Charlie Brooker is well known for his satirical humour, while Konnie Huq is famous for being the face of Blue Peter in the late 1990s, so it’s fair to say eyebrows were raised when they got hitched in 2010.
The unlikely couple first met when Konnie appeared on Charlie’s critically-acclaimed show Screenwipe in 2008, and they remained friends after filming, before getting together two years later.
Just nine months later, they tied the knot at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, and have been happily married ever since.
Konnie, who holds the record for the longest-running female host of Blue Peter (from 1997 until 2008), gave birth to their first child, son Covey, in 2012, and the couple welcomed their second son, Huxley, in 2014.
Black Mirror creator Charlie has been open about their relationship, and he confessed having kids and marrying Konnie was the “best decision I ever made”.
In an interview with Kirsty Young on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in 2018, he said he has a “romantic fluttering heart” despite his cynical and acerbic exterior, and said Konnie came into his life at “absolutely the right time”.
“It was weird because, for years, I'd not known if I'd wanted kids or a family, that seemed like something that other people did, I couldn't perceive of that as a future,” Charlie explained.
“And then Konnie came along and quite early on she said 'I want kids and a family' and this sort of thing, and I heard myself going 'OK', and sort of thought, 'oh, right, why have I said that?' It was the best decision I ever made,” he sweetly shared.
Charlie also spoke about his worry over connecting with his first child, and said he was anxious during Konnie’s pregnancy.
“My biggest fear was that I'd heard about dads who, the baby is born and they just don't connect, or for whatever reason, they don't emotionally connect, and I didn't really get babies and kids,” he said.
“I was like, 'that's going to be me, what if I feel nothing?’”
Konnie has alsop divulged details about their whirlwind romance, and said she “just knew” Charlie was ‘The One’.
“They always say that you 'just know', and to be honest, that is really how it was with me and Charlie,” the children’s writer and illustrator said.
But their relationship hasn’t always been easy, and the Blue Peter icon revealed she was forced to give Charlie an ultimatum early on in their relationship.
During an interview on Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Spinning Plates podcast, Konnie said it was “my way or the highway” when Charlie said he didn’t think he wanted to have kids.
“So when we got together, I was like, 'if you're a ‘not a having kids’ kind of person then we're not compatible.' But it turns out he was,” she said.
Konnie confessed her “body clock was ticking”, and she laid down the ground rules to her writer husband, and said they would be over if he didn’t want kids.
“So yeah, quite quickly it was my way or the highway, which is good because then you know if someone is committed maybe,” she laughed.
“I was literally like, 'there is no point us being together unless you're sure you want to have kids and quite quickly as well.' And If that was to scare him off, then he wasn't the right person,” Konnie added.
The TV presenter said her husband is “really good with kids”, and said despite his “miserable alter ego”, he was really a “lamb in wolf’s clothing”.
Konnie also revealed it was Charlie’s old-fashioned way of wooing her that eventually won her over.
“That was one thing that attracted me to Charlie, a bloke who is good at phone conversations is quite a rare thing, and Charlie is really good at having a telephone conversation,” she gushed.
She said she is “anti-consumerism” and doesn’t use Amazon, Uber, Deliveroo or Facebook, and Charlie is the yin to her yang.
“I am an old-fashioned person. I always say I am really analogue and Charlie is really digital,” Konnie quipped.
