Michael Winner - Personal Life

Personal Life

Winner became engaged to Geraldine Lynton-Edwards in 2007. He stated "I have told Geraldine that it took me 72 years to get engaged so she's not to hold her breath for the marriage". However, Winner did marry Lynton-Edwards on 19 September 2011 at Chelsea Town Hall, London. He remains prominent in British life for other reasons, including his challenging dinner reviews, as well as his regular appearances on television, particularly in a series of advertisements that he directed for insurance firm esure. Winner has been writing for The Sunday Times for decades. His current column is called 'Winner's Dinners'. He has also been an occasional panellist on Have I Got News for You.

Winner has been an active proponent of law enforcement issues and established the Police Memorial Trust after WPC Yvonne Fletcher was murdered in 1984. Thirty-six local memorials honouring police officers who died in the line of duty have been erected since 1985, beginning with Fletcher's in St. James's Square, London. The National Police Memorial, opposite St. James's Park at the junction of Horse Guards Road and The Mall, was also unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II on 26 April 2005.

His autobiography Winner Takes All: A Life of Sorts was published by Robson Books in 2006. The book largely describes his experiences with many big screen actors. He has also written a dieting book, The Fat Pig Diet Book.

In 2006, it emerged that Winner had been offered an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours for his part in campaigning for the Police Memorial Trust. Winner declined the honour, remarking "An OBE is what you get if you clean the toilets well at King's Cross Station." Winner has subsequently claimed on his Twitter page that he has also turned down a knighthood.

Winner was an outspoken member of the Conservative Party and supporter of prime minister Margaret Thatcher, but changed his political support in favour of Tony Blair's New Labour at the 1997 general election.

On 1 January 2007, Winner acquired the bacterial infection, Vibrio vulnificus from an oyster meal in Barbados. He almost had to have a leg amputated and was on the brink of death on several occasions. Before he fully recovered, Winner caught the "hospital superbug", MRSA. In September 2011, Winner was admitted to hospital with food poisoning after eating steak tartare, a raw meat dish, four days in a row. The dish is not recommended for those with a weakened immune system, and in retrospect Winner regarded his decision to eat it as "stupid".

In February 2011, Victoria Coren accused Winner of bullying her and sending obscene tweets related to her breasts. Initially, she thought that his Twitter account had been hacked but this was not the case. However, when she appeared on Have I Got News For You she said they were now friends after he took her out for lunch.

In 2011, Winner married Geraldine Lynton-Edwards at Chelsea Old Town Hall, following a four-year engagement. They met in 1957 when he was a 21-year-old film-maker and she was a 16-year-old actress and ballet dancer. Michael and Shakira Caine were witnesses to the ceremony.

Winner lives in the former home of painter Luke Fildes in Kensington, Woodland House, designed for Fildes by Richard Norman Shaw. Winner is an art collector, and is a connoisseur of British illustration. Winner's art collection includes works by Jan Micker, William James, Edmund Dulac, E. H. Shepard, Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielsen and Beatrix Potter. His collection once included almost 200 signed colour-washed illustrations by Donald McGill. It was announced in 2008 that Winner intended to leave his house as a museum, but discussions with Kensington and Chelsea council apparently stalled after they were unable to meet the £15 million cost of purchasing the freehold of the property, which expires in 2046.

Winner told reporters that after hearing specialists told him he had 18 months to live, he researched assisted suicide via the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland.