He’s the squeaky-clean host of This Morning, but as his perilous new game show begins, Ben Shephard reveals there’s a daredevil in him itching to get out.
Ben Shephard is a middle-aged man so proud of his fitness that last year he posed topless on the cover of a health magazine, showing off his six-pack.
Now the 51-year-old co-host of This Morning, a famously clean-cut, gregarious chap, is about to go edgy with The Summit, one of the toughest challenge shows ever made, in which the contestants have to climb a mountain in New Zealand.
‘I love adventure,’ he says. ‘I’ve been lucky enough to climb a couple of mountains and understand what’s involved.
‘I fell in love with New Zealand when I went travelling as a teenager, so to film this in the Southern Alps there was amazing.
‘Essentially, we’ve set an adventure reality show in the epic backdrop for The Lord Of The Rings movies.’
Ben is about to host a new series of The Summit, an adventure series that will launch on ITV
The 51-year-old co-host of This Morning is about to go edgy with The Summit
None of the 14 contestants who start out have any experience of mountaineering.
‘There’s a landlady from Northampton, a female steel worker from Port Talbot, a tour guide from London, an ordained minister. Such an extraordinary melting pot of people from different backgrounds,’ says Ben.
And they start falling out in episode one. ‘The physical endeavour is so full on, really early on, that people’s patience wears thin very quickly,’ he adds.
They are set jaw-dropping physical challenges every day, even as the climb gets tougher.
‘By day three there’s snow. They’re using ice picks. They’re going across a glacier,’ Ben says.
Then the tension soars as night falls, the temperature drops below freezing and the group has to vote on who to send home: ‘They need to work as a team to get to the top, so if someone is not pulling their weight, it is apparent very quickly.’
The contestants each carry their cut of the £200,000 cash prize in their rucksacks, which will be shared with those who reach the top, but every time someone quits the prize gets smaller.
A few days into the climb there’s a moment when one of the group says they can’t go on – and while some offer comfort, another is more focused on the prize fund and tries to convince them to stay, saying, ‘There goes £14,000.’
Ben Shephard is a middle-aged man so proud of his fitness that last year he posed topless on the cover of a health magazine, showing off his six-pack
Ben Shephard showed off his rippling muscles for a striking Men’s Health UK cover
The strong ones can try to have anyone they see as a threat voted off, which leads to some shocking decisions. And huge rows, like when a priest with a secret past and a manipulative ex-soldier square up to each other.
‘I had to defuse a very febrile situation,’ says Ben, who looks like he can take care of himself. ‘It was incendiary at times.’
Is this The Traitors Extreme? ‘Well,’ he says, laughing, ‘I tell you what, Claudia’s fingerless gloves wouldn’t cut it on that mountain.’
Doctors and expert climbers were on hand during filming, but was the danger real?
Ben says: ‘There was genuine jeopardy. On an eye-wateringly high, sheer cliffside, one of our contestants injured themselves climbing a rope ladder. At moments like that, you realise how easy it is for something to go wrong.’
He’s happy talking about it now, in a warm cafe near This Morning’s studios in London’s Covent Garden, but how would he do as a contestant?
‘I’m a bit of a daredevil, but I’m not sure I could have brought myself to do what they had to do at times,’ he adds.
Ben looks in good shape, in his quarter-zip fleece and jeans, but that’s no surprise. He’s a fitness fanatic who posed half-naked on the cover of Men’s Health in 2012, then trained hard to repeat the feat last year to mark his 50th birthday.
Ben shares Sam, 20, and Jack, 19, with his wife Annie
Ben was born in Epping, Essex, and his parents David and Jo still live in a village nearby
He also climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with Fearne Cotton and other stars for Comic Relief in 2009.
‘That was the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done because there were a number of occasions where people got into real trouble. Fearne had a real problem at one point, but that girl’s strength and grit are amazing,’ continues Ben.
‘The head of our team had to go off from us and save somebody’s life and take them down. That’s the reality of that mountain, you can get it very wrong. But the biggest physical challenge of my life was probably the World’s Toughest Mudder.’
Ben’s referring to the gruelling endurance race at Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire that he did with his sons Sam, 20, and Jack, 19, and his godson Ben last year.
‘We were doing a five-mile loop with obstacles including mud, water and fire that you kept repeating as a relay over 24 hours. That was pretty dangerous, in terms of what we were putting ourselves through. But to do it with my boys and my godson was amazing,’ he adds.
Ben was born in Epping, Essex, and his parents David and Jo still live in a village nearby. He went to the private Chigwell School, but protests against being called posh.
‘Mum and Dad both came from working-class backgrounds. Mum lost her father when she was seven, he drowned trying to save her sister in a river. They grew up on one income, with very little,’ says Ben.
‘Annie was with me way before I got into telly,’ he says of his wife (pictured) adding: ‘She has been through everything with me, the highs and lows’
‘My dad left school with no qualifications, but put himself through night school to become an accountant. He got up at six, went off to the City, came back at eight and worked again.
‘Mum did nights as a nurse and midwife, got an hour’s sleep then lectured during the day. They passed on their work ethic.’
Ben raised money for a gap year with shifts in a freight warehouse: ‘They were filming The Crystal Maze next door. I was within touching distance of a really awesome entertainment adventure show and I just kept thinking, “That’s what I want to do.”’
At Birmingham University he studied dance and drama and met Annie, his future wife: ‘We were both 21 and students there when we met at my best friend’s birthday party.’
He wanted to be an actor, became a runner at a TV company and was spotted by a producer as a potential host.
‘Annie was with me way before I got into telly,’ he says. ‘She has been through everything with me, the highs and lows.’
The many shows he has hosted include The Krypton Factor, Ninja Warrior and One Night Only specials with Rod Stewart and Phil Collins: ‘Is The Summit the edgiest telly I’ve ever done? I once hosted Am I Good In Bed? with Penny Smith. That was quite edgy!’
At Birmingham University he studied dance and drama and met Annie, his future wife (pictured in 2025)
Tipping Point is his biggest stand-alone hit, a quiz show launched in 2012 that’s still going strong
Tipping Point is his biggest stand-alone hit, a quiz show launched in 2012 that’s still going strong. Ben and Cat Deeley took over as the main presenters on This Morning two years ago.
‘I love working with Cat,’ he says. ‘We’re from similar families. We’ll often say the same thing at the same time.’
How have he and Annie stayed together so long, in an industry where marriages often fail? ‘She’s exceptionally patient. And I’m very patient with new shoes,’ he jokes. ‘What I really think is that we were great mates when we got together.’
His wife stays well clear of showbusiness. ‘Annie has been brilliant at allowing me the space to go off and do the job I do,’ Ben says.
Isn’t that isolating? ‘Not really. There are always people around. We had a fantastic time as a production team making The Summit, you’re on top of each other then it’s over and you’re going home.
‘Annie is much more solitary than me. She’s much happier in her own company. Half the time she’s like, “I need a bit of space. Can you leave me alone for five seconds, please?”’
There is gratitude, rather than offence, in his voice, though. ‘She’s been the most important factor in our lives as a family; this amazing influence who created the home for our boys to become who they are and certainly made me better at being a dad.
‘Jack’s working as a teaching assistant before travelling. Sam’s studying maths at university and having a ball. I’m super-excited for both, but God I miss them.
Ben and Cat Deeley took over as the main presenters on This Morning two years ago
Ben said of his sons: ‘Jack’s working as a teaching assistant before travelling. Sam’s studying maths at university and having a ball’
‘They make such a mess and eat everything when they’re in the house, but when they’re not there you go, “Oh, what are we going to talk about now?”’
So Ben and Annie are empty-nesters? ‘It’s imminent. Having been surrounded by boys, their mates and girls for a very long time, it’s going to be quieter. It is already.’
Some couples in their position find it a challenge to work out a new way of being together. ‘I’m up for that, definitely, because I love a challenge. I think I’m more of a challenge than she is, to be honest. But both of us feel like this next stage is really exciting. The lovely thing is, the boys are not far away.
‘We do live quite separate lives. I’m off working, she has her job, which is garden and interior design. If I’ve got spare time I want to do something physical: play golf, go for a run, go to the gym, see some football or rugby.
‘She wants to go to an art gallery or see a garden. It’s about finding things that work for both of us – but as I say, that feels really exciting.’
Physical exercise is a major part of Ben’s life. ‘If I haven’t had a chance to exercise, Annie will say, “For God’s sake, get your trainers on and go for a run. Please just go and burn off some of the energy.”’
Is Annie as much into fitness as him? ‘She loves yoga and a bit of stretching, she loves playing tennis and horse riding. The idea of her standing on a treadmill? That’s never going to happen.’
They do have a gym at their house in south-west London, where Ben works out with a personal trainer.
Ben admitted that he and wife Annie feel like they are soon to be ‘imminent empty nesters’
Ben admitted that aside from his TV career, keeping fit keeps him busy – in the hopes that he will remain healthy if he ‘becomes a grandfather’ in the future
‘It’s my meditation, my therapy. I’m also running the marathon this year. I thought my marathon days were over because my back is bad. Like most people after 50, there are torn discs, bulging discs, discs with holes in, wear and tear. So I also do Pilates.’
Plus, he’s off the booze. ‘I had a very wet December, so I’m having a dry January. I’m the sort of person who likes control over the choices I make.
‘Professionally, if people want me at the studio I have to be there. The things I can control are how fit and healthy I am, what I consume and how.
‘I enjoy eating healthily. That doesn’t mean I won’t have a greasy fry-up on the weekend with the boys and Annie, but otherwise it’s porridge or granola for breakfast. Lunch is chicken salad or salmon and broccoli.
‘I’m not much of a foodie. In the evening I will have what Annie and the boys are having. Annie does most of the cooking because she’s brilliant at it.’
As a charming presence on the telly, he must have a lot of admirers. How do they cope? ‘That’s really lovely of you to say, but it’s not my experience.’
His most famous fan is Mary Taylor, a character on Coronation Street who’s obsessed with him. ‘My Great-Auntie Jan, who’s 83, phones me up to say, “You’re on Corrie again, Mary’s been talking about you.”
‘But that’s the closest I get to understanding what it might be like to be an international sex symbol like Robbie Williams, because there’s literally nothing else like that in my day-to-day life.’
Why is he so intent on keeping fit, if it’s not for the adoration? ‘So that, if I’m lucky enough to be a grandfather, I’ll be able to kick a football around with my grandchildren.
‘I want to play golf with my boys and still beat them when I’m old. The Christmas before last we all played golf and Dad won the family tournament aged 80. That’s inspiring. What I’m doing is about emulating that.’
So that’s why he keeps pushing himself with events like the World’s Toughest Mudder. ‘Sam and I were running together in the early hours of the morning and he said, “Why are you laughing?”
‘I said, “Because no one ever wanted to do this stupid stuff with me. I had to have my own boys to make them do it.”
‘He thought that was hilarious, but I was in tears. Watching him, Jack and my godson Ben pick up the challenge and not let it beat them was really emotional.’
The boys want to do it again this year. ‘You prove so much to yourself,’ says Ben, who could be talking about The Summit here as much as his own life.
‘If you really put your mind to something and surround yourself with the people you want to be with, who believe in you – and you believe in them – then you can do anything.’
The Summit starts 10-11 February at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
Read the full article here
