Inside Sara Cox's home life with husband - garage gym to animal 'pipe dream'
She’s the queen of drivetime, is about to publish her second novel and is hosting the seventh successful series of her BBC2 book club, Between The Covers – but there are moments in life that bring Sara Cox back down to earth with a thump.
“Nelly pooed on my hand the other day,” she deadpans as she reveals how buying a horse during lockdown changed her life, mainly for the better. "She dropped lovely big, warm, soft, ping pong balls of s**t on me,” laughs Sara. “She trumps on my head most days as I’m picking out her back feet, but this was a new one on me, where she actually s**t on me. I can’t have any airs and graces around my animals.”
Nelly is a half-thoroughbred, half-Irish draught, and owning her has fulfilled a lifelong dream for animal lover and Jilly Cooper fan Sara. She also has three dogs named Daisy, Dolly and Pip, two cats named Watson and Peggy, and two “quite posh” tortoises called Tom and Chally.
The tortoises are currently hibernating. “They’re packed away in a cat carrier with loads of straw and shredded paper,” says Sara. “I’ll get them up about April, depending on the weather.”
The tortoises were bestowed on Sara by an elderly lady she met while volunteering with ReEngage UK, which runs monthly tea parties aimed at helping older people connect. “One of the lovely women asked me if I could take them on, so I asked my husband and I expected him to be like, ‘Nah!’ but he said, ‘Why not?’ so now they just wander around the garden all summer,” she says. “They occasionally get caught in a football net and I have to get all David Attenborough and free them. I never have any leftover veg, they eat it all. They’re quite posh though, they’re into a bit of avocado.”
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Sara with her beloved dog
She is undebatably the queen of drivetime (Guy Levy)Sara, who turns 49 next month, has been married to Ben Cyzer since 2013 and is mum to daughter Lola Anne, 19, from her first marriage to DJ Jon Carter, son Isaac 15, and daughter Renee, 13. The family live in north London and Nelly is stabled in nearby Hertfordshire.
She is toying with the idea of buying some land and expanding her menagerie to include pigs and hens, and husband Ben is on board. “It’s always been a bit of a pipe dream, but I’d love to have a little smallholding at some point,” she says. “My dad’s a farmer, he’s got a beef farm up north in Bolton.
“I’d have Nelly and I’d love a rescue pony, because I’m an ambassador for World Horse Welfare, who have ponies that can’t be ridden but are good to be pals. Plus a couple of little pigs.”
Sara does, however, draw the line at goats. “They’re full-on and destructive,” she laughs, musing, “I might have a few laying hens, get a little egg for brekkie.”
Sara loves being out in the countryside and takes her dog Daisy whenever she goes galloping on Nelly. For her, riding relieves stress and makes her feel grounded. “It gives you space to think, but you can’t think too much, because you’ve got to be aware,” she explains.
Although she will turn 50 next year, Sara could be mistaken for a 25-year-old. Her Instagram even has a photograph of her showing off a hard-won six pack, which she says was from following The Six Pack Revolution diet, rather than hours of rising trot. “It was great,” laughs Sara, admitting she has let her abs relax somewhat since.
Sara with her horses“It might be under there lurking?” she says, adding, “I’d say I’m riding fit. When you ride you use your inside thighs a lot, you use different bits of you, all across the top, your back and the back of your legs.”
She also lifts weights and has recently transformed her garage into a gym. “I was working out in there before,” she says, “but I was surrounded by garden chairs and straw for the tortoises and all the paint was flaking off because it was damp. I was doing burpees breathing in paint and mould and I just thought, ‘Maybe I need to get this sorted.’ I do love working out and I love doing weights.”
Sara delights millions with her Radio 2 show and is first and foremost known as a DJ. However, with her book club TV show Between The Covers and her bestselling debut novel Thrown, she is enjoying turning a passion for books into a career.
The seventh series of Between The Covers is currently showing on BBC2 and Monday’s episode features comedians Suzi Ruffell, Ahir Shah and Ed Byrne, alongside author and actor Andi Osho.
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Sara loves reading and since starting the TV show has started to enjoy more than one book at once. “I’m thinking we should be rethinking how we read,” says Sara. “That’s what Between The Covers has made me do.
Sara wed husband Ben Cyzer in 2013 (Getty Images)
She loves reading to chill out (DARREN SKENE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)“I very much look at my Kindle like my telly, so I’ll have a few great books on there and I’m reading them all at different times, depending on my mood, which is how I look at BBC iPlayer and Netflix or Amazon Prime. I never used to read more than one book at a time before Between The Covers.
Reading helps Sara relax before bed, and it’s Giles Brandreth who is currently sending her off
to the land of nod. “If I can’t sleep in the middle of the night I will read on my Kindle, such as Giles Brandreth’s latest memoir,” she says. “It’s not that it’s boring, so it sends me to sleep. It helps me to sleep because it’s really charming and really interesting and it just takes my mind off the fact that I’m awake and it’s 3am.
“If I want something to cheer me up, I’ve got Sarah Millican’s autobiography. Otherwise, I love a modern-day novel that is about relationships and love, with a bit of struggle in there.”
Her favourite guests over Between The Covers’ lengthy run include Rob Delaney, Adrian Edmondson and one of her childhood heroes, Sandi Toksvig. “Sandi is an absolute icon,” gushes Sara. “I grew up with her on the telly. I was fully ready to be starstruck. She laughed at all my jokes and was an absolute superstar.”
Guests bring a book from their own shelves to discuss on the show, but Sara would be mortified if someone wanted to discuss one of her books. “It would be like throwing water on a witch! I would melt from embarrassment and I wouldn’t be able to cope,” she protests. “On the radio some DJs read out, ‘Loving the show.’ You won’t hear that on my show. I get my assistant producer to snip out any praise. I hate it!”
Sara isn’t alone. Many of us struggle to accept compliments and it is something she is working
on – to a point. “If a girlfriend tells me they love my hair, I no longer go, ‘Oh God, it’s horrible. It looks like three shredded wheat that’s been stuck to my head and I’m a terrible person,’” laughs Sara.
“I try now to go, ‘Thanks babe!’ But I hate anything self-congratulatory. If I’m on the radio I don’t just want to be reading out how much people love me, even though, obviously, millions do.”
Between The Covers is created by Cactus TV and next airs o
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