The end of Lisa Faulkner’s marriage to ‘ star Chris Coghill was a surprise for her fans. The pair were a picture perfect couple who were red-carpet darlings.
They adopted their daughter Billie, now 18, and then seemingly out of the blue, announced their divorce in 2014 after six years of marriage leaving many wondering what went wrong.
Lisa has now opened up about the “very dark time” she endured that contributed to the “failed” marriage. The actress, 52, revealed she went through three unsuccessful rounds of IVF and an ectopic pregnancy when she was wed to Chris, 49.
“Those years [battling infertility] were a very dark time,” she recently told Good Housekeeping. “One minute I wasn’t that bothered about kids, apart from my nieces, and then something happened overnight, and I wanted a baby so badly.”
“All my peers were trying at the same time, so it was like we were swimming in the same pool, but they kept getting pregnant and climbing out until, eventually, I was still swimming in there alone,” she admitted.
Lisa’s ex was soap actor Chris Coghill (Image: Getty)
“It was really lonely… I was the one in 10 who didn’t [get pregnant]. I thought, ‘Why me?’ It was exhausting.” Lisa described adopting Billie at 17 months old as a “completely different ballgame” to conceiving.
She explained: “It’s not easy because you’re dealing with a child with trauma. It’s a trauma that will never, ever be healed, and my job is to be there to help make it better in every way I can.”
She admitted it required her to do a lot of self-reflection: “I’ve had to do a lot of work on myself. It’s an ongoing process; it doesn’t stop.”
The Holby City star, who lost her mother, Julie, at just 16, eventually found love again with judge 59, whom she married in 2019.
The pair met on Celebrity MasterChef and slowly built their relationship, taking Billie into consideration. Recalling their first date, Lisa said: “We took things really slowly because of Billie, and also because I’d been through the end of a marriage – we had a child, and I felt I’d failed in something I never wanted to fail at.
Lisa and husband John Torode (Image: Getty)
“I never give up on anything, so when you do have to accept that something didn’t work, starting a new relationship is a big leap of faith.”
Now, Lisa and John co-host John & Lisa’s Weekend Kitchen on ITV and have written a cookbook together. Lisa, , praised her husband’s cooking skills and collaborative spirit, saying: “John is a brilliant chef, and I’m a home cook, but we both just want to make food everyone can enjoy.
“He’s never made me feel like I don’t know what I’m talking about. We’ve learned from each other – I’ll tell him tips or cheats that I have, and he’ll say, ‘Actually, that’s good.’”
The couple shares a blended family of five children: Lisa’s adopted daughter Billie, along with John’s children Jonah, 18, Lulu, 16, and grown-up sons Casper and Marselle from his previous marriages.
Reflecting on her step-parenting role, she explained: “Being a step-parent is like being a friend. John’s kids have two brilliant parents. My daughter has two parents, and that’s the point.”
, including and Tamzin Outhwaite, in attendance.
Lisa said their partnership works because they “really like and fancy each other,” adding: “What I love about being married is that it’s about being a partnership. John and I are a good team. We know how to look after each other.”