Veteran broadcaster Janet Street Porter, 79, left the Loose Women audience reeling after casually dropping a bombshell on Monday’s episode: she’s just got married — for the fifth time.
Beaming as she appeared via video link alongside her new husband Peter Spanton, Janet revealed she had quietly tied the knot over the weekend in Great Yarmouth. Smiling mischievously, she told viewers she had been keeping a “big secret”, before announcing, “Peter and me got married on Saturday. I finally did it. I saved the best till last.”
The pair have been romantically linked since 1999, making their low-key ceremony the culmination of a decades-long love story rather than a whirlwind romance.
Back in the studio, Janet’s co-stars were quick to react. Kaye Adams cheekily pointed out it was “husband number five,” prompting Brenda Edwards to laugh and urge everyone to “stop counting numbers.” Moments later, the jokes gave way to emotion as Brenda offered a heartfelt congratulations, while Kaye remarked that Janet looked “content, radiant and happy.”
Janet’s romantic history has been as colourful as her media career. She first married Tim Street-Porter in 1967 at just 19, before the relationship ended in 1975. A second marriage to publisher Tony Elliot lasted only two years, followed by a brief third union with Canadian filmmaker Frank Cvitanovich. Her fourth marriage, to much younger David Sorkin in the late 1990s, later became something Janet openly described as the product of a midlife crisis.
Never one to shy away from honesty, Janet has previously joked that years of marriages and long-term relationships gave her a sharp insight into men, once quipping that the one thing they all had in common was being “pathetically grateful.” She has also been outspoken about her decision not to have children, writing that she never felt any stigma and did not miss motherhood, insisting she wouldn’t trade an intelligent partner “for a toddler or a goldfish.”
Monday’s episode carried extra emotional weight beyond Janet’s joyful news. Earlier in the show, Brenda Edwards was moved to tears while speaking about grief and the loss of her son Jamal, with viewers flooding social media with messages of love and support. The contrast between sorrow and celebration made Janet’s surprise wedding reveal all the more poignant — a reminder that even after heartbreak, life can still spring a happy shock.
