Angel Strawbridge reveals cheeky the hint she made to husband Dick (2024)

Angel Strawbridge has revealed the cheeky comment she made to husband Dick to hint that she was ready to have children with him.

TheEscape to the Chateau star, 46, met her husband Dick, 64, back in 2010 at a mutual friend's party, before crossing paths again onthe show Celebrity Masterchef.

Appearing on Elizabeth Day's How To Fail podcast, she explained how they spend all night chatting and opened up on what drew her to him.

Angel recalled: 'We just sat and talked after him cooking for this huge big party of guests.

'Everyone wanted to talk to Dick, to congratulate him and talk about the food and he just came and sat next to me and we just talked all night.'

She continued: 'He's so passionate about life, about everything. He's a story teller and he's got a certain energy.

'Honestly, even now he's got this aura about him of authority. It makes my hairs go on end, he's a very strong, powerful man, that is very kind as well and he'll do anything for anyone.'

Angel went on to say that just two years after meeting, she was ready to have children with Dick and chose to tell him in a very naughty way.

She explained that she jokingly marked a date in the calendar with the phrase 'impregnate me' as a hint to her partner.

She soon ended up getting her wish of having both a boy and a girl as the couple welcomed sonArthur, 11, and daughter, Dorothy, 10, who have also featured on the show.

Angel said that prior to meeting Dick she had been too busy for relationships and had no desire to get married.

However, she admitted that her family's constant questions about whether she had a boyfriend yet made her feel like a failure.

She said: 'I think growing up, 25 is a really big number and if it doesn't happen, it makes you feel a bit odd and different.

'I was too busy [to find love]. I genuinely never met somebody who I knew was the one and I just had a busy life. And I just thought well if you're really the one, I haven't got time.'

Dick is 18 years Angel's senior, but in 2020 she insisted that the age gap 'didn't matter' because it was 'love at first sight'.

She told Fabulous Magazine: 'Age is but a number, and Dick’s always had a really ­wonderful energy and he’s a doer'.

It comes after Angel spokeout for the first time defending herself over the foul-mouthed rant that led Channel 4 to drop her as she explained she fell into a pre-laid trap.

The TV star admitted that while she wishes the incident hadn't happened she will not apologise for what she did.

Angel and Dick found fame renovating their home over nine seasons of Escape to the Chateau, before they wereengulfed in a bullying scandal which led to Channel 4 cutting ties last year after an independent investigation.

A leaked recording revealed Angel branding a producer a 'f***ed up little c**t'.

On the podcast, she confessed in that moment she saw red, saying: 'I was the one in the wrong for losing my temper, but do you know what, I will not apologise - he was so disrespectful in our house, he was so upsetting to me, my family, and I stand by what I did.

'If I was to apologise and say "I'm sorry for using bad language and chucking you out" I would just be disingenuous to me.'

She added: 'Would I like to erase that? Yeah, I'd love to. But I would also like to erase what he was doing because my rage just didn't pop out of nowhere.

'It grew over time and it was provoked and therefore I'm not ashamed of what happened in the end, I just wish it hadn't happened.'

It was revealed in May 2023 that Channel 4 had cut ties with the couple following an independent investigation into their conduct.

The TV channel confirmed they would no longer work with the pair on any new productions 'following a review' after they were branded 'spiky and volatile'.

Dick and Angel are currently back on screens in a new travel programme, Secret France, which is on Channel 4, but was filmed before the station cut ties.

While the couple have previously dodged questions relating to the bullying scandal, Angel finally gave her side of the story as she discussed the incident, a year after the recording emerged.

Speaking about the backlash that followed her rant, she said: 'The actual incident, it actually happened a long time ago - so it happened about six years ago.

'We had so many amazing people filming Escape to the Chateau, but in this particular quite small time frame, we had someone that wasn't particularly very nice.

'His behaviour was completely unacceptable, but it didn't just happen in one little moment, it happened over lots of different occasions.

'It was a high point towards the end of filming a series. We set a lot of stories in parallel activity. We were particularly busy, and I think that's why we just didn't have the head space to address his behaviour.

Recalling his behaviour she explained: 'He was not very nice, he was doing these weird pictures of Dick killing animals and posting them on his Instagram. He was so horrible with the children.

'There was this one incident, and I actually truly believe that because he knew he was caught, I think in my heart that is why he set up this filming.

'Because the way that he was acting was how he'd never acted with me before. You don't accidentally film someone when you're not filming. Completely happened secretively and on purpose.

'He broke all of the kids' fishing rods and the next day I was upstairs and he came up in a really very out of character way for him and was really in my face, in a really angry like he'd lost it kind of way.

'I've not listened back, it makes me feel a little bit sick if I do. But obviously all of my friends have, and they're like "I can hear you" - he actually took out what he said - "I can here you gradually getting more angry, more angry, more angry".

'And then I just say like "get out of my f***ing house". I can't even remember what I said. I think I said a really bad word beginning with c, I think that's how pissed off I must have been.'

Angel said the fallout after the incident felt really 'disproportionate', adding:'There was so much noise going on on one side.

'And on the other side there was this sort of like outpouring of love and understanding, and people saying "you know what, it's ok to be human".

'But when you have children you have to be able to zone this out because the kids pick up on everything.

'But for me the children put everything into perspective. And also this went global. I couldn't believe the momentum that everything took.

'I just had to focus on the family, the business. And looking back I probably did feel a little bit ashamed that the kids would listen to it, or someone at the children's school would listen to it.

'But I also think that anyone with a little bit of understanding or common sense, could possibly understand what happened.

'I just regret that I didn't do it sooner and probably in a calmer way. If I'd just taken a breath two weeks beforehand and thought to myself "we need to get him out and get a new person in", then I think it would have played out differently.

'We don't teach our children to use bad language, but when you're pushed that far and are seeing red, it's kind of hard.

'I don't want to say I regret using it. I stand proud for just defending myself at that moment against his behaviour. I probably wish that I hadn't said the c-word. I don't even like that word.'

Asked if she might have been treated differently if she was a man, she said: 'There's a lot of people that make a great living out of that. There probably is a bit of truth in that.

Last October, Dick and Angeldodged questions about the hit Channel 4show's bullying scandal during an appearance on Lorraine.

As Lorraine host Christine Lampardmade reference to the scandal, Angel explained: 'You know the saying "Never complain and never explain", I think that was just the best way.

'None of it made sense because we had made that family decision a long time ago that it was the right time for Escape to come to its natural end.'

Dick insisted that it was their decision to leave the show and it was decided almost two years ago.

He said: 'As a family, we made a decision that last year was going to be the finale. We told everyone two years ago, so this, it wasn't news for us.'

Steering clear of directly addressing the bullying claims, he said: 'We made the decision just not to get involved in any of the conversations.'

Escape to the Chateau aired its ninth and final series in late 2022, but spin-off travel show Escape To The Chateau: Secret France was already in the works.

The programme was reportedly wrapped and scheduled for release in 2023, but after the production company cut ties with the couple Channel 4 has not confirmed whether it will be broadcast.

In May, sources claimed Two Rivers Media, the company that produces Escape to the Chateau, raised concerns about the presenting duo, according to Deadline.

The exact nature of the allegations is not known, but the publication reported that three of their former colleagues alleged the couple have clashed with producers.

A source said at the time: 'There has been a deteriorating relationship between Two Rivers and Dick and Angel's Chateau TV for various reasons and it all came to a head.'

'People who try to remote manage them from the UK, that doesn't work, or people who come into their house and boss them around, that doesn't work either,' the source added.

'Producers turn them into this perfect, brilliant, funny couple, they're that on camera, but that's about it.'

A Channel 4 spokeswoman told MailOnline: 'Following a review, we have taken the decision not to work with Dick and Angel on any new productions in the future.'

A spokesperson for Two Rivers added: 'We can confirm that we will no longer work with Dick and Angel and cannot comment further at the moment.'

Sources close to the couple told MailOnline that their behaviour on set was nothing like their 'gorgeous' on screen personas.

A source said: 'Dick and Angel come across on screen as the most gorgeous and lovely couple, literally like butter wouldn't melt, but they're not like that off screen.

'It's a full-on show, production is with them at the chateau for weeks so they can't hide their real characters - they can't turn it on for two hours of recording and then not go back to their real persona.

'They're just spiky and volatile people and, as you can imagine, that's a nightmare to work with.'