Sue Barker is a television presenter and former professional tennis player who was ranked as high as the World Number 3 tennis player during her tennis career. She has also won fifteen WTA Tour singles titles, including one Grand Slam singles title at the 1976 French Open.

Presently, Barker is one of the leading sports presenters for the BBC network specializing in Tennis. She covers Wimbledon and is a presenter for the show A Question of Sport.

During her overall working career, the 65-year-old presenter also made the headlines for her multiple dating affairs with some of the biggest names in the world of sports. However, she is now a married woman and is relishing a long-lived married life with her husband.

Barker's Married Life

The former English tennis player has been married to Lance Tankard since 1988. Her husband, Tankard, is a landscape gardener and former policeman.

Over the years, the couple has managed their married life secretly, residing in the Cotswolds village of Stanton. The couple is fond of pets, especially dogs.

But they haven't confirmed having any children to date.

"We spend hours in the garden together. We've got 26 acres, lovely views, three dogs and all sorts of wildlife. I'm settled, I'd never have thought it," Barker told British journalist Nina Myskow in June 1999.

The couple first met in the late 1980s when Barker was working as a tennis coach in Portugal, and Tankard was there on a tennis holiday.

Barker and her now-husband again crossed each other's paths after returning to their respective homes in England. The second time, they met at a club when both of them were having dinner.

During a conversation with British journalist Nina Myskow, Barker also explained how she met the gardener for the second time, and things changed afterward.

"But back in England, I was having a new kitchen done, and he was having a new kitchen done in his flat, and we were both eating dinner at the club," she said. "He was sitting on another table and I said: 'Oh hi, how are you?'. And the next night he was there, and I said: 'Come and join me.'"

Afterward, they became good friends, and slowly they developed feelings for each other. The two eventually decided to tie the knot, and since then, they have been living happily together.

Barker’s Relationships Before Marriage

Before her marriage with Tankard, Barker was engaged to Australian tennis player Syd Ball, but the engagement broke off in 1978.

Speaking to the New York Times in 1979, she explained that they were a bit foolish to get engaged.

"We had a long engagement, and I know now that long engagements just don't work," she added. "After we spent a long time together in team tennis, we found out we just weren't compatible."

After her split from Syd, Barker was in a brief relationship with the Australian golfer, Greg Norman. But their relationship didn't work either.

In 1982, she dated British singer Sir Cliff Richard. Barker was a household name in the UK, and Richard was the knight of the realm, making them one of the most high-profile couples at the time.

Her then-boyfriend even attended the Denmark Open tennis competition to be closer with her, and they were pictured in an intimate position at Wimbledon.

However, as it had always been the case with Barker, things did not work out with Richard, leading to their separations in 1986.

"We were closer than just friends. She's the only person with whom I've had that sort of relationship," Richard told the Evening Times newspaper in November 1988.

In 2008, describing his relationship with Barker to Telegraph UK, Richard also stated that he was seriously thinking about getting married to her.

After that, she also was briefly seen with another tennis player, Stephen Shaw. The relationship ended after Barker got married in 1988.

In October 2011, after her marriage, Barker also opened up about her one uncomfortable experience while speaking to Independent magazine. She revealed that she was once approached by a lesbian tennis player in a locker room.

She further said that the lesbian player [whom she preferred not to disclose] touched her "in a way that didn't feel right" to her.