Phil Spencer's home life with 'off-screen wife' and parents' tragic deaths

01 November 2023 , 19:00

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Location, Location, Location presenter Phil Spencer lives a quiet life with his family away from the cameras (Image: Sandra Rowse/REX/Shutterstock)

Phil Spencer has been a familiar face on our television screens for two decades, presenting Channel 4's Location, Location, Location alongside its spin-off show Relocation, Relocation. But away from the cameras, the 53-year-old property presenter lives a quiet life at home with his family-of-four in Hampshire.

Phil, who is from Littlebourne in Kent, has a really close relationship with his co-star Kirstie Allsopp, but the pair have made it clear they are not a real-life couple. The telly stars met at work and clicked straight away, with Phil often calling her his 'other wife' and Kirstie once revealing she knew him better than her own partner, Ben Anderson.

Phil has been with his Australian wife Fiona for over 20 years and they have two kids (@PIPofftheTV/Twitter)

But despite their friendship leaving viewers questioning, Phil is in a very happy and long-term marriage with his Australian wife, Fiona Spencer, who is reportedly very comfortable with the duo being pals. Phil and Fiona met in 1995 and he persuaded her to move to England from Oz, before they tied the knot in 2001. The couple went on to have two kids together, Jake, 16, and Ben, 13.

As for the rest of his family, Phil sadly lost both his parents, Anne, 82, and David, 89, to a car crash in August 2023. The elderly couple had been on the way to a pub lunch when their car landed upside down in a river on their family estate in Littlebourne. Anne and David had been married for nearly 60 years, and their loved ones have taken some comfort in knowing that "neither will ever have to mourn the loss of the other one." An inquest into Richard's death revealed yesterday that the farmer died from a lung injury after his car overturned, and never regained consciousness.

Describing Phil as "stoic and pragmatic" during an episode of the BBC's Newscast podcast, co-presenter Kirstie Allsopp revealed that the Spencer family paid tribute to their parents in a touching way. Kirstie said: "[Phil's] got a lovely, lovely family and they're very, very close and they're all together. In fact, his sister was married yesterday, which they went ahead with and today they're all going to the pub for lunch. The same pub that his parents were on the way to when they died. He's very stoical and pragmatic, and he feels very strongly that it was the right thing that his parents went together."

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Phil sadly lost both his parents Anne and David in August after a tragic car crash (Instagram)

In a heartbreaking Instagram post announcing the death of his parents, Phil wrote: "Very sadly both of my amazing parents died on Friday. As a family we are all trying to hold onto the fact Mum and Dad went together and that neither will ever have to mourn the loss of the other one. Which is a blessing in itself. Although they were both on extremely good form in the days before (hence the sudden idea to go out to lunch), Mum's Parkinson's and Dad's Dementia had been worsening and the long-term future was set to be a challenge."

He continued: "So much so that Mum said to me only a week ago that she had resigned to thinking 'now it looks like we will probably go together'. And so they did. That was what God had planned for them - and it was a good plan. The car, going very slowly, toppled over a bridge on the farm drive, upside down into the river. There were no physical injuries and I very much doubt they would have even fought it - they would have held hands under the water and quietly slipped away."

Bereaved Phil went on to share that his parents' carer had been in the car at the time but had managed to escape through a back window, raising the alarm quickly. His brother had tried in vain to rescue their parents, cutting their seatbelts with a penknife and pulling them both out of the river, however, they "never regained consciousness". He added: "Although desperately sad and shocked beyond all belief - all family are clear that if there can ever be such a thing as having a 'good end' - this was it. It feels horrendous right now, but after almost 60 years of marriage - to die together on the farm they so loved will, I know, be a comfort in the future. Mum [and] Dad are together which is precisely where they would have wanted to be."

Nia Dalton