Bill Bailey looks like he's living his best life on his new show on Channel 4.
The popular comic, 58, has gone Down Under for his Australian Adventure series in which he tours the western part of the country, ticking a number of things off his bucket list.
However, life hasn't always been so sweet for the stand-up star, who lost his dear friend, Sean Lock, to cancer in 2021 as well as suffering a health scare of his own.
So, as we look forward to another episode of his sun-kissed series - in which he swam with breathtakingly beautiful whale sharks last week - here's a closer look at Bill's life, including the adorable way he wooed his wife...
Married on a 'whim' to beloved wife Kristin
Bill, real name Mark Robert Bailey, met Kristin at a comedy gig in 1987. At the time, the star's future wife managed a bar in Edinburgh and Bill said he was immediately drawn to her "wild spirit".
"She had a very distinctive style," the comic told told the Scotsman in 2015. "She had this long brocade coat, and I realised she was a free spirit and did her own thing. We ended up chatting away, and all went to a party, and she put me up on her sofa."
To ensure Kristin was 100% certain about his affection for her, Bill wrote to his bride-to-be every day for a year. They tied the knot ten years later in 1998 in Indonesia with Bill telling The Independent in 2009: "We were travelling around Asia and sailed into a place called Banda, with a beautiful lagoon, and a smoking volcano on one side and a Dutch colonial fort, an old church and remains of a little town on the other." He added: "We decided to get married there and then."
The couple went on to welcome their son, Dax, who is now 17, and live in Hammersmith, West London.
Grief over pal's death
Bill was one of the first stars to confirm fellow comedian Sean Lock's death after the stand-up star tragically lost his battle with cancer in 2021.
Bill was bereft after the loss of his "old friend", who he appeared on 8 Out Of 10 cats with, and took to Instagram this year, reflecting on Sean's passing once again. Sharing a picture of his friend, he wrote: “Today will be one year since we lost the brilliant comedian and my dear friend Sean Lock. It’s hard to believe sometimes that he’s not here. Miss you old friend."
However, Bill was determined to continue Sean's legacy and completed a 100 mile walk from Cornwall to Devon with the star's family and friends to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.
Speaking at the trek in August, Bill told Good Morning Britain's Richard Madeley and Charlotte Hawkins: "I miss him all the time, everyday. Grief is hard to pin down, it's not something that's an exact science, you never know how it's going to affect you and it can sometimes just ambush you."
In November, the comedian confessed he still goes to text Sean, in a heartbreaking admission he made at bereavement charity Winston's Wish event. Reflecting on his grief, Bill said: "My friend Sean Lock died a few years ago. The nature of grief means that there are those moments that just they keep happening. Those triggers - you never know when they're going to arrive, and you know never know from what source they'll come or what the catalyst will be.
"They can sometimes just ambush. It's happened to me on a few occasions with Sean and it can be anything. Sometimes, I see something and think 'Oh I should tell Sean' and I go to text him. I see something funny and think that he’d like that. There’s a location, a piece of music, even a taste and it takes me back."
Health scare
Following the loss of his friend, Sean, Bill, who won Strictly Come Dancing, in 2020, opened up on the health scare which changed his life. Once while performing in Australia, he felt a full-blown asthma attack coming on and had to run off stage.
Speaking to The Mirror, Bill, who is now a supporter for the charity Asthma + Lung UK, said: “It was a pretty mortifying moment, but I chose to view it more as a positive wake-up call."
The comedian's experience left him shaken, but his increased vigilance has ensured he has regular medication reviews. After the scare in Australia, Bill was prescribed a combination steroid inhaler to prevent inflammation of the airways and relieve symptoms, and began using three inhalers to ensure he always has one close to hand.
“Each time I went on stage, I literally had an inhaler perched next to the microphone, one by my guitar and another on the piano,” he told us. “I was so scared of not being able to breathe again.”
Bill has been hospitalised several times with his asthma and had to be put on a nebuliser, which turns asthma medication into a fine mist to be inhaled deeply into the lungs. And while he wants to be on top of his condition, he accepts some triggers are beyond his control. “The cold will always be a trigger for my asthma,” he said. “I can’t do much about the air we breathe either.”
Speaking about the benefits of being the sun, he concluded: "When I’m touring on the coast or abroad, it’s as if my lungs expand. I can breathe so freely, and the air feels so much cleaner. I am genuinely amazed by the number of people who are now losing their lives because of poor air quality."
*Bill Bailey's Australian Adventure in on Channel 4 on Sunday at 9pm
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