Clare Balding has shared the secret to her marriage with wife Alice Arnold as she gave a rare insight into their long-lasting marriage.

The prominent broadcasting couple first met back in 1999 when they were both working at the BBC.

After their friendship blossomed into something more, they entered a civil partnership in 2006 before officially marrying in 2015.

Clare opened up to the Daily Mail about their love story in an exclusive interview and said 'trust, honesty and laughter' has been the foundation of their happy marriage.

Finding quality time in between their busy careers has never been an issue for broadcasting legend Clare, 55, and Mellow Magic host Alice, 64.

Clare said: 'Alice and I just have the most lovely time together, we have so much fun and we enjoy doing the same things to relax. 

'But also we have the same work ethic, Alice works for Mellow Magic, she's a radio person through and through. She totally understands the broadcast environment and she's very honest with me and will say if she thinks I haven't done something well or could do it better, so I think there's that level of trust and honesty.

'We laugh a lot and we are very aware of the value of our time together.

'I want to do good work, I want to do quality work, but I really value my time with Alice, so it has to be pretty special to take me away from that.'

Clare also revealed that the key to their happy marriage is 'communicating', especially if she is away travelling for work. 

'You know, we talk', she said. 'If I am away doing Winter Olympics or something like that, we talk twice or three times a day and I will message all the time.'

Clare previously said when she first started dating and going out with guys, it was a while before she realised she felt far more comfortable with women.

She said: 'I had a few boyfriends, not like loads. But I had one very serious boyfriend for two or three years.

'He asked me to marry him and he was in the Army and he was going off. And I thought 'he's only asking me because he thinks he's in danger and, according to romantic films, I'm meant to say yes at this point'.

'And I knew I didn't want to. I said "Look, that's a lovely thing to say but ask me again when you come back".

'And when he came back he didn't ask me again, and I thought "Thank God". I thought "I don't trust you and I'll never trust you".

'And funnily enough I was absolutely spot on as his ex-wife told me not that long ago.'

Speaking to Gyles Brandreth on the Rosebud podcast, Clare said: 'I wasn't very nice I don't think to men. There was part of me they were never going to be allowed to have. That relationship ended not very well with him behaving appallingly. 

'I think I was damaged by that, but that doesn't make you gay. I just think when I first fell in love with a woman it was completely different. Alice is by far and away the longest most serious relationship of my life.'

Clare has joined forces with BT to launch their new 'Don't Put Off The Switch' campaign ahead of the nationwide digital landline switchover.

The TV star is raising awareness around how the UK's 40-year old analogue landline network is due to be retired by January 2027, with many households still needing to move to a digital service. 

With a particular focus on protecting vulnerable customers, Clare is urging BT users to act when contacted about switching to Digital Voice.

She said: 'I'm very aware of people being a bit scared of technology and I think updates are always something that some people can be very resistant to, but actually the point about digital voice is that it has an inbuilt mechanism where it can stop the spam and scams calls. 

'I've had massive conversations with people who have been really close to being properly scammed through quite sophisticated groups that are using the old analogue lines, which is going to retire in January. So with digital voices coming, it's really just a call to people to make sure that when they're contacted by the landline provider, they get on and respond.'

'BT will walk you through everything', she reassured. 'It's really simple and it's much, much better. That's the reason I wanted to get involved because I think it makes people more secure and safer. 

'It is an advancement, it's an improvement, and I just don't want people to feel that it's something that they should delay, I don't want them to get to Christmas, having delayed it, and then suddenly the analogue system's being switched off in January and they haven't done anything, and there's a mad rush. 

'So I think it's just about trying to get a message out there because most people aren't aware.'