Now Interview

All eyes might be on the fame academy students for some much hyped hanky panky, but BBC bosses should have kept a closer eye on there teachers. Husband and wife team David and Carrie Grant admit that they probably christened the £35 million north London mansion- where the show is filmed- well before anyone else. “It’s true” laughs voice coach Carrie “we were one of the first, but it was in the teachers quarters where there are no cameras. Its not as if we were trying to do exciting things in front of the 500 cameras- we do stay there once a week as part of the job, you know!”

Since appearing in Pop idol, the couple – whose client list included the spice girls take that and n will young- have become house hold names themselves as they help thousands of hopefuls find the right notes . And it’s as judges on the BBC’s flagship reality TV show that their relationship has come under the spotlight. But as the Fame Academy students are whittled down, David and Carrie are hoping for some time off to celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary next Wednesday.

“Our anniversaries are really special to us” says Carrie, who met David in Plymouth in 1986 while filming a children’s TV show. “we’ve asked for an early shift because we’d love to go to our favourite restaurant, Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir Quat’ Saisons in Oxford. We can only afford to go once a year. This will be our second time. It’s like having your mortgage for lunch!” quips David, although he far from being a romantic skinflint.

On their 10th anniversary, the former pop star- he had top 10 hits as one half of 80’s duo Linx- forked out for helicopter lesions for Carrie and surprised her already this year with a £1,250 olive satin dress from savile row designer Neil Cunningham and a platinum diamond encrusted passion ring. “The white diamonds are me and the brown ones are David” grins Carrie. David adds: “I love her so much I wanted to do something special for her for no reason”

In the past, he’s also surprised Carrie with thumb rings, each one engraved with an ongoing message. The first one says: “to my love” the second says: “we are together” and the most recent one says: “we are one” They reckon the secret to their marital happiness stems from counselling- they both underwent six sessions before they got married- and from shared childhood traumas. “We both grew up in broken homes with just our mums” explains Carrie “the concept of being married, having a husband or wife, was alien to us. We don’t know what it was like having a male figure in the house. I did not know what role a wife was because I only ever saw my mum as a mum. David has never had a father figure or seen a husband.”

David’s dad abandoned him from birth and he was brought up by his mum Jereline and grandmother Avis. Carrie’s parents Bob and Judy divorced when she was 7. “My dad disappeared after that” says Carrie “He was a tough old bloke, a gambler and a womaniser. Mum remarried when I was in my teens. It was when David and I were getting married- I was 22_ that my dad reappeared. But he has these horrible views. He said he hated black people and hated Christmas- he was anti everything. I thought: “he can’t change my views about David or about getting married.” It would have been too easy to give up on him and tell him not to come to the wedding, but that wasn’t the right way to handle it. He was a child and needed to grow up’ so we gave him some slack. He even gave me away”

“And gave me a look!” laughs David, before adding a more serious note: “he couldn’t crate a bad atmosphere at our wedding we had 300 people there, plus the London Gospel Community Choir, a steel band in the marquee and a rave upstairs. Nothing was going to spoil our day.” But it took a few more years before Carrie’s dad finally accepted David. “One day he went to church and broke down” she says. “We had this incredible reunion.

He was 56years old and his whole life came back on him. He went to Bible College for 2 years and became a missionary in Sierra Leone- ironically, surrounded by black people. “When war broke out over there he was told by the government to leave. But he said he was going to stay because it was where he was meant to be. Four weeks later he died of cerebral malaria. I went over to berry him. There were hundreds of people at his funeral- army officers, cabinet ministers and regular villagers. It was unbelievable.”

Bizarrely when our first daughter Olivia, now 8, was born, David had a similar reunion with his dad. “I was born in Jamaica, but Dad was never present in my life,” he says. “My parents weren’t married and Mum and I moved to England. He came to visit me when I was 7. We spent two weeks together and I remember them being the most incredible two weeks of my life. He said he’d be back in six weeks and the next time I saw him I was 26. “It taught me that when u love someone they’ll leave. So the only way to survive was to get your retaliation in first. I felt I couldn’t be a husband.” David's first marriage collapsed in the 80’s. “Then Carrie came along and turned my life around,” he says. “It helped me realise that I’d put these barriers around me. After Olivia was born, I was worried about being a father like him, so I called him. We talked for ages. He was really sorry and said that it was all his fault. Afterwards, I felt free to be the father I wanted to be.”

The couple now have a second daughter, 18-month-old Talia, and say that keeping a happy family unit is their top priority. But they both admit that when you work in the same business it’s hard not to bring work home. “We go home and say: “were not talking about work, right?”’ says Carrie. “Then at 3am David wakes up and says: “I think Paris’s song needs to change this week,” or: “you were wrong about so and so, they can sing.” “I’m like: hang on a minute. We decided 5 hours ago we weren’t going to talk about this and here he is sounding off.” But he’s asleep again before I can respond!” “That’s how to never lose an argument,” grins David revealing the true secret of their romantic bliss. “I never start what I can’t finish.”