Inside Carol Kirkwood’s romance with toyboy fiance after ‘shocking’ divorce that saw her break down on BBC Breakfast set
IT’S long been a mystery among BBC Breakfast fans.
Just who is the mystery man who swept Carol Kirkwood off her feet and treated her to that stunning engagement ring?
The Scottish weather presenter, 60, has kept her fiance’s identity tightly under wraps since they got together in 2021.
But reports that her sweetheart is retired cop Steve Randall, 47, a fitness fanatic and dad-of-one who once completed the world’s toughest marathon.
Carol, who has been part of the Breakfast team since 1983, revealed the pair had got engaged in May last year during a live broadcast.
Steve divorced ex-wife Nichola in 2017 after 12 years together and is Carol’s first significant romance since her own “shocking” split in 2008.
Left in tears over split
Carol married Jimmy Kirkwood, a former cricket player, in 1990 when she was aged 28 and hadn’t even started doing the weather reports.
She has remained tight-lipped about why their relationship broke down, but admitted when their divorce was finalised in 2012, she broke down backstage at BBC Breakfast.
She explained: “In a funny way though, that helped with the healing process. I put my grief into a compartment which I kept separate from my work, otherwise I’d have ended up in a puddle of tears. Work kept me going.”
Reflecting on life after the split, Carol said she found a new freedom, telling the : “I found myself when I got divorced.
“I started to do things and to think, ‘I’m not going to say no, I’m going to say yes!
“I’m braver now. I’ve flown with the Red Arrows, jumped out of planes with the Red Devils.
“When I was younger I would never have done that because I’d have thought, ‘Too dangerous!’ Now I think, ‘Oh, you’ve got to live your life!'”
She jumped on the chance to appear on Strictly Come Dancing in 2015, and admitted the same year that she was in no hurry to walk down the aisle again.
She told the : “If you’re married to the person who is your soulmate and the person who you want to spend the rest of your life with.
“It’d be nice to be seeing somebody, but it’s not the be-all and end-all.
“I wouldn’t get married just for the sake of being married, because I’m happy as I am.”
Date invites from viewers
Carol has long kept viewers guessing about her private life, and following her divorce, admitted she wasn’t being set up or going on dates.
She also joked that some fans would ask her out, admitting she was flattered but reluctant to take them up on the offer.
In 2016, reports emerged that she was seeing someone, but it wasn’t until two years ago that she began gushing about her mystery man.
In an interview with , she described Steve as “the best thing that’s ever happened to me”.
She added: “I don’t want to say too much about my boyfriend, but I will say that he is very kind and very funny – he’s always making me laugh. And extremely handsome, as well.
“He always makes me a cup of tea before I go to work in the morning, which is very romantic – it’s 2.45am and he often leaves me a little love note for when I come home from work. That, to me, is worth a million red roses.
“He is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, without a shadow of a doubt.”
Intimate picnic proposal
Carol revealed her engagement to Steve live on BBC Breakfast last year when colleagues teased her about the “enormous rock” on her finger.
She told Sally Nugent and Jon Kay: “We got engaged when we were on holiday.
“So it’s lovely news and we’re both thrilled.”
In a chat with she went into detail about the romantic picnic question in Berkshire.
She said “It was a lovely, sunny day and we had taken a picnic with us, and we were sitting by the river, watching the boats going by.
“I turned to say, ‘What’s wrong?’ He was on his knee, and he proposed. At first, I thought he was joking, but he said, ‘No no, I really do mean it, Will you marry me?’ I said: ‘Yes!! Of course!’”
The groom-to-be had chosen the stunning halo ring she showed off on the telly and even managed to get the right size the first time.
Steve is reportedly a dedicated fitness fan, even competing in the punishing Moroccan desert run Marathon Des Sables, , described as the ‘toughest foot race in the world’.
It is believed the couple live in Carol’s £2million home in Berkshire after moving in together last year.
But they won’t be rushing down the aisle anytime soon as Carol doesn’t feel she needs to make any wedding plans soon.
She said: “We’re not galloping towards it. It’s nice, as the first time I got married I was young.
“You get engaged, and you’re involved in the wedding almost from then. This time there is no pressure – it’s not like we’re going to rush off and have children.
“It’s nice to enjoy it and do it at our own pace.”