Romesh Ranganathan says comedy career nearly ruined marriage of 15 years

Romesh Ranganathan has revealed that his dedication to his comedy career threatened to ruin his marriage - which became a relationship “only in name”,

Claiming he lived up to the “delivered very little,” stereotype, the TV star revealed he and his wife of 15 years, Leesa, had to work at “being really in love” again.

The Weakest Link presenter said his marriage had “gone wrong” as he put all his effort into his work - leaving little energy left for his wife and three kids.

Romesh, 46, explained: “I lived up to the 'delivered very little,' stereotype. You are in and out. Often I would be knackered from working or being on tour. And I'd come back in and just not be very good as a person. My chat wasn't very good. I would just slump on the sofa.

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“You can say you're tired, fine, but you need to be making a bit of an effort and that definitely slipped.” He sighed: “The truth is you get caught up in stuff. You've got to appreciate the person who is at home more.

“There have been months. if not the best part of a year, when you are talking to each other for functional reasons. 'What's happening with the kids tomorrow...' and those are all your conversations are. This is what happened to Leesa and I. We stopped investing in our relationship.”

His admission comes a year after the couple renewed their marriage vows and celebrated with a big party at their home in Sussex. But prior to that, Romesh says they struggled at times. He explained to Gabby Logan for her podcast The Mid-Point (MUST): “Going fine isn't good enough, really. You are not having a relationship.

“There was a time when we had to get back to being really in love with each other. Not that we weren't ever in love with each other, I have never not been in love with Leesa and I hope she hasn't not been in love with me. But I feel like there have been times when the relationship has been a relationship in name only.”

Romesh, who also hosts a weekend show on BBC Radio 2, says despite this, his wife has never told him he needed to walk away from his job. “Even if times were hard, and it did go wrong for a while, she has never said ‘you need to stop’.

Romesh and Leesa met when they were both working in the same secondary school - he was a maths teacher while she taught drama, and they married in 2009, later having three sons.

He says they worked on their problems and decided to find solutions. “We did a lot of reading - we would talk about things, we would do to try and spice things up. I am completely and utterly in love with Leesa and I hope she is with me.”

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