Alan and Valerie pose before the
front door of their Jersey residence
When one leading travel agency recently asked
its customers who they would most like to travel the world with, an astonishing
22,000 of them nominated Alan Whicker. Astonishing, but not surprising. This is
the man who traded in his Fleet Street foreign correspondent’s job for the
rather less risky role of crisscrossing the globe to bring us tales of the
rich, famous and, sometimes, downright foolish - and in a style which is often
imitated but never equalled.
But for all his glossy globetrotting there is nowhere Alan likes to be more
than his beautiful clifftop house in Jersey with its magnificent views across
the water to France. Alan had lived in London’s Regent’s Park for
many years and was looking to buy a country house, perhaps in the Cotswolds.
Until he was invited to Jersey 26 years ago, that is. “Love at first
sight,” is how he describes his first trip to the island.
Valerie is equally taken by the couple’s home. “Whenever we’re
about to leave the island, we never want to,” says the woman who has been
Alan’s “lady” for three decades now. “That’s the
definition of being happy where you are.”
Even though he is well past retirement age, the “R” word doesn’t
seem to be in Alan’s vocabulary. “The whole of my life I’ve
never plotted or planned my career. The phone rings and I’m off on some
new adventure which might result in a travel piece for a newspaper or a
broadcast feature of some kind. Sometimes I tell myself I must be mad to go on
pushing myself. Then, if I ever stop, I rather miss it. So, I think it’s
business as usual.”
For more revealing in-depth look at Alan Whicker’s private world, the new
issue of HELLO!, is on sale now. |
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As TV’s famous
globetrotter celebrates his 75th birthday
ALAN WHICKER
AND VALERIE KLEEMAN
open the doors for the first time ever to their
magnificent home in Jersey |
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Valerie commissioned the wrought-iron
gate which leads to the orchard for her
partner’s 74th birthday last August.
The veteran presenter refers to it as
the "Alan Whicker Memorial Gate."
The couple, who have been together for three
decades now, have never married. "If it ain’t
broke, why try to fix it?" says the broadcaster
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