Gavin & Stacey star Larry Lamb has revealed he has moved back in with his ex-partner Clare Burt, with the former couple now living under the same roof again more than a decade after their split became public.
Lamb, 78, and actress Burt, with whom he has two daughters, spent years living apart following the end of their long-term relationship before deciding to reunite as housemates. Speaking on the Rosebud podcast with Gyles Brandreth on Tuesday, Lamb said: 'Having lived with the mother of my two daughters for 15 years, then being separated for about seven or eight, nine years, we finally finished up under the same roof. Having a really pally life.'
Asked whether the pair were back together in a romantic sense, Lamb was clear that they were not. 'We live together as friends... literally as friends,' he said. 'And I can really, really recommend it after living through the first episode of it.'
He added of Burt: '[She's] a really extraordinary woman, because putting up with somebody like me is not easy.'
Their Gavin & Stacey Connection
Lamb played the lovable patriarch Mick Shipman in Gavin & Stacey, the hit BBC comedy created by James Corden and Ruth Jones. He and Burt, whose television credits include The Bill and Top Boy, were together for around two decades and had two daughters before going their separate ways, with their split becoming public in 2016.
Lamb divides his time between north London and a converted barn he owns in Normandy, France, but did not say where he and Burt are now living together. He went on to have a relationship with French artist Marie Hugo, but last October described himself as resolutely single, saying: 'I'm very definitely a happily single man these days. I'm just an old bachelor boy. It's too late for the ladies, those days are happily over.'
Larry Lamb's Seven Marriages
Lamb has married three times and had four other long-term relationships, which he referred to on the podcast as 'wife substitutes.' 'Seven marriages. Seven marriages,' he said. 'Three official and four extending for anything from three to fifteen years.'
His first marriage was to Anita Wisbey, whom he married after she became pregnant with their daughter Vanessa. The brief marriage was over by the time Vanessa was born in 1969. His second wife was American nurse Jacquie Parris, before he married Scottish entrepreneur Linda Martin in 1979. Lamb and Martin divorced in 1996 and share a son, TV presenter George, 46. The actor also has daughters Eloise, 26, and Eva, 23, with Burt.
Lamb said he 'didn't really have any affairs' during his succession of relationships, joking: 'We didn't have time with seven wives, honestly.'
How Burt Helped Him Land Mick Shipman
Lamb has spoken warmly about Burt since their split. Last year he credited her with helping him land the role of Mick Shipman in Gavin & Stacey after his first audition failed to impress director Christine Gernon. He said Burt told him to stop trying to 'act' as Mick and instead play the character as himself, advice he followed when he returned for his second audition.
A Childhood Rooted in Upheaval
Speaking on the podcast this week, Lamb explained that he had spent much of his life falling quickly and intensely in love, which he linked to the upheaval of his childhood. His mother, Jessie, left the family home when he was nine following a turbulent marriage to his father, and Lamb said he subsequently found himself continually searching for love.
Recalling his younger self, he said: 'A friendly female glance could set me off to fall in love again. Like to dance? Let's get married. What's your name? Just like that.'
He admitted his relationships had repeatedly followed the same pattern, with him eventually being the one to walk away. 'It just wouldn't hold. I was always looking for fault,' he said. 'That's the problem. And so it would never hold together, but not because of them, because of me.'
The father-of-four opened up about his third marriage, explaining that by that point he already knew he could not face going through the ordeal again. 'I can remember doing it the third time... and I thought, I can't go through this ever, ever, ever again,' he said. 'I can't because I'm just telling lies here just in front of everybody I know. And so that was it.'
