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If you’ve ever tuned in to Bargain Hunt, Flog It!, Cash in the Attic or the BAFTA award winning Antiques Road Trip the chances are you will have seen James Lewis presenting.
And by his side as he made his rise to fame was his wife Annabel, 56, a keen antiques expert whom he married in 1997,with the pair welcoming daughter Arabella 11 years later.
Yet this week, James, 53, surprised fans when it emerged their marriage had come to an end and he has since tied the knot with Ed Otter, who is 18 years his junior.
James tied the knot with Ed Otter last September in an intimate ceremony attended by just 50 guests including his 17-year-old daughter, Arabella.
Ed works as the Toys, Trains and Juvenalia Specialist at his auction house, where his ex-wife also used to work – with James noting that his husband is ‘much easier to work with’, than his ex-wife.
In a new interview, James reflected on finding love again after his split from Annabel.
He told The Mirror: ‘Was it love at first sight? Pretty much, yeah. I had split up from my wife, my daughter’s mum. And I was just ready.’
The TV star also revealed that the couple had once considered eloping to America before deciding to include his daughter Arabella in their special day.
They had initially planned to elope and get married in the mountains of Yellowstone National Park, but later decided to invite their parents and his daughter instead.
James added that his daughter now calls both him and Ed ‘Dad’, saying: ‘He and Arabella get on so well. I’m very lucky.’
In the interview he told how they first met 15 years ago playing pool at their local pub in Derbyshire.
Speaking about their life together working at the auction house, James also said: ‘Working with Ed is a lot easier than working with Annabel…’, but didn’t elaborate on the current state of his relationship with her.
He added that Ed is ‘really easy’ to get on with and ‘incredibly kind’ with the pair getting on ‘very, very well’.
James went on to say that they bonded over their shared passion for animals and said he felt ‘very lucky’ to have met such a kind soul.
The TV star has had a hugely successful career in the world of art and antiques after starting out on a trial placement at a local auction house in Nottingham where he fell in love with the trade.
Sadly, the couple’s wedding day was followed closely after a serious health scare.
James, who has previously survived two cardiac arrests, shared that his heart rate spiked to over 250 beats per minute on his wedding day.
This is significantly higher than the normal adult resting range of 60 to 100 beats per minute.
The TV star revealed that his cardiologist had advised him to avoid high-stress situations.
He acknowledged the warning but explained that while he didn’t plan on getting married again, he still intended to take part in future charity auctions.
Back in 2019 he revealed that he ‘died for 10 minutes’ while suffering an episode, before stranger saved his life.
James collapsed at an equestrian centre near his home in Leek after a cardiac arrest but was saved by a Good Samaritan who gave him CPR and brought him round.
Speaking about the incident he has previously said of the stranger who helped him: ‘He has since told me that he only went there on that day because he had heard three years before that the place did very good oatcakes for breakfast, so he went to try them.
‘I am so lucky that he was there and knew what to do and without doubt he saved my life for which I am very grateful.’
James spent two weeks in hospital to have a defibrillator device inserted into his chest, which ‘kicks in immediately if it happens again’.
James was born in London in 1972 and while his parents both worked in the sciences he chose the arts route for his career.
As per the BBC, James started out with a trial placement at a local auction house in Nottingham before progressing from there to Christie’s, and finally to running his own saleroom in Derbyshire.
He studied fine art and auctioneering at university in Southampton before moving to London then relocating to Neales of Nottingham in 1993.
He later founded Bamfords Auctioneers and Valuers.
In terms of his TV career, he started with the hit BBC show Flog It in 2002 and has also worked on Bargain Hunt, Cash in the Attic, Trade Secrets, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is and Antiques Road Trip.
Alongside his TV work James is also a patron of the Born Free Foundation – a wildlife rescue and conservation charity.
He has worked there for 24 years alongside the charity’s co-founder, actress Dame Virginia McKenna, 94.
His daughter Arabella is named after Bella the Lioness, a lion he was rescuing in Romania when he received the call that Annabelle was going into labour, The Mirror reports.
He also took on a Guinness World Record charity auction for Born Free, which he still completed despite his heart health woes at the time, raising a quarter of a million pounds for wildlife charities.
James has also driven vans across Europe to collect lions, orangutans and bears and transported them on long journeys to Shamwari in South Africa and Malawi.
The TV star founded Bamfords Auctioneers with his parents in 2002 after being made redundant.
James started the company with his father Colin Lewis, who invented the painkiller Nurofen, and his mother, a forensic scientist.