Sue Barker - Personal Life

Personal Life

In 1978, Barker broke off an engagement with tennis player Syd Ball. After her engagement was broken off, she had a brief romance with Australian golfer Greg Norman.

In the early 1980s, Barker's brief relationship with singer Cliff Richard made headlines. They both remain friends. Richard revealed in 2008 that he had come close to asking her to marry him. He said: "I seriously contemplated asking her to marry me, but in the end I realised that I didn't love her quite enough to commit the rest of my life to her." In 1988, Richard said of his relationship with Barker: "We were closer than just friends. She's the only person with whom I've had that sort of relationship."

In an interview in 1999, Barker said that during her tennis career she was approached by a lesbian tennis player in the locker room and touched "in a way that didn't feel right". Barker refused to name the female tennis player involved.

Barker is married to former policeman Lance Tankard and lives in a mansion in Surrey, which is set in 32 acres of woodland. The couple own several rottweilers.

In 1980, Barker was temporarily blinded in her right eye after a large dog in Spain jumped up and bit her. She lost the sight in her eye for five hours and feared that the dog attack would force her to stop playing tennis, which she said "broke her heart".

In 2012, the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK received over 40 complaints for a Go Compare advert that Barker starred in when she was featured shooting at Gio Compario with a large bazooka while wearing a balaclava. Some viewers felt that the advert was offensive and inappropriate.