A devoted family man, David Mitchell is besotted with his wife, TV presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell, and their two daughters: Barbara, 11, and June Violet, two. The 52-year-old actor and comedian is famed for his roles in Peep Show, Upstart Crow, and Ludwig, and is a regular face on our screens thanks to the BBC panel show Would I Lie to You?. But while he's enjoyed a hugely successful career, David says it was Victoria who truly changed his life
Writing in his 2012 autobiography, Back Story, the actor reflected on his first meeting with Victoria at a film premiere in 2007. "I changed then," he recalled. "Everything that happened to me after that moment, even incidental things, are in a different context, a new world where different things matter." The TV stars didn't get together until three years later, leaving David "hopelessly in love" and with "enormous sadness", but after Victoria came back into his life in 2010, they quickly hit it off and tied the knot two years later.
© Shane Anthony Sinclair, GettyFast-forward to 2026, and David and Victoria have been happily married for 13 years and share two daughters, Barbara and June. Here's what we know about their adorable family life away from the cameras
Who is Victoria Coren Mitchell?
Victoria Coren Mitchell, 54, is a writer and TV presenter, perhaps best known for hosting the BBC quiz show, Only Connect. She's also a professional poker player, and was the first woman to win an event on the European Poker Tour in 2006.
Victoria isn't the only famous face in her family. Her father is the writer and satirist Alan Coren, while her brother is the food critic Giles Coren.
Fellow comedian David Baddiel introduced Victoria to David at a film premiere. Recalling the moment she and David first crossed paths, Victoria said it wasn't long before she knew he was the one. "[Baddiel] specifically said to me, 'There's David Mitchell over there, I think you should probably marry him, I'll get the ball rolling by introducing you.' I thought that was ridiculous but, a couple of hours later, I thought I probably would marry him," she told RadioTimes.com in 2016.
David Mitchell's journey to fatherhood
In a 2019 interview with RTE, David noted that he hadn't made any sort of "life plan" before meeting Victoria. "I hadn't seen myself as someone who would necessarily get married or have a family," the comedian explained. "It was very much meeting Victoria which made me think, 'Oh, now if I don't spend my life with her it would be awful', and then having a child came from that."
Three years after their 2012 wedding, David and Victoria welcomed their oldest daughter, Barbara, now 11. Speaking with The Times in 2018, David said: "She's amazing. Extremely talkative and she likes imagining things, telling stories and being characters and explaining to me who she is in one of her stories."
© Getty ImagesDuring a 2018 appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show, David also admitted that becoming a father had left him with new things to worry about. "Unfortunately, there is nothing like having a tiny child whose safety you are responsible for to make you worry," he remarked.
"You really don't want the world to spin into the sun and explode. You thought you didn't want it before, but you really don't want it [after having a child]. That is the real downside of parenthood, and I suppose any form of love, is it makes you fear more… I would say love is not a stress reduction exercise, is it? What you want is a long period of bland contentment… I'm a family man. I've made bad choices and I am constantly worried."
© Getty ImagesIn 2023, when Victoria was 51, she and David surprised fans by revealing that they had secretly welcomed a second daughter named June Violet. "Many people are assuming my tweet yesterday was a Halloween costume. Not at all; last week I had a baby, and nothing currently fits me except cloaks," Victoria announced at the time. "Luckily, Only Connect is a pre-record. Happy All Saints Day!"
David Mitchell's two daughters, Barbara and June Violet
Since becoming a family of four, Victoria and David have made a conscious effort to keep their children out of the spotlight, although on occasion they have shared some sweet details about Barbara and June. "My 10-year-old loves The Masked Singer and old episodes of Poirot, just like her mother," Victoria told Radio Times. "The baby doesn't have any screen time; she's only 18 months old. She loves Bluey – an excellent TV show – but she doesn't know it's a TV show. She just thinks it's a source of really great plastic dog Weebles."
