Bargain Hunt star Eric Knowles's life: from son's tragic death to hobbies away from show | HELLO! (2024)

For decades, Eric Knowles has been a regular fixture in the BBC's daytime TV schedule. The ceramics expert rose to fame on Antiques Roadshow and has since appeared on many other popular programmes, such as Bargain Hunt and Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

But while Eric is a familiar face on our screens, how much do you know about his personal life? Keep reading for all we know about the TV star, including his Buckinghamshire home with his wife Anita and the tragic passing of his son, Seb.

Eric Knowles's career in antiques

Eric's career in antiques was "largely a matter of fate and circ*mstance", according to the BBC star.

After being made redundant from his engineering job in Lancashire, Eric landed a role as a porter in the ceramics department of Bonhams auction house in London in 1976. Five years later, he became head of department and was later offered a full directorship.

Eric, 71, now works as an independent valuer, lecturer, and freelance journalist.

A self-confessed history boffin, Eric inherited his love of antiques from his parents. "I was a history boffin from birth - my mates thought I was weird," he told the Wharfedale Observer in 2008. "It was seen as just one step away from catching butterflies with a net."

Opening up about his upbringing on a council estate in Lancashire, he said: "I was the kid Dennis the Menace would have bashed. I grew up in a council semi-detached house in Nelson.

"We had a William the fourth piano which no-one wanted. No-one in my family played - although my brother and I played under it and on it," he added.

Eric's TV career began on Antiques Roadshow. "When I started doing it I thought this could run for two to three years," he explained. "I never thought it would be for 27 years. It is a formula that seems to work. It is always the BBC's most popular factual programme."

Eric's home life with his wife Anita

For many years, Eric has been married to his wife, Anita, who reportedly works as the company secretary for their business, Eric Knowles Antiquarian Services Limited.

Back in 2013, Eric gave a glimpse into the couple's Buckinghamshire home. "My wife Anita and I have been here for 13 years, and the study has always been my private space," he told the Daily Mail.

Sharing a photo of a gavel taking pride of place on a cabinet in his study, Eric explained its sentimental value. "But I grew up in Lancashire, and this gavel takes me back to my childhood house," he said. "It started as a laburnum tree outside my bedroom window, and when it had to come down in 2008 my father, being a frugal northerner, had a woodturner make it into useful items like bowls and candlestick holders, and he made this gavel for me."

Eric's tragic family loss

Eric and Anita welcomed two sons, Oliver and Sebastian. Tragically, Seb passed away when he was 26 years old.

Seb, who worked at Barclays Bank in Gerrards Cross and was a well-known DJ in the High Wycombe area, died in 2015 after his car was involved in a collision with a lorry on the M40.

Mark Jones, Barclays community leader for the Gerrards Cross branch, said Seb was "a rising star" in the company. He told the Bucks Free Press at the time: "The tragic loss of Seb has left colleagues and customers at Barclays heartbroken.

"Seb was a rising star in our organisation, highly respected, and extremely well liked by everyone who worked with him, and he will be sorely missed."

Eric's hobbies away from the show

It may surprise viewers to learn that if Eric hadn't become an antiques expert, he would have pursued a career as a radio DJ.

"Had I not followed a career in antiques I might have taken two different routes one being in the big outdoors and the Forestry Commission or the indoor studio working in Radio as a DJ," he previously told the BBC.

When he's not busy filming episodes for Bargain Hunt, Eric likes to spend time working on his garden at home.

"My wife would argue that there is never such a thing as free time but I do enjoy getting stuck into our garden," said the TV star. "In truth I am more of a vegetation controller than a gardener who is always in more need of a machete than a pair of secateurs."