Jim Davidson has called off his sixth wedding, splitting from fiancée Natasha, who is 23 years his junior, after his previous five marriages left him with £60million in divorce costs.
The comedian and actor, 72, had been due to marry Natasha at Hampton Court Palace last year but lost his £10,000 deposit when he cancelled the ceremony. The venue was a nod to his own history of marriage, as the former home of King Henry VIII and his six wives.
Davidson insisted there was "no bad blood" between the couple. "Natasha is the most caring and dutiful person. It's not like we're splitting up because we don't love each other anymore," he told The Sun.
"It's a sort of a grown-up separation. The timing's not right because she has so much time for everybody and how can you knock that?" he said, adding that clashing schedules had made it impossible for the pair to find time for each other.
Davidson found fame hosting The Generation Game and Big Break in the 1990s and has been a fixture of British light entertainment and stand-up comedy for decades.
How the romance began
Davidson struck up his relationship with Natasha, 49, in early 2024, shortly after splitting from his wife of 14 years, Michelle Cotton. The pair went public at Nigel Farage's 60th birthday party at Boisdale's in Canary Wharf, where Davidson had Natasha on his arm and told guests he could not wait to walk down the aisle with her.
At the party, Davidson took to the stage and gushed about his new girlfriend, who works as a freelance assistant with him on his streaming channel, Ustreme. "I've just got my divorce through and I'm here with my new girlfriend," he told the crowd, joking about how many wives he had already had and saying he had room for one more.
He said at the time he was "completely smitten" with Natasha and believed he had finally found "the one," urging friends to tell her she should marry him. He also renamed his £350,000 yacht, previously called Princess Mitchie after his ex-wife, to Lady Natasha.
TV presenter Lizzie Cundy later shared a rare photograph of the couple together on Instagram, alongside Michael Jackson's former bodyguard Matt Fiddes.
Split from Michelle Cotton
Davidson's romance with Natasha began after he announced his split from Michelle Cotton in April 2023, following two decades together as a couple. He was said to be devastated that they could not work things out.
He has since sold the Georgian cottage the couple shared in Stockbridge, Hampshire, and said he remains on good terms with Cotton, whom he married in 2009. He plans to continue visiting his ex-wife but said he finds it too sad to see the dogs they once shared.
"There you go, the divorce came through today, so it's done. I'm divorced again, my fifth divorce," he said in an interview on Ustreme. "The house has been sold and that will be going through in March, fingers crossed. It's a new chapter for all of us."
"I've spoken to Michelle today and wished her the best of luck. I've arranged to take some stuff and pick up some bits and pieces," he added. "She said I was welcome around there any time. I said I was only going to do it if the dogs weren't there so I've asked that if I call up to go round that she take the dogs for a walk because I don't want to heap any more sadness on the situation."
A long marital history
Davidson's first marriage was to childhood sweetheart Sue Walpole in 1971. The couple had a daughter, Sarah Walpole-Davidson, now 51, before divorcing a year later.
He married Julie Gullick in 1981, with whom he had a son, Cameron, now 41, before the couple divorced five years later in 1986. Just a year after that he married journalist and television presenter Alison Holloway, though the marriage lasted less than two years.
His fourth marriage, to former Page 3 model Tracy Hilton in 1990, lasted a decade. The couple had three children together: Charlie, 34, Fred, 32, and Elsie, 31.
What comes next
Following the split from Natasha, Davidson said the pair are "just taking it day by day and enjoying ourselves." "You never know what's round the corner, especially in this mad, mad world," he added.
