Few would doubt Cracknell's assessment of the married state. I suppose there must be a few fortunate souls out there blessed with a totally placid and trouble-free union, but I can't say I've ever met any. Of his relationship with his own wife James added: "We've been together for 20 years and I challenge any couple who've been together that long to say they're the same people they were when they met." Cracknell wasn't just ruefully expounding his views on marital disharmony out of the blue.
The day before, straight after his triumphant record-breaking win for Cambridge, his wife Beverley Turner, a talented broadcaster, had written a brilliantly coruscating analysis of their failed relationship for The Times.
Although the couple had announced the previous week that they'd "quietly separated" last year after 17 years of marriage and were focusing on their three children aged 14, 10, and eight, Cracknell had no idea Beverley had written her devastating article.
Some critics have objected to it and have accused her of poisoning her husband's latest historic achievement.
But Beverley has had enough of being the invisible, compliant wife. She says James spoke publicly about why he entered the Boat Race, saying he wanted to demonstrate to his children "that you can do anything you set your mind to".
Beveley's pithy answer to this was: "Bollocks. I wouldn't want my children to view such an exit from familial responsibilities as something to aspire to."
James's disastrous brain injury nine years ago, sustained when a truck ploughed into him in the USA during his bicycle marathon there, has been terrible for both of them. But they both acknowledge there were problems before the accident.
James Cracknell of Cambridge University Men's Boat Club (Image: Andrew Redington / Getty Images)
James, like most top-class sportsmen, was programmed to strive for superhuman excellence at any cost. His desire for public validation, even reverence, was hardwired into his brain. He would do anything to achieve, to win.
Added to that, his injury removed any inhibitions which might have restrained him from selfishness.
As his neurologist told Beverley, he lived on "Planet James".
If a man is talented,
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