Bear Grylls' unusual proposal to wife before double tragedy almost derailed them
We love a good meet-cute when it comes to romantic relationships, like something straight out of the movies.
Ben Fogle has a charming tale of how he met his wife while they were out walking their dogs in a park, while David Beckham has previously told how he fell for Spice Girl Victoria the moment he saw her on TV and vowed to marry her one day.
But Bear Grylls' first meeting with his wife Shara Cannings Knight on New Year's Eve in 1998 was a completely different story.
The survival expert was just 23 at the time and was running naked along a freezing beach in Scotland.
Bear, whose real name is Edward Michael Grylls, was months away from becoming one of the youngest people to scale Mount Everest and feared it was the "worst timing in the world to fall in love".
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The pair had an unusual first meeting (Empics Entertainment)Recalling that fateful evening, he once said: "It was freezing on the north coast of Scotland, and a wave came and took my clothes.
"I was running around naked, trying to find my trousers."
But the former Eton College pupil soon realised he was smitten with the stunning blonde and went on to pop the question.
And it's fair to say it was a rather unusual proposal.
He asked Shara to marry him while skinny dipping, telling Piers Morgan's Life Stories: "I pulled out the ring from my butt cheeks."
The young couple tied the knot in 2000 and started marriage counselling from the off, with Bear explaining it was to stop things 'breaking in the first place'.
However, their newly-wedding bliss came to a devastating halt just months later when a cruel double tragedy struck, as Shara's father died, followed by Bear's dad Sir Michael Grylls only 12 weeks later.
Politician Micheal died suddenly from a heart attack while recovering at home two days after having surgery to fit a pacemaker.
Bear later admitted that the shock and grief of the two blows almost broke his marriage to Shara.
"I didn't really have a job - and that was a worry - and then her father died. Twelve weeks later my father died," he told The Times in 2019.
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"We were living on this rusty barge on the Thames and the boiler was broken. I felt overwhelmed. I couldn't talk to Shara because I felt I had to be strong for her."
He went on to say that they were both in a "bad way" but seeing a "very good" therapist helped them.
"For a young couple, a shared crisis can really make or break you. It certainly made us," he added.
They've faced some tough times since tying the knot (Getty Images)
Bear claims the secret to a happy marriage is to put your wife first, even above the kids (WireImage)The couple went on to have three sons together - Jesse, 20, Marmaduke, 17, and Huckleberry, 14, and raised them on a houseboat on the River Thames which featured an outdoor bath, a hammock, and a canoe.
However, they've since moved into a luxury apartment at the redeveloped Battersea Power Station site and also thought to own a country home and seaside retreat.
In 2015 his property move hit the headlines and he told MailOnline: "As a family, we didn't just want a run-of-the-mill townhouse or riverside development, we were attracted to Battersea Power Station because it was a chance to own a bit of history that we could pass on down through the family.
"We have moored our houseboat barge in Battersea for many years, and are proud to keep that still, but to be able to buy within this landmark building and own that small slice of London history felt like a very special opportunity.
"It will make a very unique home."
The couple have three kids (Corbis via Getty Images)The dad, who will appear on BBC's Who Do You Think You Are? this evening (June 15) also caused a stir in 2015 over an RNLI training exercise near his seaside home on the North Wales coast.
Bear involved his son Jesse, who was 11 at the time, in the exercise, leaving him on rocks in the sea at St Tudwal's Island waiting to be rescued by the RNLI.
A spokesperson for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution said afterward that they "did not appreciate" the exercise involving a child.
"Bear Grylls put his son on the rocks and then the lifeboat, as part of the exercise, rescued him from the rocks.
"Abersoch RNLI has launched 15 times in the last three weeks and some of our shouts do involve rescuing children. Last year a third of all those rescued by Abersoch were under 18.
"In hindsight the child should not have been on the rocks but everyone was acting with the best of intentions and getting valuable practise in rescuing a child."
Bear later hit back at critics in a piece in The Times, claiming children needed to take more risks.
"I was asked by the RNLI to set up a rescue scenario for them near our island in North Wales... the story was reported, however, and the reaction illustrates how averse risk our culture has become.
"For the record, Jesse was wearing a life jacket, safe at all times, and very happy.
"When we try to strip our kids' world of risk we do them a gross disservice. We teach them nothing about handling life."
He added: "Let's not deceive ourselves into thinking that removing risk makes our children 'safe'. It doesn’t. Every adventure comes with risk. Otherwise, it wouldn't be an adventure."
While he loves spending time with his kids, Bear claims the secret to marital success is to put his wife's needs first.
"We must prioritise our partners above everything else: even our kids," he told GQ magazine.
"Couples often think that the kids should always come first, but smart couples know that the best foundation for the family is their relationship. In protecting that, they can then best love their children."
While Shara stays largely out of the spotlight, she reportedly once tenderly admitted that living with such a go-getter has its own challenges.
"It's very hard being married to the person who, after breaking his back in three different places during a parachuting accident then finally fought his way to recovery, and two years after that he entered to the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest Briton to climb Mount Everest."
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