Josh Widdicombe has quit London to move into TV presenter Noel Edmonds’s old house in Devon.
The Last Leg comic, 42, and producer wife Rose Hanson, 42, have paid £2.95million for the five-bed white render home in Exeter, Devon.
The couple sold their £2.3million London townhouse last summer in order to bring up their two children, seven-year-old daughter Pearl and four-year-old son Cassius, with more space and closer to Josh’s Devon childhood home.
The 7.500 sq ft Grade II listed house boasts five en-suite bedrooms as well as a separate one-bed coach house in the grounds.
Pictures inside the house show an enormous living room with a grand piano, high ceilings and a log fire as well as two other sitting rooms, two offices, a 35ft dining room and a large kitchen and breakfast room heated by an Aga.
The house – on one of Exeter’s most upmarket streets – also boasts two offices, a gym and a wine cellar.
TV host Edmonds, 77, previously lived there after splashing out £1.36million in October 2006 following his divorce from second wife Helen Soby and amid the success of Deal or No Deal.
Noel carried out extensive renovations but the house became embroiled in a bitter court battle after he was sued by a former friend who he hadn’t paid for the building work.
Josh Widdicombe, 42, and producer wife Rose Hanson, 42, (pictured) have paid £2.95million for the five-bed white render home in Exeter, Devon
TV presenter Noel Edmonds (pictured) previously lived there after splashing out £1.36million in October 2006
The 7.500 sq ft Grade II listed house boasts five en-suite bedrooms as well as a separate one-bed coach house in the grounds
Pictures inside the house show an enormous living room with a grand piano, high ceilings and a log fire
In court Edmonds claimed Ulrik Lawson, who ran a building firm, had agreed to manage the refurbishment for ‘no fee’.
Mr Lawson denied that work was carried out on ‘that basis’ – saying he was a ‘construction professional’ and ‘could not afford to work in such a way’.
Edmonds sold the house in August 2008 for more than £2million but following the 2011 court ruling against him he was ordered to pay his former friend £600,000 plus legal fees.
Widecombe has previously discussed his new house and its former owner – best known for hosting Noel’s House Party in the 1990s from Edmonds’ mansion in the fictional village of Crinkley Bottom alongside Mr Blobby, a pink and yellow spotted character.
Speaking on the Parenting Hell podcast Widdicombe told fellow comic Rob Beckett: ‘Just to be clear, it isn’t in Crinkley Bottom – it isn’t the house we used to see on Saturday nights on the TV.’
And Beckett teased him with a crude retort that he had moved to a house ‘that Noel Edmonds has had sex in… and he’s w****d in there’.
The Exeter home is three times the size of the couple’s five-storey terraced house in Victoria Park, London that the couple fully renovated after buying it in 2017 for £1.9million in 2017.
The couple also own a £1million holiday home in Mullion, Cornwall, that they have lovingly restored and now rent out to holidaymakers.
The Exeter home is three times the size of the couple’s five-storey terraced house in Victoria Park, London
The house also boasts two offices, a 35ft dining room and a large kitchen and breakfast room heated by an Aga
The house is situated on one of Exeter’s most upmarket streets
Edmonds lived there after his divorce from second wife Helen Soby and amid the success of Deal or No Deal
They documented the works in a series of Instagram posts. On one, Rose revealed: ‘We plan to spend as much time as we can in Cornwall, Josh’s family are in Devon so it’s great to be near them and we will be renting it out probably through a company when we’re not there.’
Rose also revealed she is the boss when it comes to renovations, saying: ‘He’s good at writing jokes, I’m good with interiors, we stick to our lanes.’
Pictures of the renovation show builders have ripped out bathrooms and moved walls as well as demolishing a conservatory affected by damp and building a new garden room.
A former workshop is to be turned into a home gym for weightlifting fan Rose.
The renovation works are protecting the Georgian house’s impressive character features including chandeliers, a fireplace and large bay windows.
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