Gordon Ramsay on pining after Tana while she was seeing his friend

Gordon Ramsay has revealed the moment he first met his now-wife Tana. The TV star has explained how she was dating his friend, a fellow chef, at the time of their first encounter in the early 1990s.

Gordon, 59, reflected on crossing paths with Tana, 51, who he married in 1996 and with whom he now shares six children. Speaking as part of a Q&A ahead of his new Netflix series Becoming Gordon Ramsay, he described their relationship as “an exceptional journey and a hell of a [expletive] ride. 

He said: “I was 25 when we met and she was 18. She was dating a friend of mine who was a chef at Le Pont de la Tour, and when I came back from Paris to go to a mate’s wedding they picked me up from the airport. The minute I got in the back of the car I couldn’t stop looking at her – we had that spark. We share a drive and are both hardworking.”

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In the same interview, Tana said: “Making time for each other and having fun. Every relationship goes through stages when you’ve been together this long – I was only 18 when we met and Gordon was 26 – but it’s a real blessing to have met young and to go through this amazing journey together and we constantly remind each other of that.”

Gordon and Tana are now parents to Megan, 27, twins Holly and Jack, 26, Tilly, 23, Oscar, six, and Jesse, two. They have been opening up about their life as they promote their new Netflix series Being Gordon Ramsay.

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It comes after Gordon admitted that he was “lost for words” with the “modern” step that his daughter Holly and her new husband Adam Peaty had taken to become Mr and Mrs Ramsay Peaty. They had revealed their plans for a new joint surname to him and Tana the night before they married. 

In an interview with the Daily Mail, he shared that it had been a surprise to him and his wife. He said: “They told us the night before the wedding. I was lost for words. A wonderful suggestion. Very modern.”

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Holly and Adam, 31, tied the knot at Bath Abbey in late December, before celebrating their nuptials with a reception at nearby Kin House in Wiltshire. Their name change was confirmed publicly when the Olympic swimmer changed his handle on Instagram.

Also present as guests at their wedding were David and Victoria Beckham, with Holly having grown up alongside their children. Their estranged son Brooklyn took a similar step with his wife Nicola after their 2022 wedding, adopting the surname ‘Peltz Beckham’.