Radio 2 presenter Sara Cox has faced her fair share of heartbreak before finding lasting happiness. As she embarks on the longest-ever BBC Children In Need challenge — a gruelling 135-mile trek across four counties — fans are looking back on her remarkable journey through love, betrayal, and eventual joy.

Sara first revealed she was in a “very unhappy relationship” when she moved to London in the mid-1990s. Living in a converted church in Enfield, she later discovered that her ex-boyfriend — who she described as “horrible” — had actually stolen money from her. The revelation, she said, left her “emotionally stranded” before she finally ended things and began her breakout years on MTV and The Big Breakfast.

Love returned in 2001 when Sara married DJ Jon Carter, with whom she had her first daughter, Lola, in 2004. However, after a string of rows, the couple split just a year later.

It wasn’t long before fate intervened again. In 2005, at Glastonbury Festival, Sara met her now-husband Ben Cyzer, an advertising executive she describes as “handsome, dashing and funny.” Though they didn’t marry until 2013, their love blossomed early — welcoming Isaac (born 2008) and Renee (born 2010) along the way.

Their wedding, much like Sara’s first, was a secret ceremony, revealed only through a cheeky post on Twitter. The pair later “remarried” as a joke at Camp Bestival in 2022, with Sara laughing that it was all “just a bit of fun in an inflatable church.”

Now happily settled in North London, the 50-year-old star lives with her husband, three children, and a menagerie that includes three dogs, two cats, two tortoises, and a beloved horse named Nelly. A farmer’s daughter from Bolton, she dreams of owning land to rescue ponies, pigs, and hens — with Ben fully supportive of the plan.

As Sara laces up her boots for her five-day charity challenge, fans can’t help but admire how far she’s come — from a painful past to a life built on laughter, love, and purpose.