Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan 'sleep in separate rooms' after her huge life decision
Richard Madeley has revealed he sleeps in a separate bedroom to his wife Judy Finnigan when on Good Morning Britain – for a touching reason.
The 68-year-old became a household name with Judy in the 1980s when they began presenting ITV This Morning together. Judy however made the decision to scale back her television appearances almost a decade ago after leaving Loose Women, something Richard says she is "really enjoying".
In that time, Richard has taken up presenting duties at Good Morning Britain alongside Susanna Reid. With the show airing from 6am daily, it means a string of early morning starts.
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This has led him to sleeping away from his wife in order to let her get some extra kip. The star revealed their sleeping arrangements on the White Wine Question Time podcast with Kate Thornton.
He explained: “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.”
Reflecting on whether he would consider sleeping together and getting Judy up early, he added: “I wouldn’t think of doing that to Judy. Apart from anything else, Judy and her sleep, you do not mess with.”
Kate revealed fellow early morning presenter Amol Rajan says he “sleeps better” with his wife next to him. This means the couple, who have four children aged under seven, have to wake up early when he presents the Today programme.
Richard remarked: “Amol Rajan’s wife must be a saint.” He added: “We did This Morning, but the difference between me and Amol there is that Judy and I would get up at the same time.
"The alarm would go off, we’d both get up and roll into our jeans, get in the car, and drive to Liverpool to do the show, and then when we were in London, drive down to the Southbank. So we went to bed at the same time and woke up at the same time.”
Richard and Judy met in the 1980s when they both worked on different Granada TV programmes. Richard says he heard Judy was “dicing [an executive] into small cubes with her tongue” after he said “something sexist”.
Speaking to the Guardian in 2014, he said: “I thought, wow – I’m going to marry her.”
The pair tied the knot in 1986 and share two children together. Judy also had two children from her previous marriage.