EX-PLAINED
Naked Attraction’s Anna Richardson flooded with support as she reveals reality of friendship with ex Sue Perkins
Anna Richardson sat down with her ex for an honest conversation about moving on after their breakup
NAKED Attraction host Anna Richardson was flooded with support from fans after she revealed the truth about her friendship with her ex, comedian Sue Perkins.
The former couple sat down to explain the state of their relationship during an episode of Anna’s podcast, It Can’t Just Be Me.
3
3
3
On January 10, Anna, 53 and Sue, 54, reunited for an episode of the Naked Attraction host's advice podcast to discuss if it’s possible to go “from lovers to friends.” The pair revealed that they have managed to retain a friendship after splitting up during the pandemic.
Teasing their podcast reunion, Anna took to X, formerly Twitter, and wrote: “SOOOOOO many people have asked me on It Can’t Just Be Me whether it’s possible to stay friends with an ex…so I thought I’d ask the ONE person would know…the magical Sue Perkins.
“So many of you have loved this ep! Enjoy,” she added.
Below, Anna posted a clip of her and Sue chatting candidly about navigating a friendship after breaking up.
READ MORE ON ANNA RICHARDSON
She said: “Sue, you and I were together for years and years but we have managed to go to actually being very, very good friends.
“How did we do it, though? How did we manage to get here because we didn’t speak…”
“Yeah, for a long time,” Sue said, finishing Anna’s sentence.
Addressing Anna’s question, the Taskmaster star continued: “You have to sort of detonate parts of the familiar in order to grow new things, different ways of being which are born out of friendship.
Most read in TV
“And also you have to forgive what’s been. Don’t do history lessons. And I think once you get that space, the history lessons stop.
“Any by history lessons, I mean, in a row you go from talking about the thing that’s upsetting you in the moment to then tracking back over all the other things in your past that have been points of inflammation.
“So I think our break and then split and then time apart and everything has meant that we no longer do history lessons. We can forgive and just go ‘it’s all okay.’”
“I think a period of having no contact was good, and then slowly, voicing the things that had been excruciatingly painful and realising that they were never going to be solved, so let them go,” she concluded.
Fans flooded both Anna and Sue with support after speaking out about their friendship.
Replying in the comments, one fan said: “Lovely to see that you’re still friends.”
Life is too short to hold sad and bad feelings,” added another.
“Love you both! Nice to see you working together!” commented a third.
One fan related their comments to their own life, saying: “I’m sure my parents would say the same. Divorced almost 40 years ago and now great friends.”
Another fan agreed that you can form strong friendships with an ex partner. “When I got married, I had 4 ex boyfriends attend. My friendship with them has outlasted the marriage,” the said.
Sue and Anna were together for around seven years before announcing their split in 2021.
The pair have continued to co-parent their Staffordshire Bull Terrier Piggy Tiggy, although they soon began dating other people following their split.
In 2022, Anna revealed that she had a new boyfriend while talking to the Mirror about love languages.
She said: “This morning - I’m dating, I’ve got a boyfriend - and already my boyfriend has said to me ‘I haven’t spent enough time with you,’ so his love language is time - he needs my time to feel loved.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
“Whereas actually, I quite like to receive texts saying [something like] ‘I’m thinking about you and I love you.’ So people need to be aware of how their partner does their love language.”
Anna revealed they met through mutual friends. “I just got really, really lucky that someone was compatible in my friendship circle,” she added.