Ben Fogle’s surprising love story with wife Marina: from chance encounter to children

The pair crossed paths by chance while walking their dogs in Hyde Park. During an interview with Luxury London in 2019, Marina, who is a co-founder of The Bump Class, revealed: “I grew up in South Kensington and I met Ben in Hyde Park.”

They soon embarked on a whirlwind romance, leading to a low-key proposal including a very unexpected engagement ring. 

In a social media post shared to mark 15 years of marriage, Ben explained how he popped the question “the day after rowing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean.”

He included a snapshot that showed his then-fiancée rocking a small piece of rope tied around her ring finger. 

“I didn’t have time to buy a ring,” he wrote in his caption, before adding: “So I made one from some rope on the rowing boat.” 

The pair went on to tie the knot in 2006 in the medieval village of Monsaraz in Portugal. They had an intimate church wedding attended by an array of family and friends, with Marina’s rope ring getting an upgrade in the form of a wedding band inscribed with their names, the date of their marriage and the name of the town where they exchanged vows. 

Ben unfortunately lost his wedding ring less than 24 hours after they tied the knot. Recalling the incident, Marina told The Telegraph how her husband had been fiddling with his ring in a lake before it dropped off and he lost it. 

“Worried looks were exchanged and after a sharp intake of breath, the news was broken to me that Ben’s wedding ring was no longer on his finger, but had plunged to the bottom of the lake,” Marina said. 

Despite hurried attempts to rescue Ben’s ring with the help of a kitchen sieve and a rake “from the shed,” the pair were forced to give up the ghost. 

Ben now wears his second wedding ring on a cord around his neck. 

The couple tragically experienced a miscarriage in 2008 before welcoming their son Ludovic in 2009. 

In 2011, they welcomed their daughter, Iona, and in 2014, their son Willem was sadly stillborn. 

Of their tragic loss in 2014, Ben candidly told The Sun: “A number of years ago, my wife and I lost a son, who was stillborn and it’s amazing how you deal with a loss like that. My wife Marina was very raw with her emotions.

“Mine were much more measured, it doesn’t mean I felt it any less, but I probably kept them within, and one of the big things that happened to me was that I became obsessed about control, because I’d lost control there.”

He continued: “I was actually in Canada when it happened, and I had to take a flight to get back. I didn’t know if my wife was going to survive. It was like one of the periods in my life, I’ve had a few, when I had lost all control. And what my brain, this amazing thing, did was it made me absolutely obsessed about control. And I wanted to control everything.”

The Fogle clan live in beautiful Henley which is renowned for its stunning river views and expansive green spaces. 

Their sprawling country estate boasts 1.3 acres of land, a tennis court, a swimming pool and even a pond. The pair have adorned their “maximalist” home with numerous trinkets and antiques. 

“I love finding old pieces of explorers’ kit, whether it’s old sledges or skis and I collect things all over the world as reminders of places that I’ve been,” Ben told House Beautiful.

The father-of-two also has a penchant for antique ship dioramas. “I’ve got several dozen and they are my weakness, [as are] ships in general. I’ve got a lot of embroidered sailors’ wool works of ships and a lot of model ships,” he explained.