Lee Mack, the beloved host of The 1% Club and star of long-running sitcom Not Going Out, has been a fixture on British television for more than two decades. Yet despite his regular presence on screens, very little is known about his private life — particularly his rarely-seen wife, Tara McKillop. The couple share three children and live quietly in Surrey, far from the spotlight that accompanies Lee’s TV career. As The 1% Club returns tonight (November 15), here’s a deeper look into their long-standing relationship.

A love story that began at university

Lee and Tara’s romance began long before fame entered the picture. The pair met while studying at Brunel University in 1996 and quickly formed a close bond. Their relationship continued to flourish, and after nearly a decade together, they married in 2005 in a private ceremony attended by close friends and family.
Both have maintained a preference for privacy, something Lee has often joked about in interviews — especially when discussing how mismatched others sometimes view them.

During an episode of Would I Lie To You?, comedian Roisin Conaty teased Lee about having “punched above his weight,” a sentiment Lee admitted he’d heard before. He once joked that Roisin’s own sister struggled to believe Tara had chosen him before he was famous (source: BBC).

Parenting later in life — and a few regrets

Lee and Tara are parents to three children: Arlo, Louie and Millie. Lee became a father at 36, something he reflected on during a 2015 interview with The Big Issue (source: The Big Issue).
“I waited fairly late to have kids,” he confessed. “I’m 46 and my eldest is 10. Nowadays, 36 isn’t massively late, but I’d probably have kids earlier because it has been so great.”

He added with humour that parenting younger children in his mid-forties comes with challenges: “I now have a three-year-old — and I have more time, but less energy.”

This candid honesty about fatherhood is characteristic of Lee, who frequently integrates family life into his comedy — sometimes to Tara’s dismay.

‘Friction’ at home over Not Going Out scripts

In 2017, Lee revealed on Dermot O’Leary’s The Nightly Show that Tara sometimes raises an eyebrow over scenes in Not Going Out.
He explained that the sitcom’s writing team uses a unique rule: everything that appears in the show must have happened in real life to someone in the writers’ room.
“The number one rule is it has to have happened,” Lee told Dermot. “The problem is, it can cause friction at home when you’re doing a scene involving an act in bed.”

He joked that watching such episodes with Tara can be awkward: “She’s sitting there saying: ‘I cannot believe you’re talking about this on screen.’”

Journalists have noted that this honesty is part of the charm of Lee’s sitcom work, blending real-life awkwardness with observational humour (source: The Guardian).

Lee’s son makes a cameo on Not Going Out

Lee and Tara’s eldest son, Arlo — born in 2004 — made a brief appearance in Not Going Out during the 2013 Christmas special. Despite the cameo, Lee revealed that his children aren’t terribly impressed by his career.

“They’re really not bothered whether it’s on or not,” he told Radio Times in 2017 (source: Radio Times). He added that it’s only recently his eldest has begun watching the show, and even then, “it’s not his favourite — and why would it be?”

A quirky family home in Surrey

The family live in East Molesey, Surrey, an affluent village where homes average around £900,000. Lee — whose real name is Lee Gordon McKillop — has described their home as both practical and playfully eccentric.
He invited The Irish Times into the property for an interview, and the reporter revealed details of its eye-catching interior.

The journalist wrote:
“We’re sitting in the comfortable room in his Surrey home, where he starts writing at his desk at 7:30am each morning. Nearby is a pinball machine, a pool table set up for a game, and a full-sized Dalek — he once appeared in Doctor Who — whose weaponry is pointing at us” (source: The Irish Times).

Lee reportedly spends mornings writing before emerging to tend his garden or tinker with household projects — a far quieter existence than one might expect from a comedian regularly on primetime television.

A marriage built on privacy and longevity

While many comedians draw heavily on their family life for comedic inspiration, Lee continues to keep Tara and the children out of the public eye. Friends and colleagues say the couple value normality and stability, something that is increasingly rare in showbusiness (source: Metro UK).

After nearly 30 years together, Lee and Tara remain a grounded pair whose life away from the cameras stands in contrast to Lee’s high-energy on-screen persona.