy Paxman with Elizabeth Clough, his former partner of 35 years - Alan Davidson/The Picture Library Ltd

Jeremy Paxman, the former Newsnight presenter, has split from his partner and the mother of his three grown-up children after 35 years together.

The 66-year-old separated from Elizabeth Clough, 64, last year, his agent said. The couple might have hoped to spend more time together following his decision to step down as the host of the BBC current affairs programme after a quarter of a century.

At the time, he said: “I should rather like to go to bed at much the same time as most people.”

He has recently been staying at his flat in Kensington, west London, where he is understood to have been comforted by Jillian Taylor, a woman in her 30s who works in publishing.

Paxman met Ms Clough, a former BBC producer, while working on Newsnight and they later lived together in Oxfordshire.

Jeremy Paxman on the set of Newsnight. He hosted the current affairs show for 25 years - Credit: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA Wire
Jeremy Paxman hosted Newsnight for 25 yearsCredit: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA Wire

Confirming their split to the Telegraph, his agent said they “retain a mutual respect for each other and a deep love for their children”.

The couple have a 26-year-old daughter, Jessica, and twins Jack and Victoria, 19.

The University Challenge host, who recently published his memoirs, has worked with the BBC since 1972.

He went on to become one of the BBC’s highest-paid presenters, signing a four-year deal with the broadcaster in 2010, said to be worth about £3.2 million.

In 2011, the Telegraph revealed how Ms Clough gave up her BBC job as a producer on the corporation’s faith and ethics programme The Big Questions, when it moved to Glasgow, so she could remain close to her partner.

At the time, Steve Anderson, creative director of Mentorn which produces The Big Questions, said: “When the programme was relocated by the BBC to Scotland, she spent some time bedding it in, but she couldn't relocate."

In her youth, Ms Clough made history in 1968 as one of 25 girls to end the all-male tradition of the English public school when she joined Marlborough College, later attended by the Duchess of Cambridge and Samantha Cameron.

From there, she read history at Somerville College in Oxford.

Profile Jeremy Paxman (newsnight BBC)