Radfords admit secret that almost destroyed marriage and saw them go bankrupt

06 March 2023 , 03:39

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Sue and Noel Radford are the parents of 22 children (Image: @theradfordfamily / Instagram)

Sue and Noel Radford have revealed a long-kept secret that pushed them to the brink of divorce and caused them to go bankrupt.

The couple, famous for having the UK’s biggest family with 22 children, recently celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary.

But their relationship hasn’t been all plain sailing, with various highs and lows along the way, with the couple even considering a divorce at one point.

In the latest episode of their TV show, 22 Kids & Counting, Sue and Noel looked back at the three decades of their marriage, revisiting locations that had a special link to their relationship.

The couple looked back over 30 years of their marriage (Channel 5)

One of these was the site of their first business, a bakery.

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In 1999, Noel, who had trained as a baker, decided to invest in a bakery and sandwich shop, with Sue pitching in to help.

The business was located in a small parade near Morecambe to begin with, with the bakery running fairly smoothly for two years.

But in 2001, the couple made a decision that caused their marriage to break down almost beyond repair.

Hailing it as “the worst thing I ever did”, Noel admitted that the couple decided to invest in a prime high-street location and move the business there.

The couple revisited several significant locations, including one of the sites of their business (Channel 5)

The pair had been working on a pie business that had started to take off, so they decided to expand their operation by taking out a loan.

At the location, which is now a mobile phone shop, Noel said he “hated the place”.

Of the shop, he said: “To start with it did well and then foot and mouth hit the country and I think Cumbria was one of the worst affected areas and it just killed the tourism.”

Traffic to the business quickly dried up, with the couple plummeting into debt.

Sue and Noel discussed the impact that bankruptcy had on their marriage (Channel 5)

Sue said: “You would go to bed thinking about the debt, wake up thinking about the debt, wake up in the night thinking about the debt.

“If anything would have caused us to get a divorce, it was this shop. Looking back now, it was a time where I genuinely thought our marriage would not pull through. We’d get divorced and that would be it. It was absolutely awful.”

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While Noel expressed how difficult it was to go back to the site and how awful it made him feel, Sue admitted that while the business didn’t work out, it failing was something the couple had to go through, to make them stronger.

Sophie Goodall