Television presenter Alysia Vasey has revealed she was sleeping on the sofa and left with just five bin bags of clothes following her recent divorce. The 54-year-old celebrity forager, who appears regularly on ITV's Saturday Morning with James Martin, confirmed her split from her farmer husband this week despite only tying the knot last year.
Known professionally as the Yorkshire Forager, Vasey shared an emotional video update with her Instagram followers to clarify her relationship status after months of private struggle. She explained that the couple had actually separated prior to Christmas, despite having been married for a short period.
Vasey told her online audience: "So this is a hard one. I feel like coming clean because there's no point wearing a wedding ring when your marriage is over. And it has been since before Christmas. I know I haven't been married long."
Addressing the financial and emotional toll of the marital breakdown, Vasey admitted that she had lost all of her savings during the split. "I'm a big believer in love, marriage, everything. But I just got taken for a ride. Got all the money taken from me. Everything. Absolutely everything. It's been a struggle. Absolute struggle these last eight, nine months. I didn't expect it," she said.
She expressed her embarrassment over the sudden breakdown of the marriage while confirming she was now living on her own. "I feel a bit embarrassed by it all, but it is what it is. So I'm on my own and I didn't expect that," Vasey added. "Anyway, I feel like I've come clean now, so it is what it is, isn't it? Anyway, goodnight. I hope you're all well."
In a detailed caption posted alongside the video message, Vasey disclosed the bleak reality of her living situation in the days leading up to the holiday season. "Five bin liners of clothes were all I were left with at 54-years-old a week before Christmas, I had just had to buy a tonne of coal, spent Nans bit of inheritance money on replacing two logburners, bought a new cooker, a new stand up fridge and everything in for Christmas," she wrote.
She thanked her social media followers for their outpouring of love and support during her recovery, emphasizing that life had altered dramatically since December. "Thank you for all your support. I've managed to rebuild and come out the other end, it's just tough," Vasey stated. "I was left with five bin liners of clothes before Christmas, it's hard. So just reach out to everybody else because I'm not the only one going through it. There's just been massive support and it means the world."
Vasey also sent a message of solidarity to others navigating personal hardships and marital separations. "Thank you for all your support it means the world, and to all those going through what am going through especially, to those sleeping on a couch, to those trying to cope what's happening to them, to those who like me are trying to take small steps forward. I know it's hard, you didn't deserve it. None of us did," she shared.
Reflecting on the past several years, the television personality revealed that she had hidden her distress while dealing with ongoing personal challenges. She wrote that she had "lived unimaginably hard times, that I have put a brave face on. It's been very tough for me the last 4 years, I've managed to break free, but lost just about everything," adding: "I'm still coming to terms with everything and hopefully one day will find the peace and love that I deserve."
Marriage reveal and split timeline
Vasey had previously announced her marriage during a broadcast of chef James Martin's Saturday Morning program on ITV in February 2025. During the show, she excitedly informed host James Martin that she would be adopting her new husband's surname of Greenwood for her television work and public appearances.
Martin joked on air about the name change, telling her: "I am not going to get the hang of this. I have been calling you Alysia Vasey for years now." Vasey responded: "Better foraging name, Greenwood!"
The couple's relationship had previously been highlighted on social media in January 2024, when Vasey posted a photograph on X showing her engagement ring following a New Year's Eve proposal. "My love proposed to me on New Year's Eve... and I said Yes!" she wrote at the time, referencing the proposal on New Year's Eve 2023. "Looking forward to spending a lifetime together... (what's left of it knocking on a bit) an exciting year ahead!"
In the months leading up to their separation, Vasey shared photos of her travels alongside her partner, including pictures from a summer holiday in Sorrento, Italy, in August 2025. Although she shared aspects of their life together online, she kept her farmer husband's full identity private and never disclosed his full name publicly.
Career as the Yorkshire Forager
Vasey built her public reputation after making a career transition from working as a primary school teaching assistant to becoming a full-time commercial wild food forager. She established a business gathering wild ingredients, herbs, plants, and mushrooms across the Yorkshire countryside.
Today, Vasey earns a living by supplying some of the UK's top Michelin-starred fine dining restaurants with wild seasonal ingredients. Beyond her regular appearances on ITV's Saturday Morning, she also makes recurring guest appearances on BBC One's long-running rural affairs series Countryfile.
Her passion for foraging originated during early childhood walks through Yorkshire woodland alongside her grandfather and her brother Adrian. "Every weekend me and my brother Adrian would go for walks in the woods and on the moors with our grandad as he searched for plants, nuts, mushrooms and fruit," Vasey previously told the Yorkshire Post.
Describing how she learned the skill, Vasey explained: "I don't ever remember him teaching me exactly, but I copied him and listened and he would test my knowledge, correcting me if I went wrong. Thanks to grandad by the time I was seven or eight I could identify every tree, plant, flower, animal and bird that we came across. I knew which plants, nuts, berries and mushrooms were safe to eat and which had to be left alone."
Family heritage and business origins
While researching her 2020 book, The Yorkshire Forager: A Wild Food Survival Journey, Vasey uncovered the deeper history behind her family's foraging expertise. She discovered that her Polish grandfather had originally learned to forage out of urgent survival necessity while hiding from Nazi forces in European forests during the Second World War.
Drawing on those generational techniques, Vasey formally launched her commercial enterprise, Yorkshire Foragers, in 2010. The business was established alongside her first husband, Chris, and with hands-on assistance from her mother, laying the groundwork for her eventual television career.
