BBC Children In Need boss Rosie Millard has left her husband and four children for a multi-millionaire television producer.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the former BBC Arts Correspondent walked out on her family as they were preparing for Christmas in 2018.
She has moved in with award-winning TV producer Alexander Graham, 66, who is chairman of the Scott Trust which publishes The Guardian newspaper.
Mr Graham has left his wife, bestselling author Maeve Haran, 69, who is mother to their three children.
Rosie Millard walked out from her husband of 20 years Philip Clothier, pictured, who was said to be ‘devastated’ when she left him and their four children
Friends of the couple say that Miss Millard, 54, is living with Mr Graham in North London close to her former marital home.
Ms Millard’s husband of more than 20 years, Philip Clothier, was said to be ‘devastated’ when she left him in December 2018.
Mr Clothier, a TV producer, has taken custody of the two youngest of their four children, Phoebe, 22, Gabriel, 20, Honey, 17, and Lucien, 15. He remains at their £2 million Victorian townhouse on one of Islington’s most sought-after locations, which Miss Millard used as the setting for her 2015 novel, The Square.
One friend told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Rosie and Alex are really happy together but this has been a very painful time for all involved.
‘It was extremely difficult at the beginning but things are starting to get better with the children now and everyone is trying to move forward the best they can.
Maeve Haran and Alexander Graham on their wedding day in July 2000
‘Things are starting to get patched up but as with anything this difficult, it takes time. Rosie left at the end of 2018. She moved out of the family home just before Christmas in what was an agonising decision for her. There are still problems and people are still hurting.’
Mr Graham had been in a relationship with Ms Haran for decades and they have two daughters, aged in their early 30s, and a son, in his late 20s, although the couple did not marry until 2010.
He has been chairman of the Scott Trust since 2016. During that time it was hit by controversy after Guardian CEO David Pemsel moved to the Premier League as chief executive but withdrew from the role before taking up the reins in the wake of allegations he sent dozens of text messages to a young woman.
The first messages were allegedly sent earlier last year by Pemsel and continued after he was named as the new Premier League chief executive.
In a statement issued at the time, the Premier League said: ‘Following media disclosures earlier this week and discussions with David Pemsel, the Premier League has today accepted David’s resignation and he will no longer be joining as Chief Executive.’
Friends say Ms Millard has moved in with Alexander Graham (left) who is chairman of the Scott Trust which publishes The Guardian newspaper
Ms Haran – whose first book Having It All was a worldwide bestseller – described the wedding as being in ‘a romantic Scottish castle with bagpipes and a fabulous fireworks display’.
Miss Millard – arts correspondent for the BBC between 1994 and 2004 – was left red-faced in 2001 when she wore a low-cut black Vivienne Westwood dress to cover that year’s Academy Awards.
After she finished her piece to camera about the Oscars, BBC news anchor Michael Buerk told viewers: ‘That was Rosie Millard in the Best Supporting Dress.’
As well as her role as chairman of Children In Need, the Londoner and Hull University graduate is also chairman of Firstsite gallery in Colchester, Essex, and vice-chairman of Opera North.
Her previous roles include being chief executive officer of the charity Children And The Arts, the arts editor of the New Statesman and chairman of Hull UK City of Culture 2017.
She was appointed OBE in 2018 for services in the arts to the city of Hull.
In August 2018, Miss Millard, a keen marathon runner, underwent a six-hour operation to remove an apple-sized tumour from the front of her brain.
Talking about the life-saving procedure at the time, she said: ‘They slice open your scalp, pull the skin back with all the hair on it — basically they scalp you.
‘Next, they get out the buzzsaw and saw a pane of your skull, take it out and put it on a plate. And then they start work . . .’
She added: ‘The tumour had stuck itself to my brain and just grown and grown,’ she says.
‘But I was lucky because there’s some space at the front of the brain and it had grown so slowly — it could have been there 20 years — that my brain had made way for it.’
She declined to comment last night.