Good Morning Britain and Strictly Come Dancing star is married to new Home Secretary

Who’s the TV star married to the UK’s new Home Secretary? (Picture: Victoria Jones/Shutterstock)

It’s been a historic week for British politics as Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party roared back into 10 Downing Street with a landslide election victory.

Finishing the night with 411 seats, Labour now have a huge majority over the Conservative Party, who suffered their worst election defeat in modern history.

As part of his duties as the first Labour Prime Minister since Gordon Brown in 2010, Sir Keir will be naming a brand new cabinet to help him lead the country.

Among those in his cabinet is Yvette Cooper, who is returning to government for the first time in 14 years, having been part of the Opposition while the Conservatives were in charge.

Having already served as the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the Work and Pensions Secretary between 2008 and 2010, she’s now returned as Home Secretary.

But what many people don’t know about Yvette is that she’s married to one of the biggest names in British TV: Good Morning Britain presenter Ed Balls.

Ed, 57, and Yvette, 55, got married in 1998, before Ed himself became a member of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s cabinet as the Secretary to the Treasury – they later became the first married couple to serve in the same parliament.

Yvette Cooper is the new Home Secretary under Sir Keir Starmer (Picture: UK Parliament/PA Wire)

Ed Balls left politics in 2015 and has been a TV mainstay ever since (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)

The couple have three children together, with Yvette saying that having children while working in parliament as a female MP often brought tough expectations in the 1990s and early 2000s.

She told the BBC in 2022: ‘There was a sense that you should try and not talk about [being a working mum] too much, not admit that you were juggling so many different things.’

After David Cameron was victorious in the 2010 general election, which saw the Conservatives take charge of the country for the first time in 13 years, Ed became Shadow Chancellor while Yvette became Shadow Home Secretary.

Ed and Yvette were married in 1998 and were the first married couple in parliament (Picture: PA)

Ed was eventually unseated in the 2015 election – he took this as an opportunity to stand down from politics and moved into education, working with King’s College in London and Harvard University in America.

A year later he was back in Britain, competing in the 14th series of Strictly Come Dancing – he eventually finished sixth the year Ore Oduba won the glitter ball trophy.

During his time on Strictly, he famously danced to 2012 number one single Gangnam Style, recorded by Korean artist Psy – the dance saw him receive a score of four from Craig Revel Horwood.

Ed and Yvette have been married for 26 years (Picture: Euan Cherry/Getty Images)

For three years between 2015 and 2018 he was appointed as President of Norwich City FC, a period that saw them compete in the Premier League and Championship.

Since 2022, he has been the main presenter for Good Morning Britain, replacing Piers Morgan who had stepped down a year earlier.

While her husband moved away from party politics, Yvette remained in Labour during the leaderships of Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn, becoming the chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee.

After the EU referendum, she sought to extend Article 50 and delay Brexit, eventually becoming the Shadow Home Secretary again in 2021.

Watch Good Morning Britain on ITV.

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