By: Chioma Madonna Ndukwu
BBC Radio Legend David Hamilton Opens Up on Affair During First Union
Veteran BBC broadcaster David “Diddy” Hamilton has opened up about an affair he had during his first marriage — a revelation that has sparked both surprise and nostalgia among fans of the golden age of British radio.
Hamilton, now 87, told Best magazine that his relationship with a sex worker in the 1970s began while he was still married to his first wife, Sheila Moore, and that fatherhood had quietly strained their bond.
“I was happily married — until I fell in love with someone else,” he said. “If anything spoils a marriage, it’s children. Suddenly, the man takes a back seat, and then he meets someone young, free, and single, and thinks, ‘Crikey, I could go back to that happy state I was in before.’”
Hamilton recalled meeting the woman at London’s Liverpool Street Station, describing an instant attraction. “She was sitting on her suitcase wearing a borrowed fur coat. I just looked at her and thought, ‘Wow.’”
His wife eventually discovered the affair. “I talked about her so much,” he admitted. “I left my wife and children, and we lived together for four years.”
Despite the personal turmoil, Hamilton’s broadcasting career soared. Joining BBC Radio 1 in the early 1970s, he became one of Britain’s most familiar radio voices alongside Tony Blackburn and Noel Edmonds, hosting popular shows and appearing on Top of the Pops.
After his first marriage ended, Hamilton later found stability with Dreena, an aerobics instructor he met on a blind date. The two married in 1993 and remain together.
“There was quite a stir when we got together,” Dreena once told The Mail. “Friends warned me, ‘You can’t marry him — he’s a womaniser.’ But we’ve been together 40 years now, married for 30, and there are no regrets.”
Hamilton described Dreena as “the wind beneath my wings,” saying their relationship endures because “she doesn’t take any nonsense from me.”
David Hamilton, affectionately nicknamed “Diddy,” is one of Britain’s most enduring radio personalities. Beginning his career in the 1950s, he rose to national fame at the BBC, where his easy charm and professionalism made him a household name.
Over his six-decade career, Hamilton has hosted on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, and commercial stations across the UK, cementing his reputation as a defining voice of post-war British broadcasting.
Even in retirement, he continues to appear at media events and interviews — often mixing nostalgia with candour, as his latest confessions show.
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