Dick Strawbridge Was Married Before: Here's the Scoop on His First Family
Published Feb. 20 2021, 4:41 p.m. ET
British icon Lieutenant Colonel Richard "Dick" Strawbridge, MBE is an engineer, television presenter, environmentalist, and more recently, a chateau owner. Escape to the Chateau documents Dick and wife Angel Adoree as they renovate and redecorate a 19th-century chateau, juggling family and business through the process. Fans of the show are now wondering about Dick Strawbridge's first family from a previous marriage.
Dick and his first wife bonded over the environment.
According to Hello! Magazine, Dick's first wife Brigit Weiner was an environmental activist interested in bees and pollination. She wrote a book in 2019 titled Dancing with Bees: A Journey Back to Nature about how the average citizen can help the plight against honeybees, bumblebees, and solitary bees. They couple married in 1982, and they were together for 28 years before they split in 2010.
Dick is something of an environmentalist himself, and was even featured on a television program called It's Not Easy Being Green, during which he and his family moved to a new home and attempted to live life as "green" as possible. This included using renewable energy and environmentally friendly resources. The second season even featured Dick and son James aiding with ecology projects around the country.
While this couple sounds like a match made in heaven, both have remarried since their divorce: Brigit, in 2017, and Dick, in 2015. They share two children together: James, 38, and Charlotte, 34. Dick and second wife Angel wed in 2015 during the renovation of the titular chateau on Escape to the Chateau. They share two children: Dorothy and Arthur. It was Arthur who suggested turning the chateau's orangery into a restaurant!
Angel told Hello!, "We'd been working 18, 20 or 22 hours a day and were flying high on adrenaline and couldn't lose our focus. Most of the house wasn't done. But there was a moment, before people started arriving, when it just didn't matter. Our mental state changed. We put flowers around the place and knew everything was going to be okay."
Now that Angel and Dick are married, the focus of their show has become celebrating their wedding anniversary.
It's difficult to find things to celebrate in a global pandemic, but Dick and Angel have it all figured out. In the seventh season (or "series" as they say in the U.K.) of Escape to the Chateau which aired in 2020, the pair have decided to make up for a lack of guests at their now-renovated venue by creating a pop-up restaurant in honor of the couple's fifth wedding anniversary.
As per usual, the season ended with a nice Christmas episode to escape the winter blues. While Season 8 has not yet been confirmed by Channel 4, fans can only keep their fingers crossed that we see more of this delightful family doing what they do best: creative renovation! Let's hope they can spread a little of that creativity to the rest of us.
Escape to the Chateau is available to watch on Peacock, HGTV, or YouTube TV.