TV star and renovation expert Sarah Beeny is currently on our screens in Sarah Beeny’s New Life in the Country on Channel 4.
The property guru has been a staple on British TV for years and is known for her expert advice on shows like Property Ladder and How to Live Mortgage Free as well as Village SOS, Fifth Gear, and Four Rooms.
Sarah Beeny’s New Life in the Country follows her family’s move from London to a derelict former dairy farm in Somerset more than five years ago and how they have crafted the home into their own.
However, behind the scenes, the 52-year-old has faced personal struggles, including a battle against breast cancer. But what else do we know about her life off TV, namely her home and family?
Sarah Beeny’s health battle
In August 2022, Sarah Beeny announced she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was due to undergo surgery and radiotherapy.
After a difficult year of treatment, including a mastectomy and intensive radiotherapy and chemotherapy, she joyfully announced she was cancer-free in April 2023. She also covered her cancer journey in Sarah Beeny vs Cancer, which was praised by Channel 4 viewers.
Sarah Beeny supported Yeovil Town in October 2023 as the club raised money for Yeovil Hospital Charity in their Paint the Park Pink campaign. With a limited edition pink kit, the campaign raised £40,000.
Speaking to OK! magazine, Beeny praised her husband Graham for being her constant support during her illness, saying: “There are bumps along the way in life and marriage – it’s not all plain sailing. But during my cancer treatment, Graham was absolutely as I’d expected him to be – great, because he’s a good man.”
She continued: “I don’t have a husband who will come in with tea trays, I don’t have a butler! But I don’t want one, I’d find that annoying. Whenever he’s needed to step up, he’s stepped up, and that was one of those times.”
Who is Sarah Beeny married to and why she never said ‘love you’
Sarah Beeny is currently married to Graham Swift after they started dating when she was 19 and he was 18.
Together they have four sons: Billy, who is now 20, Charlie, aged 18, Laurie, 16, and Rafferty, who is 15. Sarah’s brother is married to Graham’s sister, Caroline.
She previously discussed her unique relationship with husband Graham Swift in a candid chat with Prima Magazine.
She revealed they have a quirky way of expressing their love and, despite their strong connection, never actually said “I love you” to each other. It became a tradition that started as a playful response to friends who would throw around the phrase too casually.
Sarah shared: “I’m married to my best friend. I don’t know what our secret is, but I think having a spark of the child in you helps. I met Graham when I was 19 and he was 18.
“We used to laugh at friends who would say ‘I love you’ after one date and then dump them the next day, so not saying it became an inside joke. To this day, we’ve never officially said it.”
Inside Sarah Beeny’s home in stunning countryside
Sarah, her husband Graham, and their four sons have built a stunning family home set in 220 acres of countryside in Stoney Stoke near Bruton in Somerset.
The home Sarah has lovingly built and designed with her husband Graham Swift is thankfully large enough to comfortably handle a degree of hoarding, and the rooms are filled with antique bookcases, comfy-looking sofas, and the odd rather quirky item – including Sarah’s favourite piece, a bespoke toilet cistern!
“[It’s] a brass toilet cistern with Swift & Beeny Sanitary Engineers printed on it – it’s lavish and ridiculous,” she laughs. “We brought it from our old house.”
Sarah has recently been very busy transforming a Wincanton barn into a multi-purpose studio for art events and film production, called Stokeford Studios.
Sarah’s children and Graham play together in a band called The Entitled Sons and play gigs in the area. Sarah Beeny praised her “hard-working” sons after their band manage to draw in a “huge crowd” at Glastonbury Festival in 2023.
Family tragedy
Aged just 10, Sarah Beeny lost her mother Ann to breast cancer. The TV presenter also spoke to OK! Magazine about how the loss of her mother at a young age profoundly affected her outlook on life and home.
She reflected: “Home is really important for me. But it’s not about how it looks, it’s about how it makes people feel. My mum died when I was quite young and I’ve been sentimental since then. I’ve released myself from some of it now – and I’ve realised that my kids aren’t sentimental at all.”