HIS STORY Bruce Fogle, writer and vet, 71
I only meant to come to the UK for a few months – I was over from Canada on a placement. But I got a job in a veterinary clinic and a small woman came in with her golden retriever, and she ended up being my wife. Thirty years later Ben met his wife when their labradors started playing in the park. That’s two generations of the Fogle family who have met their partner courtesy of dogs.
Initially we enrolled Ben at the Lycée Française – we planned to move back to Canada, and thought being bilingual would help him. But he hated French. Also, he was a wimpy kid and was overwhelmed by a school with 2,200 people.
We had thought he would go to one of the London schools, but he wasn’t academic and went to board at Bryanston. I worried that he would be taken advantage of, because he has such an altruistic nature. But, unbeknown to us, he joined the rugby team and, doing drama, found he could stand on stage and not be afraid. Bit by bit his confidence came out.
I remember on a rafting holiday our guide said, “You can jump in, but it’s freezing.” I thought nobody would do it, but Ben jumped straight in.
When he left school he asked me if he could take a gap year to go and teach in Quito, Ecuador. I thought, “Wow!” He had really grown up. I had always wanted my children to succeed academically, but Ben taught me what’s really important is that they are happy. He has created a life that’s based on his decent humility.
Despite everything he’s achieved in his writing or on TV, I’m proudest of the type of father he has become. When he and his wife Marina lost their baby last year, it was devastating. But it’s like a soap opera – there are tragedies, but the positives outweigh them.
HIS STORY Ben Fogle, adventurer, 41
Dad is Canadian by birth and is very proud of his heritage; he’s never lost his accent and wears plenty of sensible Canadian waterproof boots. Growing up, our life revolved around animals, with all the flashing green lights and the operating table. If I wanted to talk to him – or to get money for going out – I’d have to go into the theatre where he’d be doing a caesarean or an amputation, and pull a fiver out of his back pocket when he wasn’t looking. Growing up with animals teaches you to be responsible.
He was always very supportive, although he never understood why I would want to go and live on a windswept treeless island [Castaway 2000 was the programme that made Ben’s name]. I’ve always respected that he let me follow my own path after he worked so hard to provide an education. Even when I became a hippy, he never said no, though he wanted to sometimes. He has done some TV himself and he doesn’t like it very much, but I’d love to do a programme with him. He’s never been to Africa, and I’m doing a programme about wildebeest. Perhaps I’ll do a pincer movement without telling him.
He is 71 now and still working, still very active. I’d love him to slow down a bit. It’s a physical job, lifting animals, bending up and down, and his hands look like he has worked in a field his whole life – scars on top of scars. But just as I could never retire from exploring, I can’t see him ever giving up. We’re peas in a pod. He repeats stories, and I’ve noticed it in myself. I don’t think I’m turning into him, but we share many qualities.
In time for Father’s Day, Ben Fogle is championing the Dadpreneur initiative notonthehighstreet.com/dadpreneur
