The television presenter and architect has been divorced twice but has found love again with widowed opera singer Florence Hvorostovsky.
It is thought the pair live in Notting Hill after the Cotswold home he shared with his second wife Katie Morgan-Jones was put on the market for £1million following their split in February 2022.
But they spend plenty of time in and around Sunderland where the Amazing Spaces star was raised and still has plenty of friends and family, much to the delight of his new partner.
“My girlfriend is kind of Swiss-Italian, she was brought up in Geneva,” Clarke told the Full Chat podcast.
“She didn’t really know that much outside of London to be honest with you. It was interesting taking her to Liverpool for the first time because she genuinely thought she was in a different country, I was having to translate. When I took her to the north-east it was hilarious. But genuinely she loves it.
“She’s like: ‘The people are so kind, they’re so friendly’. And they are, they’re just a lovely bunch of people. They love their sport, they’re sport mad, but they’re football crazy.”
The 50-year-old was on the motorcycling show to discuss his love of all things two wheels but discussed a wide range of other topics, including working on the TV.
With co-host David Prutton being a football-turned-presenter and the face of Sky Sports’ Championship coverage, chat naturally turned to Clarke’s beloved Mackems who currently sit in the play-off places.
“We’re flying. I’m pretty shocked to be honest, I think most Sunderland fans are,” he added during the episode.
“We had four years in League One which was miserable after being in the Premiership, then the Championship and then straight down to League One and then four years there. Genuinely, I’m happy just being back in the Championship and I’m not just saying that, I really am. Championship football is brilliant.
“If we do go up to the Premier League this season I’ll be absolutely over the moon. I’ve been a Sunderland fan since I was a kid and I shouldn’t say this because all of my mates will kill me back in Sunderland. But I’m half expecting us to lose every game from Christmas to May because that’s what we’re like. We go from one extreme to the other.”
