BBC Radio 2 presenter Sara Cox is embarking on her most ambitious charity challenge yet while reflecting on her remarkable personal journey through love and relationships that saw her escape a thief boyfriend before finding marital bliss.
The Epic Children In Need Challenge
The beloved drivetime host from Bolton has begun what organisers are calling the longest ever Children In Need challenge - walking an incredible 135 miles across five days. This mammoth effort equates to completing five full marathons back-to-back as she treks through some of northern England's most challenging terrain.
Her route will take her across four different counties including Northumberland, Durham, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire. The Radio 2 personality will run, jog and walk through sweeping moorlands, steep ridges and rolling hills, supported by local communities and her loyal listeners along the way.
A Troubled Past Relationship
As her husband Ben Cyzer prepares to cheer her on during this gruelling challenge, Sara has been reflecting on her relationship history. Last year, she revealed to fans that she endured a very unhappy relationship when she first moved to London during the mid-1990s to pursue her music industry dreams.
The radio star shared with The Times that she lived in a converted church in Arnos Grove, Enfield, with a partner who turned out to be horrible and actually stole money from her. She described feeling emotionally stranded during that difficult period before finally ending the relationship and launching into her successful television career with MTV in 1997 and The Big Breakfast in 1998.
Finding Lasting Love and Family
Despite this early setback in her love life, Sara went on to find happiness with two marriages and three children. Her first wedding was to DJ Jon Carter in October 2001, conducted in a small North London registry office ceremony followed by an intimate party at a remote Irish hotel.
The couple welcomed their daughter Lola in June 2004, but their marriage ended just a year later in 2005 following several disagreements. Within weeks of her separation, Sara became friends with advertising executive Ben Cyzer, though their relationship remained platonic initially.
The couple's romance properly blossomed after meeting at Glastonbury Festival in 2005, with Sara describing it as her most memorable festival experience because she met the handsome, dashing, very funny, lovely person who would become her husband.
Despite living together from 2007 and having two children - son Isaac born in 2008 and daughter Renee born in 2010 - Sara initially claimed she would never marry again. She once told the Mirror: I am never getting married. Maybe when we are 60 I might get married and have a little party at the old folks' home - but no.
However, love won out and the couple tied the knot in June 2013 in another secret ceremony, with Sara only revealing their marriage afterwards by tweeting a picture of herself in a wedding dress alongside her new husband.
Family Life and Future Dreams
The family now lives happily in north London with their growing menagerie of animals including three dogs named Daisy, Dolly and Pip, two cats called Watson and Peggy, and two quite posh tortoises named Tom and Chally. They also have a horse called Nelly stabled in nearby Hertfordshire.
Sara has revealed ambitions to expand their animal family further by purchasing land to create a smallholding with rescue ponies, pigs and hens - a dream her husband Ben fully supports. She told the Mirror: It's always been a bit of a pipe dream, but I'd love to have a little smallholding at some point.
The couple's playful relationship was evident in 2022 when they staged a fake re-marriage at Camp Bestival, with Sara wearing what she described as a manky wedding dress while holding a can of Stella. She later clarified it was just a fun festival activity rather than a serious ceremony.
As Sara continues her gruelling 135-mile Children In Need challenge, she does so with the full support of the loving family she built after overcoming early relationship difficulties - proving that happy endings are possible even after challenging beginnings.
