Victoria Derbyshire has shared her tip for a happy marriage: leave that mountain of dirty laundry on the floor.
The BBC Newsnight presenter said that there are more important things to worry about than tidiness.
Derbyshire, 54, married her long-term partner, Mark Sandell, in 2018. The couple have two teenage sons.
Speaking to Woman & Home magazine about her secret to a happy relationship, Derbyshire said: “Be a team. And don’t sweat the small stuff. I don’t care about laundry on the floor or toothpaste spills - there are bigger fish to fry.”
Keeping the romance alive also helps, Derbyshire suggested: “We’re both quite romantic. I arranged a surprise holiday for him for his birthday with 17 of our friends, and then last year he arranged a surprise birthday party for me in our local village hall. I was so taken aback. We’re both quite good at doing that stuff.”
The couple began their relationship in 2004, when Sandell was still married to Derbyshire’s Radio 5 Live colleague, Fi Glover.
'None of us know how long we’ve got'
Derbyshire proposed to him in 2015 after being diagnosed with cancer, and they married after she completed her treatment.
“Mark totally stepped up. He was incredible. He did everything to look after me and the boys. We got married after I got the all-clear. We wanted to have a massive party and celebrate,” she said.
Derbyshire said that having cancer had taught her that “none of us know how long we’ve got, so I want to have incredible life experiences and enjoy it”.
In 2020, she took part in I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! and said she would now love the opportunity to appear on Strictly Come Dancing.
“If I get asked to do Strictly - which I honestly don’t think I will be - I’d totally consider it,” she said.
“I’m not sure if it would be the right thing to do because I do Newsnight. But, hey, I did I’m A Celebrity two years ago and now I’m doing Newsnight and people are cool with it.
“People are less likely to put you in boxes these days.”
