CAROL Vorderman has cemented herself as a national treasure, with an army of fans.
Due to the former Countdown star’s popularity, fans often wonder about her romantic life. Here we take a look at the life of second husband Patrick King.
Patrick King is a media personality and management consultant.
In 1990, the businessman married TV star Carol Vorderman.
She has since revealed that she met Patrick in her late 20s at her best friend from university’s wedding.
They struck up a conversation over “hideous” bridesmaid dress.
Read more on Carol Vorderman
Carol and Patrick started “going out immediately” after that encounter and married 18 months later.
Speaking about her their life together, she told the Postcards From Midlife podcast: “I was married very happily to my husband Paddy, Mr King. the father of my children through the 1990s – in my thirties.”
Married with kids
During their marriage the couple had two children together.
They are parents to daughter Katie who graduated with a PhD in nanotechnology and son Cameron who graduated from UWE Bristol.
Carol has spoken of her pride in her son, who has severe learning difficulties, after he got a First Class degree in animation in 2020 and achieved a Master’s Degree from Dundee University in 2021.
Speaking on This Morning, she said: “I always knew he would make it with the right help but the mainstream system doesn’t cater well for most children with these severe learning difficulties.
“Their development curve is a different shape.
“They have their superpower and one day THEY find their path IF they’re guided well.”
The break-up
After a decade together, the couple got divorced in 2000.
Opening up about the split, Carol comparing their break-up to a “bereavement”.
“If you are in a long-term relationship and you break up, and I’ve been through one of those when I was very, very happily married to Paddy for many years and suddenly we weren’t… It’s like grief,” she told Postcards From Midlife podcast.
“It’s like a bereavement. And people shouldn’t belittle it and go, ‘Oh yeah go out and you’re all having a good time’. It doesn’t work like that.
“And with bereavement, there are the five stages of grief and one of them is anger and then ultimately it’s acceptance and moving forward.”
Before Patrick, Carol was married to Naval Officer Christopher Mather in 1985 when she was just 24.
However, the pair the marriage only last a year before they split.
Single lady
Carol has ruled out a third trip down the aisle, and said: “I never want to get married again.”
Following the breakdown of her second marriage, the star has been dating a group of men she refers to as “special friends”.
She told the podcast: “When I came out and said that I’ve got special friends, a lot of women said ‘fantastic, why not’.
“Why do you have to have this whole narrative which is women have to be looking for the one. Why can’t you have five?…
“I don’t want to have to settle down with anybody because I don’t want to have to go through having to see what he has to do. I’ve done that all of my life.
“I looked after my mum for 30 years as a single parent. All of that I don’t want anymore and that’s my choice and I’ve explained that very clearly.”