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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Amy Denman

Inside Jason Manford's family life from first marriage to rarely-seen children

Jason Manford is well known for his funny bone and his talent for singing.

The 41-year-old comedian, actor and singer has been wowing fans since his first TV appearance way back in 2007, where he had a small part in BBC Three series Ideal.

Since then, the performer's glittering career has grown and evolved as he has since hosted the Royal Variety Show and is currently a judge on ITV's Starstruck alongside Adam Lambert, Beverley Knight and Shania Twain.

But, aside from Jason's career, what do we know about the star's life? Here, we take a look.

Jason's first marriage

The comedian married his first wife Catherine in October 2007.

Jason and Catherine welcomed twin daughters in 2009, a third daughter in 2010 and a son in 2012.

However, in 2010, the couple's marriage hit a rocky patch amid reports he had exchanged messages with female fans

The 34-year-old later decided he should leave his role on The One Show to focus on his family.

At the time, he explained: "I have decided after careful consideration to stand back from The One Show to concentrate on my family."

Jason is a judge on Starstruck (Guy Levy/REX/Shutterstock)

The pair later parted ways in 2013. In a candid interview with the Mirror in 2021, Jason admitted he didn't put enough "care and time" into his first marriage.

He said: "My first marriage really disintegrated on my theory of, 'I don’t want my children to have the childhood I had'.

"So I was out working all the time and I didn’t put the care and time into that relationship that it deserved and needed.

"it’s only now I’m starting to realise, 'Oh, I’m not giving the children the childhood I had', which is good in one thing but bad in another.

"Because I got to spend so much time and we had laughs with my parents."

Jason's second marriage

In December 2017, Jason married his second wife Lucy Dyke.

The couple tied the knot in a sweet ceremony in Manchester in a ceremony attended by family and friends before heading to a curry house in the city.

Like Jason, Lucy is in the TV industry and works as a producer. Her credits include Black Mirror, The Split, Ripper Street and more.

Jason has been vocal about his wife's career achievements and even urged fans to watch the latest drama she worked on, BBC's Better.

He is married to Lucy Dyke (Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Jason has backed Lucy's career achievements throughout their romance (Daily Mirror)

As he shared promotional snaps of the crime series on his Instagram, he wrote in the caption: "My wife made this excellent show!

"It’s a an absolute smasher and will fill the hole that Happy Valley has left.

"BETTER! Starts tonight 9pm, BBC1. Crime thriller with a twist!"

He has kept their home life mainly out of the spotlight, but in 2021 he admitted to testing Lucy's patience while growing sideburns for his role in the theatre production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

He said on the Manatomy podcast with Danny Wallace and Phil Hilton: "When I was Caractacus Potts in Chitty [Chitty Bang Bang] I grew big sideburns and I got them right down to here, right down to below the lip sort of thing and my wife hated them, like genuinely hated them.

"I guess a lot of fellas do this, once you are married and they can't leave you for trivial reasons, like having mutton chops.

"You can do what you like, but if you have dated someone once and they have got mutton chops, you don’t have to have a second date, but once you have got kids, that’s a really trivial reason to go through the process of divorce.

"So I think we as men do things that sort of annoy our wives, but it's sort of like us testing the boundaries.

"I knew she hated it, but I still grew them and I was in that show for 18 months."

Jason's children

The comedian is a father to a total of six children; four from his first marriage and two from his second.

Jason keeps his children out of the spotlight and rarely shares photos of his brood on social media.

However, he has shared the occasional insight into his family life on social media.

In July last year, proud dad Jason posted a rare photo of his son stood watching his dad on stage

He captioned the sweet Instagram snap with: "My little boy watching me on stage today at @festunderthestars," followed by a broken heart emoji.

And on Father's Day in 2020, Jason posted a rare photo of himself cuddling all his six children.

Jason shares a rare snap of his son last year (Instagram/jasonmanford)
Jason keeps his children away from the spotlight (INSTAGRAM)

He was seen grinning as the kids piled in for a hug while Jason sat in front of a table with a Playstation Four game and a pack of Celebration chocolates.

In the caption, Jason told fans: "A lovely Father’s Day. Recording radio show first thing, had pancakes and Nutella!

"Lots of cards and cuddles. Last of Us 2 on PS4 (& a promise of a day off chores this week to actually play it!).

"A visit to our new house/building site which is finally back up and running and ended the day with a lovely 5k walk which left everybody knackered.

"Early nights all round. Hope you all had a lovely day, and for those that had a tough one for various reasons, tomorrow is just a Monday and that’ll be easier."

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