Inside Ben Shephard's 20-year marriage to wife Annie - from Birmingham to Tipping Point

TV host Ben Shephard marked his milestone 50th birthday with a flood of well-wishes from fans and fellow celebrities. However, the most meaningful birthday greeting is likely to come from one special person in Ben's life - his loving wife Annie Shephard, formerly Perks.

Ben was taken aback on This Morning, earlier this week, after being presented with a series of messages from his ex-Good Morning Britain co-star, Kate Garraway, and fellow This Morning hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary. The presenter has had a sparkling career filled with famous friends, with his recent appointment as the new co-host of This Morning alongside Cat Deeley, signalling an exciting new phase.

Meanwhile, his low-profile wife Annie has also achieved considerable success behind the scenes, with supportive Ben cheering her on at every turn. Just don't bring up her mother-in-law...The Tipping Point host's wife has merged her love for interior design with her knack for writing through her own blog, The House Editor.

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Prior to becoming a mum, she had established a career writing for fashion and interior magazines, contributing to glossy titles such as House and Garden, Glamour, Elle Deco, Elle and Red.

Annie has penned on her website: "For the last 15 years, I've been raising our boys, knocking down and remodelling houses, building gardens out of mud pits and running interior projects. I've studied hard and taken excellent courses, so I've learned both the theory of design and I've also learned the hard way, by creating from the ground up, wellies on and spade in hand.", reports the Mirror.

She added, "After a few mistakes and a few more successes, my friends started to ask for help with their own interiors and gardens."

Annie is now helping others "create stylish, meaningful interiors and gardens that tell their story". Her husband Ben is clearly her biggest fan, especially after her work over the summer for the Hampton Court Flower Show.

In a show of support on Instagram in July, Ben posted: "Can't tell you how proud I am of @annieshepharddesign and her @the_garden_girls_collective they have created such a stunning boarder for @the_rhs #hamptoncourtflowershow I think this smile will tell you how pleased/relieved they are."

He continued, "They have worked so hard on every element of the challenge, it's totally consumed them so I'm really chuffed with how well it turned out. I also can't quite fathom what would be involved in a show garden! ! ! " The couple, who have been married since March 2004, met at the birmingham>University of Birmingham where Perks was studying philosophy and led the Philosophy and Epistemology Society.

In a touching display of lasting love, the couple that began their romance back in 1995 and tied the knot almost a decade later is still going strong after 28 years. The proud parents boast two teenage sons, Jack and Sam, and prefer to keep their family life away from too much public scrutiny, though Ben does occasionally give fans a glimpse into their shared activities, such as favourite family walks.

It was on their wedding anniversary in 2020 when Ben took to Instagram with a heartfelt message for his wife: "Can't quite believe another year has gone past, suddenly this one feels all the more poignant because of what's happening."

"16 years married to @mrsannieshephard 25 years together, and it's fair to say the current climate is seriously testing the strength of her feelings towards me."

Despite safeguarding some privacy around their family life, Ben has let slip that there's one domestic bone of contention – the special treatment he gets from his mum, which seems to rub his wife up the wrong way. Last summer, amidst a lively debate initiated by GMB co-host Kate about whether mums should pamper their grown-up sons, Ben confessed that his wife isn't too thrilled about how his own mother 'spoils' him.

He added another layer to the conversation by suggesting that Annie might be doing much the same with their lads, saying, "My wife with my boys does look after them and spoils them and does everything for them and my mum probably does that for me. I know Annie gets annoyed about my mum and my relationship and me being spoiled by my mum, and I can see it with her and our boys."