Richard Madeley has said he’ll never work with his wife Judy Finnigan on TV again.
Husband-and-wife team Richard and Judy became household names hosting ITV’s This Morning from 1988 to 2001, and then continued their onscreen partnership with their daily evening chat show Richard & Judy on Channel 4 from 2001 until 2009.
But Richard (pictured with Judy at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards in March) now says: “When we stopped, we agreed that we never wanted to do that again. Judy has completely withdrawn from broadcasting. She’s not interested in going back to any other series. She’s now a full-time writer and halfway through her second novel.
“I’m freelancing, so we’re not together as much as we were. I’m popping down to do the Matthew Wright show [The Wright Stuff] when he’s not around. I’m doing the Terry Wogan show on BBC Radio 2 on Sundays while he’s in France. I’m keeping seats warm.”
When he isn't keeping seats warm on TV and radio, Richard has followed his wife of 28 years into the world of writing, publishing his own novel.
But he insisted: “The competitive gene doesn’t exist for me and Judy, otherwise we never could have presented together for all that time.
“It would have been a nightmare, arguing over who would open the show, who would interview the big names - and there are other presenting combinations where that kind of stuff goes on, where there's behind-the-scenes wrangling with producers. That never existed between Judy and me, which is one of the reasons we fell in love. We just really hit it off.”
And Richard revealed he’s not that keen on having a big TV show again, either.
“I was offered a five-nights-a-week network show, quite strongly leaning to current affairs and I turned it down because I don’t want to go back to that. I feel that we’ve proven ourselves. I don’t want to go back to five days or nights a week because it would stop me from doing all the other things I’m doing.
“I’ll only do things that are fun - offers come in all the time and I’m still out there.”
