Andy Burnham has famous wife who appeared on huge TV | UK News

Andy Burnham’s marriage is a love story for the ages – he and his wife have been together since they met at college. He tied the knot with Dutch native Marie-France van Heel in 2000 – better recognized as Frankie – after assembly at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. Burnham, whose dad and mom had been a GP receptionist and a BT engineer, was inspired to attend the celebrated college by his English instructor.

But issues didn’t always go easily for Burnham and his wife. In the early days of their relationship, Frankie requested her companion permission to seem on ITV courting show Blind Date, where she was set up with ‘Will from Surrey’ on an awkward date to Gibraltar.

Things rapidly went incorrect on the show, however, after Frankie – decked out in a bottle inexperienced blazer and huge flared trousers – chosen Will Harris from three bachelors with the help of host Cilla Black.

She immediately began arguing with Will, telling him to “try and look attractive” for their date. He had turned up to the show in a pair of light-wash dungarees and a saggy pink sweater.

When they returned to the studio after the date, Will branded Frankie a “cold fish”, inflicting her to throw a cushion at him. She told him backstage: “profanity off, I never want to see you again.”

In a beautiful conclusion to the story, 12 years after their Blind Date, Frankie was sitting with her husband Burnham in the Commons bar in Parliament – only for Will to stroll in, having turn out to be a advertising and marketing director for the opposing Conservative Party.

Burnham said of the incident: “My wife and I have been together for 25 years but in the early days she was on Blind Date and she was the picker, and to add insult to injury she picked Will from Surrey, who ended up being the director of communications for the Conservative party.”

Now the pair share three youngsters together – son Jimmy and daughters Rosie and Annie.