'We've got such a wonderful, balanced, supportive relationship'

Happily engaged Jodie Kidd chats to OK! about her dream fiancé, busy family life and juggling her businesses

- NIKKI ONAFUYE

It may be nearly three years since Jodie Kidd got engaged, but she has yet to set a date for her dream wedding.

The remarkably fresh-faced 46-year-old model, entrepreneur, Maserati racing driver and former equestrian showjumper, said yes to her long-term partner Joseph Bates during a romantic trip to Paris in 2021, having met four years previously.

But, while she is clearly still loved-up with her fiancé, they’re yet to walk down the aisle. “Oh my God, it is going very slowly,” she giggles. “Very slowly! Nothing is happening in the immediate future and not because I don’t want it to, but I am just so busy. I think it would be too much trying to arrange a wedding right now. Hopefully, next year.”

Jodie, who is now based in picturesque West Sussex where she grew up, met her ex-royal marine boyfriend in 2017. They’ve been inseparable since, and lockdown in particular drew the couple even closer.

The mum-of-one joined Joseph, a special forces soldier, on a disaster relief mission to Dominica following the devastation left by Hurricane Ima seven years ago and there, she says, the pair’s connection deepened.

“We’ve got just such a wonderful, balanced, supportive relationship,” she tells us. “Those are the best ones. We always make time for date nights. We have a little date routine where we go to the cinema together. We’ve got a wonderful Everyman Cinema just down the road. We have to run as a team, and we do that beautifully.”

The couple’s home life seems equally idyllic, with the pair cooking from scratch for themselves and Indio, Jodie’s 13-year-old son from a previous relationship.