Ben Shephard and his wife Annie have been married for over 20 years, but as he built a life in the spotlight, she was more than happy living her life out of it. As a result, it has meant that they have lived a chunk of their lives quite separately, with Ben previously opening up on the fact that Annie quite enjoys her own time and will often ask him to leave her be so she can spend some time by herself.

This Morning host Ben Shephard married his wife Annie Perks in March 2004 and the pair have built their family life together ever since, though Ben keeps his life mostly private. With their life together more private, it means that Ben and Annie often live their lives quite separately, while Ben's life is very much in the public eye due to his prominent position on daytime TV. Ben began his career on TV in 1998 and has had an abundance of roles on air including working on The Xtra Factor and featuring on Good Morning Britain.

He's then hosted Tipping Point since 2012, and landed the incredibly high-profile gig of This Morning after Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield hung up their position at different points in 2023. But what do we know about Ben's private life with his wife Annie? We've looked into it following Ben's confession about their marriage where he declared that one positive is having some alone time.

Ben and Annie met while they were both still students. In her career, Annie focused on writing for fashion and interior magazines including the likes of Glamour, Elle and Red, she now runs her own business, The House Editor.

She's declared on her website that she's spent her time raising her children while also running interiors projects and remodelling houses and building gardens.

Ben has praised his wife on countless occasions, saying he's glad she "still hasn't worked out that there's far better options out there".

The couple have two sons, Sam and Jack, but their lives are mostly out of the public eye. Ben shares snippets of them on social media on occasion but for the most part the TV host keeps his private life private and his TV career strictly about him. But he has previously said of his boys on a radio show: "Having boys is like having dogs. You just need to run them every day. If they're stuck inside every day, the built-up energy is extraordinary. As long as they feel like they've been able to exercise, then I'm very content with how that comes about."

Once upon a time Ben's dream was to become an actor before he ended up joining a local weather network as a student; he was then encouraged by a producer to become a television presenter. He then continued to build his career up on TV and got to the level he's at now, but one thing that he won't ever do on screen is Strictly. He admitted his wife really isn't keen for him to take on the competition, telling Andi Peters previously: "As things stand, that's a negotiation that needs to happen between the BBC and my wife."

Ben has been incredibly open about the time apart he and Annie spend, telling Daily Mail's Weekend magazine that they live "quite separate lives". He admitted his wife is "much more solitary" then he is, and that she's happier in her own company. He said: "Half the time she's like, 'I need a bit of space. Can you leave me alone for five seconds, please?'" But they've figured out how to make things work in the best way for them. Oftentimes, when Ben isn't at work, he's wanting to do something physical like going for a jog or playing golf, whereas Annie is keen on visiting art gallries and gardens, but he did admit that they've both been keen to work on discovering activities they can do together.