Winterwatch: Chris Packham hands over to Megan McCubbin
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Chris Packham, 61, met his girlfriend Charlotte Corney in 2007 when he visited her zoo in the Isle of Wight at her zoo. Keeping their relationship behind closed doors, it appears to be going from strength to strength with Chris providing an insight in an interview last year.
I found it really really difficult!
Chris Packham
Chris split from Jo McCubbin fourteen years ago but has remained close to his 25 year old stepdaughter Megan McCubbin.
During lockdown she even moved in with Chris in his New Forest home, while her mother worked on the frontline as a nurse.
Chris opened up in an interview last year about his blended family and his stepdaughters relationship with Charlotte who owns The Wildheart Sanctuary on the Isle of Wight.
He shared: “Megs was into animals when she was younger and when she met Charlotte, she met someone who had tigers and lions rather than owls and snakes like we did at home.
“So she went to work at the zoo and spent a lot of time with Charlotte.
“Up until that time she’d been studying drama, but being at the sanctuary made her have an epiphany”, he told OK! magazine.
Chris also recalled the first time meeting Charlotte and the impact his Asperger’s Syndrome had on him.
Speaking on The Different Minds podcast, Chris revealed: “I so liked Charlotte and I wanted to develop a relationship with her.
“But I was so intimidated by that and it was so pressurised, that I found it really really difficult to look at her despite the fact that I really liked the way she looked!”
Chris said that his Asperger’s made the whole situation that should have been very easy “intimidating and stressful”.
Chris explained that Charlotte later said to him: “I thought I’d met the weirdest person because I was with them for six months and they didn’t look at me once.”
Charlotte also previously recalled their first meeting in an interview with The Radio Times.
“He made a huge effort to come to the launch of the film so that he could meet me again. His Asperger’s means he can’t flirt, so there were none of the usual signs to pick up on.
“A few days later, we were meant to go to dinner, but instead we just talked the whole night, and we connected on every level.
“I knew that my whole world was in that person”, she concluded.
Chris initially kept the fact that he was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome hidden from Charlotte, only telling her after five years together when she asked.
She added: “As our relationship progressed, I noticed he didn’t always seem to care how I felt. His truthfulness sometimes hurt me.
“It can still make me pretty distraught, and I can still make the mistake of equating this with how much he cares. But it’s part of Asperger’s.”
Asked if he and Charlotte would ever wed, Chris said: “I would say no. It’s all about animals at the moment, we have to concentrate on them.
“Her tigers are old, my dog Scratchy is old. It’s not about us, we have to get through this period basically of aged animals.”
You can watch Chris Packham on Sunday Brunch today from 9.30am on Channel 4
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