Sue and Noel Radford, famous for having the UK's biggest family, have revealed a long-kept secret that reportedly pushed them to the drink of separation and bankruptcy.
The couple, who have 22 children, recently celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. However, like most marriages, it has not been all plain sailing, with various highs and lows along the way.
As reported by the Mirror, the pair were actually considering a divorce at one point. In the latest episode of their TV show, 22 Kids & Counting, Sue and Noel reflect on three decades of marriage and re-visit special locations that have a link to their relationship.
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One of the sites, a former bakery, was the reason behind the couple nearly going their separate ways. In 1999, Noel had trained as a baker and decided to invest in a bakery and sandwich shop, with Sue pitching in to help.
After running smoothly for a few years, the couple made the decision to invest in a prime high-street location and move the business there. A move which Noel admitted as "the worst thing I ever did."
The pair had been working on a pie business that had started to take off, so they decided to expand their operation by taking out a loan.
At the location, which is now a mobile phone shop, Noel said he "hated the place".
Of the shop, he said: "To start with it did well and then foot and mouth hit the country and I think Cumbria was one of the worst affected areas and it just killed the tourism."
Traffic to the business quickly dried up, with the couple plummeting into debt.
Sue said: "You would go to bed thinking about the debt, wake up thinking about the debt, wake up in the night thinking about the debt.
"If anything would have caused us to get a divorce, it was this shop. Looking back now, it was a time where I genuinely thought our marriage would not pull through. We'd get divorced and that would be it. It was absolutely awful."
While Noel expressed how difficult it was to go back to the site and how awful it made him feel, Sue admitted that while the business didn't work out, it failing was something the couple had to go through, to make them stronger.
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