Winterwatch is back on our screens this week, with Michaela Strachan and Chris Packham at the helm of the new series.
The 58-year-old nature presenter has been a television staple for several decades, thanks to her work on The Really Wild Show, Countryfile, Springwatch and its seasonal spin-offs, and Orangutan Diary.
Currently, she’s showcasing her skills on Dancing on Ice alongside professional partner Mark Hanretty, and is tipped as one of the favourites to win the competition.
Born and bred in Surrey, Michaela has overcome numerous hurdles in her life, including fears of never becoming a mother and a harrowing battle with cancer that has made her cherish life even more.
Wales Online reports she now resides in Cape Town, South Africa, with her loving partner Nick Chevallier and their family.
Here’s what else we know about Michaela Strachan’s life off-screen.
While many are familiar with the 58-year-old’s presenting work, not everyone knows that she once dabbled in a different off-screen endeavour. The TV star briefly pursued a music career under the stage name Michaela in the late 80s and early 90s.
During the brief stint, Michaela released two singles – H.A.P.P.Y. Radio (1989) and Take Good Care of My Heart (1990). The music hits reached number 62 and 66 in the UK Singles Chart, respectively.
After ditching singing herself, she went onto host the music show The Hitman and Her between 1988 and 1992 with Pop Idol judge Pete Waterman.
Because of her musical background, audiences of The Masked Singer believed Michaela to be the ‘mushroom’ in the 2022 edition of the show. However, it was later revealed to be Charlotte Church instead.
In 2014, a routine mammogram revealed that Michaela Strachan had breast cancer. Due to the risk of the lobular cancer spreading, her surgeons recommended a double mastectomy.
She underwent reconstructive surgery and has since advocated for the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer, emphasizing the importance of regular mammograms.
Fortunately, Michaela has overcome cancer and credits her health challenges with giving her a newfound appreciation for life.
Opening up to Woman & Home magazine in 2022, Michaela explained: “Going through breast cancer also strengthened me. It has given me more resilience and made me appreciate my life more because I realise that something could have ended it early and that’s a shock.”
She added: “Often, I forget I’ve had breast cancer. I had a double mastectomy and have slightly funny-looking boobs but, other than that, that’s it. I was incredibly lucky.”
Her battle with cancer was made more sobering when she lost family members and close friends to cancer in 2024.
Discussing her experience on the On The Marie Curie Couch podcast, the 58-year-old presenter described 2024 as “really sad” and said: “There was a lot of loss in my close circle of family and friends, starting off at the beginning of the year with the passing of my sister-in-law who died of cancer… she suffered for three years and eventually passed in January.”
The presenter went on to explain how her partner Nick Chevallier’s previous wife passed away due to cancer, which made his sister’s passing particularly poignant. Around the same time, Nick’s best friend died of a heart attack.
Michaela added her friend Lucy had been diagnosed with a similar kind of cancer, but she also passed away in 2024.
Back in 1999, Michaela became a household name after she joined BBC One’s Countryfile as a reporter and went on to host it until 2009.
But Michaela Strachan’s strong stance as a vegetarian allegedly led her to decline reporting on the meat industry in Countryfile and she appeared as a regular until the show revamped in April 2009.
During a 2010 employment tribunal investigating the circumstances surrounding her departure from Countryfile, along with co-star Miriam O’Reilly, former boss Andrew Thorman, the BBC’s head of rural affairs. claimed: “Michaela was a vegetarian and wasn’t happy to do hard-core stories in meat production, such as stories on abattoirs.”
The wildlife presenter has been a vegetarian since turning 18 and has her own organic vegetable garden, carbon offsetting through tree planting, and investment in solar panels for green energy.
But her job jetting between the UK and South Africa has taken a toll, with her air miles singled out by execs as she became harder to pin down for projects. Additionally, Thorman cited that she and Miriam lacked the high profile required for the show’s transition to a primetime evening slot in April 2009.
The BBC faced accusations of ageism, with Miriam stating: “All I know is that after 25 years at the BBC my work dried up within months with no good explanation.
“Two senior producers had told me that it was mysterious and suspicious people were telling me that it was not normal.”
Michaela was previously married to filmmaker Duncan Chard, who has directed nature series such as Secrets of Wild India (2012) and Alaska: A Year in the Wild (2017). The couple tied the knot in 1996, but decided to call it quits in 2001 due to her wish to have children, something Duncan was unhappy with.
Her heart since found its match with Nick Chevallier, a director-cameraman she met in 2003, sharing Ollie, their 19 year old son. Strachan also plays stepmum to Nick’s trio of kids from an earlier marriagenamely, Jade, now 37 and twin brothers Sam and Tom aged 35.
Nick and Michaela are happily settled in Hout Bay, Cape Town, close to their children.
In a candid chat with the Mirror back in 2018, Michaela spilled the beans on their joyous life together, revealing: “I think the secret is not to get married. I shouldn’t say that. That could be taken well out of context. But maybe the secret is we’re apart a lot.”
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.