Confessions of an Antiques Roadshow legend: Michael Aspel tells JAN MOIR of the lust and betrayal that wrecked his three marriages - and why he was 'born feeling guilty'
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No one was more surprised than Michael Aspel when he was honoured with a Living Legend award at the Television & Radio Industries Club luncheon earlier this month. ‘It was rather sweet,’ he says of his new trophy. ‘It looks like a bottle opener.’.
![[The presenter was a constant presence on the nation’s televisions for seven decades, until he retired from Antiques Roadshow in 2008]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/01/93251705-14202943-The_presenter_was_a_constant_presence_on_the_nation_s_television-a-3_1734485782789.jpg)
Michael was particularly delighted because so often these days, the only time anyone gets in touch with him is to request a tribute to yet another showbiz colleague who has died. At the age of 91, the former newsreader, television personality, presenter, chat-show host and radio broadcaster has outlived nearly all his contemporaries; a list of greats that includes Terry Wogan, Michael Parkinson, Des O’Connor, Bruce Forsyth, Bob Monkhouse, Morecambe and Wise – I could go on, but it might get depressing.
![[Michael with his partner Irene Clarke, who has lived with him since 1996]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/01/93248205-14202943-Michael_with_his_partner_Irene_Clarke_who_has_lived_with_him_sin-a-1_1734485782780.jpg)
There are moments when it seems as if the erstwhile host of This Is Your Life has morphed into the compere of This Is Your Death, but he doesn’t mind. Even if he does sometimes feel like the last man standing. ‘Yes, I do. And I’m still quite astonished and sorry that Wogan and Parky have gone. It doesn’t seem possible, because they were both younger than me,’ he says.
![[Michael after interviewing Elizabeth Taylor in 1988 - a career high point]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/01/93248211-14202943-Michael_after_interviewing_Elizabeth_Taylor_in_1988_a_career_hig-a-4_1734485782795.jpg)
He wasn’t a close friend of either man but once bumped into Parkinson in a London barbershop. ‘We did have the best of it, didn’t we?’ Parky said to him, and Aspel could only agree that yes indeed, they certainly had. Today, he lives in a luxury three-bedroom flat, overlooking a stretch of river in Weybridge, Surrey. When his familiar, honeyed voice floats through the intercom system – ‘I’ll come right out to meet you’ – it is oddly thrilling.
