EXCLUSIVE: Sarah Beeny’s sad confession after winning cancer battle – ‘the clouds come’
EXCLUSIVE: Property expert Sarah Beeny has had a turbulent few years after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022, but she’s now focusing on her future and helping others find love
Sarah is opening up on life after surviving breast cancer
The past few years have been a whirlwind for TV presenter Sarah Beeny. After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022, she underwent a double mastectomy and reconstruction before having her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed in 2023.
The 54-year-old mum-of-four was told the cancer was gone the same year. “I was lucky,” she smiles. “I was fortunate to get diagnosed in time, and my treatment was successful. I have a whole life to live now.”
In a 2024 podcast property guru Sarah appeared to admit her ordeal had pushed her and artist husband Graham Swift’s marriage to the limit. But she explains that comment as we chat over coffee in a London café.
Sarah was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022
The mum of four was open about her journey on Instagram
“I think the interviewer asked how my marriage had been going as I went through treatment and I’d gone, ‘Well, you know, it’s not fabulous, we’re hanging by a thread.’ It was meant in a jokey way, but it was out of context.”
Sarah’s family got caught up in the drama, too. “I had a call from my brother Diccon saying he’d had about 15 phone calls saying, ‘We’re so sorry Sarah and Graham are getting divorced.’ We were like, ‘What? We’re fine and doing okay. I’m not giving up now.’
“There have been bumps in the road in 34 years. It would have been so boring otherwise. It’s not been perfect all along, but what relationship is? That’s the truth of it. I’ve learned in life that if you don’t have the bad times, then you don’t appreciate the good times.
“My children sometimes say, ‘You and Dad argue a lot’, and there are days when I don’t fancy him and divorce seems like a good idea. But the next minute they see us in the garden holding hands and they know we love each other. It’s healthy for them to see that.”
Speaking of her attraction to Graham, who she met aged 18 and married in 2002, she says, “He makes me laugh and is good-looking. Sometimes I think, ‘What did we do all day before we had children?’ And I know what we did – that’s why we’ve got four children! Life gets in the way, but I like to keep that spark alive.”
Despite being married for over two decades herself, Sarah is famous for her pioneering dating website MySingleFriend, which she is relaunching. At the time, she had no idea it would be so successful, especially as the concept only popped into her head when she was trying to set up mutual friends.
She’s now overhauling the platform with a “video-first” approach and is excited by the thought of more couples meeting and finding love. “It felt like unfinished business, and I’ve always been a connector,” she says.
Sarah confesses to using her sons as guinea pigs in the new version. “My idea was reinforced after my eldest son Billy went on a date and knew within the first 10 seconds it wasn’t right. How much easier would it have been if he’d been able to watch a video of her? He would have seen her vibe.”
Over the years, Sarah has inadvertently been responsible for countless couples getting together.
Sarah is living a new life in the country
“I’ve had thousands of people telling me they got married and had babies after being on MySingleFriend,” she says. “Every day I get a message thanking me.”
We wonder if Sarah, who’s looking fabulous in a pair of skinny jeans, would have tried online dating if she hadn’t met Graham. “Definitely,” she says. “Of course I would. What are you going to do, stand on a street corner to try and meet someone? Or just hope?”
Sarah grew up in Hampshire, and tragically lost her mum to a brain tumour when she was only 10. Her dad was an architect, but her early life was semi off-grid. She says, “I think the hippy family bit made me realise that self-sufficiency is really hard work. It’s easier to just earn a living.”
She was already on her way to becoming a property developer when she bought her first flat with Graham. Channel 4 show Sarah Beeny’s New Life In The Country followed the family as they moved from south London to Somerset in 2019, to convert a semi-derelict former dairy farm into a modern, seven-bedroom home. Although she admits the work will “never be finished”, she is now hoping to launch a YouTube channel and is also waiting to find out if her latest series, Help! I Bought It At Auction , will get a second run.
Asked if she thrives on always being so busy, she says, “Yes. It’s my drug. I don’t sit down much. And I like a challenge.” But she admits she is “endlessly dissatisfied”, telling us, “My husband says, ‘Can you not see what you have achieved and be proud? Look at the lives you’ve changed and the women in the building industry you’ve empowered?’ And I say, ‘No. I need to do something else.’”
She does at least find nature calming. “I walk our dogs every day and plant vegetables. The move to the country helped my mental health, no question.”
There are difficult moments though, even after she put the cancer behind her. “I wouldn’t say I ever get depressed, but I have up days and down days,” she says. “As I’ve got older, the clouds come.”
She first noticed it when Billy was born. “It was really difficult. I was thinking, ‘What’s wrong with me?’ I remember Graham saying, ‘You have to eat something.’ He made me baked beans and I couldn’t even swallow them. It was so overwhelming and I was thinking, ‘I love this little baby, but I’m not grown up enough for this.’ I was so full of self-doubt. I look back and realise it was baby blues,” she says.
Talking helps her through the lows, as does her garden. “My youngest son knows if we go and make planters for the tomatoes in the greenhouse it will cheer me up, bless him. Recognising and vocalising how you feel is really important, but as an older lady, it’s complicated. You find doors shut behind you, so you have to find what doors to open next.”
Her children, Billy, 21, Charlie, 20, Rafferty, 17, and Laurie, 16, play in successful indie band The Entitled Sons
Her children, Billy, 21, Charlie, 20, Rafferty, 17, and Laurie, 16, play in successful indie band The Entitled Sons, with dad Graham on bass guitar. “They just headlined at Shepherd’s Bush Empire which was amazing,” Sarah says. “They have a single out in June. At home we’re in the middle of GCSEs and A levels, and the band is almost a full-time job. Life is chaotic, but I’m a very proud mum and I’ll be following them on their summer festival dates.”
As for Sarah, her health remains good and she tells us she no longer has to go to hospital for scans as there’s nothing left to scan. “It feels like a lifetime ago now,” she says. “Graham laughs and says, ‘Your therapy is to pick up the carpet, sweep everything underneath and put it back down again.’ But that’s just my coping mechanism. Cancer was the Big Bad Wolf to me, and now I’ve had it. If you had to sum up the 10 things I’m about, cancer wouldn’t be on the list.”
Source: https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/sarah-beenys-sad-confession-after-37130427
