Sue Perkins was asked in an interview in 2018 who, or what, was the greatest love of her life. Her answer? ‘A goofy Lithuanian called Melanie.’
This, of course, is Mel Giedroyc, whom she met while they were students at Cambridge University.
Giedroyc was her partner in comedy stand-up for decades before they achieved mainstream fame as the presenters of the phenomenally successful The Great British Bake Off, then on the BBC.
The romance with Richardson blossomed in 2013, after a Halloween party. Anna Richardson had recently separated from Charles Martin, her film director partner of 18 years. She had known Sue Perkins for years, but when they met again at a party an attraction was awakened
It’s notable, though, that she didn’t choose Anna Richardson, 50, the TV presenter.
By then they had been in a romance for five years, but it was Mel, and not Anna, who was accorded the honour of being the love of her life.
Some time later, in an interview in 2020, she was again notably circumspect about Richardson, whom she was living with in a large house in North London.
She spoke about ‘the most precious thing in the world’ to her, which was the safe progress of her sister’s pregnancy, and not her girlfriend.
Anna, and her role in Sue’s life, were relegated to a brief, not entirely positive, mention — she recounted how Richardson had dared her to jump off a cliff while they were on holiday in Menorca, and she had shattered her coccyx as a result.
By this point, with lockdown in force and external stresses in their lives, it seems the couple were feeling the strain.
Anna was mourning the death of her uncle from coronavirus, which she revealed on social media with the words: ‘It hurts my heart to say my lovely Uncle Geoff has lost his fight against Covid-19.’ Sue — who had had Covid — meanwhile was worrying about the well-being of her mother and family.
The end of this power couple — announced this week — has, then, not taken anyone totally by surprise.
In the ‘tribe’, as Perkins calls it, of their friends, it has been clear for a good year that their relationship has been struggling.
A friend says: ‘They were on and off for quite some time, for months. They then actually broke up before Christmas.’
The last thing which Anna did was to film a forthcoming series of Naked Attraction, the Channel 4 dating show she has presented since 2016 in which singletons pick partners by viewing their naked bodies, and then she moved out.
No WONDER Richardson wrote that she was bidding farewell to a ‘SHOCKER of a year’ on December 31 — and no wonder she revealed on Valentine’s Day this year that she was sharing her bed with the love of her life — her rescue dog Tig, a Staffie-whippet cross — with no sign at all of Sue Perkins.
After eight years as a couple, their profiles higher than ever, it seems that they decided they were better apart.
The friend adds: ‘I’m afraid Sue was quite cold about it and it is fairly acrimonious between them.
‘It was one of those, “It’s over, off you go” break-ups rather than a, “Why don’t you carry on living here while you sort yourself out”.
‘Normally that means that there is someone else involved but that is not the case here.’
Anna moved back to a ‘bolt-hole’ next door to her mother’s house in Staffordshire. (She bought it ten years ago and her brother also lives on the same street.)
She has recently been back in London, filming a new series of Changing Rooms, but hasn’t gone back to what was their shared home, a spacious 1930s villa.
By all accounts, the issue looming over the break was painful, but simple.
‘Anna wanted babies and the whole nine yards but Sue accepted that it wasn’t going to be possible for them,’ said a friend.
‘It had been coming a long time. Career pressures were a big part of that. When you are
