Tatler August 2019 tatler.comLIVING[A decade on, and Francesca’s
career continues apace: she recently
won Broadcast Sports Presenter of
the Year and one report suggested
that she was earning £16,789 an
hour after she switched allegiance
from Channel Seven to Channel
Ten when Ten took over coverage of
the Melbourne Cup in 2018. ‘That’s
complete rubbish,’ she scoffs – al-
though she refuses to confirm her
actual pay.
What is clear is that Francesca’s
work has earned her more than
money and acclaim. Up until now
she hasn’t spoken publicly about
her relationship with her fellow
ITV presenter, Oli Bell, who’s also
the nephew of famous trainer Michael
Bell. There were rumours of an
overlap between her marriage and
her new relationship, as the romance
came to light just a few weeks after
her marriage split was announced
last October. ‘Our relationship was
not born from ideal circumstances,’
is all Francesca will own up to when
pressed. ‘We didn’t know each oth-
er before we started working to-
gether, then we got to know each
other and he’s great. We are very
happy together, working together,
seeing lots of each other. Amazingly
nobody [at work] suspected any-
thing, and when we finally toldOne of those things is making
her new house a home. She has just
moved out of her parents’ house
and into a four-bedroom cottage
nearby. Scattered around the coun-
try kitchen, with views of horses
and rolling fields as far as the eye
can see, are remnants of another life
in Australia: a Vegemite tub on the
counter, an Oz Harvest cookbook,
all shipped from the Sydney apart-
ment she has recently put up for
rent. And there are also subtle ref-
erences to her new love: an
abstract picture signed ‘To Oli’ is
propped up in the dining room,
adding to the scores of framed
horse photographs and posters that
appear in every room, and a man’s
coat hangs in the hallway.
Of her break-up, Francesca
says that ‘lots of people were very
supportive,’ and adds, sagely, that
‘while you may perceive other
people’s lives as being perfect or
glamorous or happy, I suppose
it’s quite comforting that other
people in what might seem like
more fortunate positions also
have challenges.’
To an outsider, Francesca’s life
might have seemed perfect, but she
says cracks in her marriage started
to show following Harry’s birth in- One reason was geography –
them everyone was like, “What?
Really?” But it was very obvious
from the beginning that we got on
very well together and were always
having a laugh and a joke as well as
talking about more serious subjects,
work subjects... but I am wary of
saying too much,’ she tails off,
clearly cautious.
It is clear that things are already
serious, however. ‘Oli is brilliant
with my son Harry and Harry
loves him. And he gets on with my
parents. Oli and I like hanging out
with friends who aren’t in the in-
dustry when we’re not working so
we don’t talk about horses all the
time,’ she adds. She is even contem-
plating marriage again. ‘The tradi-
tional white wedding thing? May-
be not, but some kind of ceremony
could be nice.’
Waving her ringless finger, she
smiles and says: ‘I think we need to
get a few things done first.’she pined for home on the yard in
Newmarket while Rob was keen to
base their family in Australia – but
when the couple eventually an-
nounced their split, it shocked the
equestrian world.
‘You go into marriage with the
best intentions, thinking it’s going
to be forever. Then life conspires
against you and it’s not. Despite get-
ting married in your thirties, you
still change and grow,’ Francesca
says. She pauses, then adds: ‘I made
mistakes in the past, perhaps because
I didn’t know my own mind and
was too ruled by others.’
Now, though, she is resolute: ‘When
it comes to what really matters, I
still have that pull back to England.
I love the history, the heritage.
English people can be dry, sarcastic
and quite rude sometimes. And ul-
timately I think that’s more “me.”’
So now the former couple co-
parent across two hemispheres, and
she regularly returns to Australia
for work, which she loves. She says
it can be ‘really stressful’ but it’s
worth it too: watching her son now,
surrounded by hundreds of horses
on the yard where she spent her
childhood has, she says, been a
delight. ‘Harry is a lot like me. It’s
so sweet seeing him around the
horses, nuzzling and talking to
them. It’s like he is magnetically
drawn to them.’ (‘You get marriedwith the bestintentions, thenlife conspiresagainst you’THOROUGHBREDS
Left, Francesca Cumani with Zara
Phillips at Magic Millions Polo in
Australia, January 2017. Below,
Oli Bell: ‘We started working together
then got to know each other and he’s
great,’ Francesca saysBYS TA NDE RPHOTOGRAPHS: GETTY IMAGES; ITV08-19BYST-Home-Francesca.indd 56 31/05/2019 11:40
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