Sarah Beeny is heading back into the dating game. Not to find a new man - the property mogul and TV presenter is perfectly happy with husband Graham Swift after over 30 years together.
But the serial entrepreneur revealed on this week's Second Act podcast that she is planning to launch a reboot of her former company My Single Friend which many midlifers will remember as one of the first dating sites to find love on. Instead of swiping left or right, you needed a friend to describe your best qualities - and now she has come up with another twist that she hopes will have the over 40s checking out.
“I meet a lot of people who've met on it,” the mother-of-four to Billy, Charlie, Rafferty and Laurie says. “This is more exciting. This is absolutely going to change the way that people online date. It's the first video only app and your friend will ask you a question and you respond to the question in video form. Because the truth is, in real life, if you saw someone in the pub talking to their friend, you would know within 30 seconds whether there's a vibe or not... So why not do the 30 seconds on an app and not waste your time?"
Despite all her career success with the dating site, developing property and TV presenting, Sarah, who announced she will be fronting her latest new Channel 4 show I Bought It At Auction earlier this month, says she still needs to work on her self-esteem.
“I had lots of businesses,” says Sarah. “When I was young I had a property development company and a property investment company, and then I was on telly about ten years later and the dating website.
“My husband does often talk to me about this, and he gets cross with me because I'm endlessly, slightly disappointed in myself and I was so successful."
“The greatest skill I think I have is what I call bounce back, which is to make a terrible idiot of yourself and to just dust yourself down and move on.”
Sarah also spoke to Ateh about how her breast cancer diagnosis affected her life. "I that my preconceived fears were out of date," she says. "Actually my obsessive fear of cancer was not necessary."
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