When Harry met Clodagh Where do you begin? Let’s start with the happy ending.
After a four-year relationship, Clodagh McKenna, an Irish TV chef, married the Hon. Harry Herbert was married in a magnificent ceremony in Highclere castle, the stately home that plays Downton Abbey in the TV series. It has been in his family’s ownership since the 17th century. Guests included George Osborne, Richard E. Grant, Andrew Lloyd Webber and, of course, the groom’s older brother George and his wife Fiona, the current Earl and Countess of Carnarvon. Toasts were drunk in Guinness and champagne, and lunch for the 148 guests was served on three long tables set up in the gardens of Broadspear, the couple’s 300‑year-old cottage on the thousand-acre Highclere estate in Hampshire.
Clodagh organized it all by herself, including a feast consisting of oysters, langoustines, and sea bass. It was served with vegetables from their garden, eggs from their hens, and honey from their bees.
‘It was the happiest day of my life,’ she says. ‘I wish I could do it over and over again.’
Clodagh McKenna, an Irish TV Chef, married the Hon. Harry Herbert (pictured), in a stunning wedding at Highclere Castle in August of this year
Highclere Castle (pictured), which serves as Downton Abbey on the television series, has been owned since 17th century by Harry’s family.
Their story is straight from Downton Abbey.
She is a Cork-based working-class girl who fled Ireland with nothing more than a knife and a recipe for soda bread. Henry, the 7th Earl, was a close friend and racing manager to the Queen, from 1969 to 2001.
(Henry’s story was recently dramatised in Netflix series The Crown, where it was suggested that the closeness of his friendship with HM enraged Prince Philip.)
The Queen is Harry’s godmother. Clodagh has had the pleasure of meeting her, but he remains secretive about the details, even though it is quite a distance from Cork to Cork’s royal court. Many believe Harry is so close with the Royal Family that he was the man Diana Spencer should marry.
‘Well. I am not surprised that people thought that, because he is a very, very special human, so incredibly kind and caring, one of the last true gentlemen,’ she says. ‘Harry and Diana were very good friends. And I know that he loved her a lot.’
Clodagh was a 42-year-old singleton when she met Harry and had long believed that she would never marry — and that even if she did, it certainly wouldn’t be into one of the grandest aristocratic families in England.
Harry was 58 when he died. Francesca, his first wife, and mother to his three children, had also separated.
The couple were seated next to each other at a Fortnum & Mason’s lunch party, a fortuity he described as ‘a sliding doors moment’.
Clodagh (pictured) knew Harry was the one after six months together, and about a year later the pair moved into Broadspear together
After six months she knew that he was the one, and about a year later they moved into Broadspear together, a ‘forgotten’ three-storey cottage on the estate which they have renovated and turned into a beautiful home and sustainable garden together. ‘It’s been backbreaking work,’ she says.
One afternoon last October, Harry came home early from his job — as chief executive of Highclere Thoroughbred Racing and of The Royal Ascot Racing Club — and suggested a walk in the grounds.
‘He seemed very nervous,’ says Clodagh. ‘I was thinking: “Oh Jesus, is there something wrong?” Then we were out in the woods and he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. It was so beautiful. I was so happy to say yes. I never thought I would get married, but I did.’
Harry had the ring made by Theo Fennell, one of his closest friends, in his pocket. The two men designed it together — an aquamarine surrounded by diamonds, the gold band etched with the word Broadspear, along with engravings of their chickens, dogs, vegetables and even their apple orchard; symbols of the life they have built there together.
Clodagh’s credo is that food makes life better
‘It really is very special,’ says Mrs H.
After the wedding, there was a honeymoon in Ibiza, on a sun‑drenched finca where the bride and groom were accompanied by Harry’s children William, 21, Chloe, 27, and Frankie, 25, a top model who brought along her close friend Eliot Sumner, Sting’s non-binary child.
That was a wonderful gesture by you to invite the children!
‘I am a very lucky stepmother. They’re absolutely beautiful,’ says Clodagh. ‘I got really lucky with all of his family, children included. They came to visit me because I enjoy spending time with them. It was super fun.’
It included enjoying cocktails on the beach, as well as cooking celebratory meals such as sausages with peppers and shellfish paellas. All this came at a cost.
Clodagh (pictured), said that she gained 10 pounds on her honeymoon. But, Clodagh doesn’t care because it is pure happiness.
‘I put on 10 lb on my honeymoon,’ she shrieks. ‘When I was younger, I could eat whatever I wanted and it would fall off. Now it is harder to shift, but I don’t care. It was 10 lb happiness, 10 love. I didn’t worry myself about it.’
Clodagh’s surplus poundage and honeymoon tan are both beginning to fade when we meet for coffee in London, just after she has finished presenting her regular cooking segment on ITV’s This Morning show. ‘I don’t want a coffee. I do, but not if you think about it. I like the way you pour it,’ she says.
She doesn’t need a caffeine boost. The glamorous chef is a double espresso kind of person. She has a triple shot of energy right at her. She is a front-burner; she’s on a rolling boil; she’s definitely sparkling, not still.
‘People always say to me: “Why are you so happy?” ’ she ponders. ‘And it’s not that I am jumping around like a bunny rabbit, but I am good. I’m absolutely good inside. Like, I really am good,’ she says of her mood.
I don’t know how much Harry has in his bank account. I’ve never asked
It’s good to know that she is always ready to go. Clodagh, like Nigella, can’t pass up a carrot without giving it a fondle. Clodagh also can’t pass up a leek and a stick of celery. While she prepares her simple meals, pimped-up shrimps, or one-pot meals from In Minutes (Kyle Books), she is well-known for her dancing and singing.
Right now, Clodagh’s mission in life is to get everyone cooking a proper dinner from scratch in less time than it takes to peel the lid off a takeaway or demolish a sack of crisps.
On television, or on her Instagram TV channel, she urges viewers to ‘carve out the time for self-love’ but calm down, people.
What she means is, for example, baking a loaf of her rosemary-sprinkled soda bread (‘Clodagh bread’) or indulging in some ‘cuddle soup’, which sounds a bit more promising but turns out to be a restorative broth of noodles and chicken. She hasn’t yet launched a hug in a mug or a pre-mixed Whiskey & Clodagh, but it can only be a matter of time.
Clodagh (pictured) has penned nine cookbooks along with TV appearances in the UK, Ireland and America
She had made a quick and easy chicken and mushroom pizza in a clip that was shown on television the morning we met. ‘You don’t want to make it too liquidy,’ she instructed, while singing along to American Pie and accidentally splashing food onto her prairie blouse. ‘Oh, no. Mushrooms on my new top!’ she cried, dabbing the stain with a tea towel.
Her nail polish is chipped and her hair is wild blonde dandelion. Clodagh’s pie has puff pastry on the top and shortcrust pastry at the bottom. Something profound, but I don’t quite know what.
Over a cooking career that has encompassed nine cookbooks along with TV appearances in the UK, Ireland and America, Clodagh’s credo — always passionately expressed — is that if you make her salmon ramen or her drizzle cake or whatever, your life will be better.
In the menu of her mind, her core Clodagh customer is ‘a woman, someone about my age, someone who works very hard, just like me. She might have children, or she might not, but she’s trying to make the most of what she has.
‘I want to make her day better. I want her to feel like she can do this. I want to uplift her.’
Clodagh is that woman who can take on any challenge with a home-cooked meal and keeps her cool when it gets tough. She certainly has the slightly scalded air of someone who has been through something and survived — but what single forty-something woman has not?
Clodagh (pictured) said she often felt like the sore thumb at a dinner party when she was single, however she loved being happy on her own
Her last serious relationship was with Peter Gaynor (an Irish businessman) two years before she met Harry.
After starting her food career working in farmers’ markets, she trained at the famous Ballymaloe Cookery School and then in Paris. After that, she lived in America and Italy, sometimes with friends, sometimes alone.
She once described herself as ‘a vagabond’ and recalls: ‘When I was single, I often felt like the sore thumb at a dinner party, but I still never wanted to get married or have a family. I loved traveling. I loved being independent. I loved being on my own.
‘Then it just happens naturally, doesn’t it? All of a sudden, you love somebody so much that you just have to marry him.’
Oh my god, it is all thrilling to the drenching romance. This is the Cinderella story.
‘No, I don’t see myself as a Cinderella,’ insists Clodagh, despite the fact that she is wearing a gold pumpkin on a chain around her neck — part of her new jewellery range. She also has beautiful Chanel court shoes as a Christmas gift from her husband.
‘I’m not the kind of person who has expensive handbags or designer labels. It’s probably just from my upbringing; I don’t like the ostentation or the waste of money. I wasn’t born to it, I don’t need it in my life, I never did.
Clodagh (pictured) revealed much of her work dried up during lockdown, including recipes for brands, food styling and creating what she calls ‘plate- scapes and tablescapes’
‘But Harry said to me: “You never, ever spoil yourself. I want to get you a really lovely pair of shoes and spoil you.”
‘So he went out and chose them himself and now these are the best shoes that I have.’
She watched in horror as her work was taken out of her hands during lockdown like many others.
This included developing recipes for brands, food styling and creating what she calls ‘plate- scapes and tablescapes’, which always seem to involve a great deal of stray foliage.
‘All of that vanished overnight,’ she recalls. ‘I worried about how I was going to make money.’
If you imagine that being with a man whose wealth is estimated at anywhere from ‘comfortable’ to ‘around £25 million’ must have lessened that worry, you would be wrong.
‘Well, I don’t know how much Harry has in his bank account. I have never asked him. Does anybody know what their partners have in their accounts?’ she asks. ‘I certainly don’t. It has nothing to do with me.’
Clodagh (pictured), who launched an Instagram TV streaming and shared a recipe each day for 132 straight days, gained almost 185,000 followers almost instantly
She found a disused little outhouse building on the Highclere estate — handy! — and commandeered it for herself. She painted the inside with Dulux Salmon Pink, installed shelves herself, and transformed it into a small broadcast studio kitchen. ‘The whole thing cost £100, tops,’ she says today.
‘I’ll make it work,’ she told her doubting husband back then.
Starting off with her Clodagh bread, she launched an Instagram TV stream and did a recipe every day for 132 days straight — all of them filmed by supportive Harry, who proved to be a natural behind the camera; he zooms, he pans, he hangs around for the snacks. ‘I don’t pay him, but he gets to eat the food,’ she says.
She went from 30,000 Instagram followers almost instantly to more than 185,000.
Clodagh started receiving questions from viewers about Clodagh’s utensils that she opened an internet shop. Her first product was a microplane grater — she bought 40, but got orders for more than 500.
She now sells over 100 products online, including glassware and candlesticks, as well as the tablecloths she used at her wedding. ‘Am I going to be the next Nigella? Oh my god, I wish!’ she cries.
She says that when it comes to tasting food, Harry has a much better palate than hers because he ‘grew up dining at fine tables’, whereas her most vivid childhood food memory is of Irish stew, fish on Fridays, her dad’s sweet and sour pork and the time when ‘pasta hit Ireland and I tasted mac and cheese for the first time. I thought it was the greatest thing ever!’
Clodagh (pictured) was not in the slightest bit fazed about moving into Harry’s aristocratic world or meeting his family
Yet she was not in the slightest bit fazed about moving into Harry’s aristocratic world or meeting his family.
‘It never bothered me. It doesn’t matter to me. It doesn’t matter to me where somebody is from, it is what they are like as a human being that counts,’ she says.
It’s not as if she is climbing into a gown and heading over to Downton Abbey every evening for a white-glove dinner with the real‑life Earl and Countess.
‘We’re not there a lot,’ she says of Highclere. ‘It’s a public space really, mostly used for shooting and filming.’
In fact, the champion chef says that it is her husband’s life that has changed more than hers.
‘Before he was in a horsey set. He is now in my group, who are all creative and artistic. They just love him, of course.
‘You know, I never thought that I would be with somebody for ever, but Harry makes my life feel very safe and that is a wonderful feeling.’
She already has one of the pies that she made tonight in her bag. ‘Who would have thought that one day I would have a husband and that I would be taking him home a pie to eat?’ she laughs. ‘I can hardly believe it myself.’
Then she puts on her herringbone jacket, adjusts her £15 handbag bought from a vintage stall and walks off on her gorgeous Chanel heels into her fabulous new life. She’s Clodagh McKenna, she’s not a Cinderella. Did you get it?
In Minutes, by Clodagh McKenna, Published by Kyle Books, £20. Photography by Dora Kazmierak.