Anthea Turner: I’ve always said I would marry again

Anthea Turner has said she was always open to marrying again and “never put up the shutters to finding love”.

The TV presenter is engaged to businessman Mark Armstrong but their wedding has been postponed until next year amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Armstrong proposed to Turner, who will celebrate her 60th birthday on May 25, two months after their first date.

She told Hello! magazine: “It sounds very quick, of course it does. But sometimes when you are a bit older and you have lived, something tells you this is so right, you just know.

“People might say why do you have to get married, or why would you want to. It is because I do believe in marriage, and I can’t think of a nicer person to be with for the rest of my life.

“I’ve always said I would get married again, I knew I would meet someone, that I would not be on my own.

“I definitely never put up the shutters to finding love again, with ‘keep away’ tattooed on my forehead.”

The pair had planned a trip to Rome for her birthday, the city where Armstrong proposed last year and where they were due to marry this September.

Turner said the delayed ceremony would be “small and cute”.

She said: “Mark and I had planned to go out and look at venues in March and then set a date for September.

“Mark is from Italy, his family are from Milan, so it seemed the perfect place for us. It will be next year now. I am not even in any angst about it.

“When we do it, it will be small and cute, just with our close friends and family.”

Turner, who recently appeared in Channel 4’s Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, added: “Mark is the absolute love of my life, we adore each other.

“He makes me smile every day and we are excited about our life together.”

Turner said she feels no different from a decade ago.

She said: “I think 60 is more of a milestone birthday than turning 50. We’d like to think it’s not as we live in an ageless society, but it truly is.

“Do I feel any different? No, I don’t feel any different to when I was 50, not at all.”

Asked if there was a decade of her life she would like to revisit, Turner, who has been married twice before, said: “I’m not a big one for raking over the past, I absolutely live for now. I never wish I could go back to a time in my past.”

She added that her thoughts are with her friend Kate Garraway, whose husband is in hospital being treated for coronavirus, and others struggling during the outbreak.

She said: “I am blessed to be with Mark but I am mindful of all those in hospital and others who have lost jobs.

“I am not sure what ‘normal’ is going to be when we all come back from this, but it won’t be a big fanfare, I think we will all find pleasure in just a quiet supper with friends.”

Read the full interview in Hello! magazine.