Greg James has opened up about whether he and wife Bella Mackie are thinking about having children.
The Radio 1 DJ, who tied the knot with Mackie, 39, in September 2018, said that the couple have both agreed not to have any children “at the moment”, admitting that their friends make parenting “look hard”.
James, 37, added that the couple “have a nice life” being child-free right now.
“We’re just monitoring it,” he told Men’s Health in a new interview, published Monday (20 March). “But basically we’re both on ‘no’ to kids at the moment… It’s where we are at the moment. We’ve having a nice time.”
He reflected on their ages and said they have “plenty of time” ahead of them.
“Bella is enjoying her success as a writer and we can take a view later,” he continued. “Ask ourselves: what does our life look like in 10, 15, 20 years? We’re fine without it.”
James, who hosts BBC Radio 1’s breakfast show, admitted there may be “consequences for later in life” if they delay having children, as they may be “two sad old people rocking away in our rocking chairs”.
“But to be honest, all of our friends make having kids look hard,” he admitted. “None of them look like they’re having a nice time. We’re not short of babies and kids in our families.”
The presenter also revealed that he would like to “live abroad for a year” at some point and would choose “somewhere hotter and with good wine”.
“So maybe France or Italy,” he pondered.
James also spoke candidly about Mackie’s anxiety. In 2018, she published the book Jog On: How Running Saved My Life, which detailed her struggle with her mental health and how exercise helps her manage it.
“For a lot of anxious people, they worry about being in danger. So danger happened with Covid and they go, ‘I told you!’
“We had talked about her mental health before and, of course, I was aware because she had written about it in her book. It was severe anxiety hand-in-hand with OCD and it can be crippling… I’ve learnt so much about mental health through her. We’re very open about it, which is so much better.”
James and Mackie first met via Twitter and he asked her out after several months of texting. She previously told The Irish Times: “I realised quite quickly I wanted to marry him and I think I proposed after four months.”
They married in an intimate ceremony two months after getting engaged, but the exact date has not been shared publicly. In 2021, James shared an unseen clip from their wedding day that showed Mackie walking down the aisle in a pastel yellow dress, arm-in-arm with her sister.
