The Repair Shop siblings Suzie Fletcher and Steve Fletcher seem to have a very close relationship on screen, but their family life off-screen has not always been easy.
While leather and saddle expert Suzie has opened up about her 18-year marriage with her "abusive" late husband Rob, who died from pancreatic cancer in 2013, she has also discussed the struggles her family went through during her childhood on the Relatively podcast.
© Guy Levy, BBCBoth Suzie and horologist Steve credited their parents for creating a "very tight family" and happy memories in their "ramshackle old house" in Oxfordshire with their two other siblings. However, they also candidly revealed that their mum and dad "struggled" with four kids.
After podcast host Catherine Carr asked if it was an "overwhelmingly happy" upbringing, Steve confessed: "We did have our problems, like most families do. But, we got through them and it didn’t really have a huge impact on us.
"Our mum suffered dreadfully from postnatal depression. That caused a nervous breakdown with our father. So, we went through a bit of a rocky period. We spent a lot of time with our grandparents and people coming and babysitting."
© BBCLooking back, Suzie had a lot of compassion and empathy for her mother, who received "barbaric" treatment at the time.
"And actually, for mum, I feel incredibly sorry because of course back then they didn’t really appreciate how devastating it was and the treatment that they offered her was barbaric.
© Ricochet Ltd/Ruth Roxanne Board/BBC"I just look back at the whole thing and just feel even more appreciative of what they were able to do for us considering what was going on behind the scenes because of course families didn’t share," she explained, adding her mother "didn’t have a support group."
She concluded: "It’s no longer a taboo subject, but back then it very much was."
Steve's family life
© Steve Fletcher/InstagramSteve is in a long-term relationship with a woman named Mel, to whom he credits his appearances on The Repair Shop. He revealed Mel discouraged him from deleting an email sent by the show's producers back in 2016, which could have cost him his TV career.
He is a doting dad to five children: Fred, Amelia, Milly, Nicole and a fourth daughter, whose name isn't publicly known.
Suzie's home life
Suzie found love with Rob when she moved to America in her 30s, but she told The Times they never started a family.
"I lived with my husband in Colorado for 22 years, we never had children, and it was very much a western life, a ranching life," she said.
Suzie has also been open about some of the difficulties they encountered in their relationship. She described a time when Rob choked her and lifted her from the ground by her throat.
"I honestly thought I was going to die," she told the Mail on Sunday. "He was choking me and could easily have killed me. I don't know why but eventually he let go.
"I was profoundly shocked. I'd always thought it could never happen to me. Not that. He would never hurt me. Now I knew what my husband was capable of."
