Elizabeth Rizzini is not currently married. The BBC weather presenter divorced her Italian ex-husband around 2016 and has been in a relationship with BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner since 2019. They have not wed.
The confusion around her marital status is understandable. She kept her ex-husband’s Italian surname professionally, speaks rarely about her private life, and has been seen publicly with Gardner at Wimbledon, media events and in a BBC documentary in ways that read, to many viewers, as the life of a married couple. They are not.
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Who Is Elizabeth Rizzini?
Born on 19 November 1975, Elizabeth Rizzini joined the BBC in September 2011 and has been one of the most recognisable faces in British weather broadcasting since. She is 50 years old.
She presents across BBC Breakfast, the Six and Ten O’Clock News, BBC Radio 4’s PM, BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast, BBC World, and regional output for BBC London, BBC South East and Look East. She also broadcasts from Wimbledon each year and has presented for The Sky at Night, where her interest in space weather has long found a natural fit.
Her background is worth knowing. She studied and lived in both France and Spain, spending several years based in Madrid before returning to the UK to complete a Master’s degree in Environmental Journalism and Climate Change at the University of Westminster, which she passed with Merit. She then trained as a meteorologist with the Met Office. She speaks fluent Spanish and Italian.
Elizabeth Rizzini’s First Marriage — and the Divorce
Rizzini was previously married to an Italian national whose identity she has never publicly disclosed. He has remained entirely out of the public eye throughout her BBC career, and she has never addressed the reasons behind the split.
The marriage ended in divorce around 2016. The couple have two daughters together, with the younger born in 2014. Rizzini has raised them in South London, keeping their lives well away from media attention.
One specific detail worth knowing: Rizzini is not her maiden name. It is her former husband’s Italian surname, which she chose to keep professionally after the divorce. That is a large part of why the question of whether she is still married keeps surfacing — many assume a woman using an Italian surname must still have an Italian husband.
She does not.
Frank Gardner: Elizabeth Rizzini’s Partner
Frank Gardner OBE is the BBC’s Security Correspondent. His full name is Francis Rolleston Gardner OBE TD VR FRGS. He was born on 31 July 1961, making him 14 years older than Rizzini.
Gardner studied Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, worked for nine years as an investment banker in the Middle East and London, and joined the BBC in 1995. He became the corporation’s first full-time Gulf correspondent in 1997 and was appointed BBC Middle East correspondent in 1999, running the Cairo bureau.
After the September 11 attacks, he specialised entirely in terrorism and security coverage — a role he still holds today.
On 6 June 2004, while reporting from the Al-Suwaidi district of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Gardner was shot six times by Al-Qaeda gunmen. His cameraman, Simon Cumbers, was killed in the same attack. Gardner survived, but the bullets damaged his spinal nerves and left him partially paralysed in the legs. He has used a wheelchair ever since.
He returned to the BBC in mid-2005. In June 2005, he was awarded the OBE for services to journalism, receiving it personally from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. His memoir Blood and Sand reached number three on the Sunday Times Bestseller List. In 2025, the University of St Andrews awarded him an honorary degree.
Before Rizzini, Gardner was married to Amanda Jane Pearson from 1997 to 2019. They separated in 2018, with the divorce finalised in 2019. They have two daughters together: Sasha and Melissa.
How Elizabeth Rizzini and Frank Gardner Met
The two met in a lift at BBC offices. Their relationship became public knowledge in 2019 when onlookers spotted them together at a pub in Putney, South London. One person who witnessed the evening described them as “literally all over each other,” adding they appeared completely unbothered about who was watching.
Gardner spoke about it himself in an interview with the Mail on Sunday in October 2020:
“I’m incredibly fortunate to have met a lovely person, the BBC weather presenter Elizabeth Rizzini. We first met in the lift at work. I’d always admired how she was on camera and the way she presents the weather in such an engaging way. She is wonderful company; it’s almost like having a first girlfriend. Even after all my Middle Eastern travels, a simple holiday in Greece with her recently seemed refreshingly adventurous.”
On the age gap between them, Gardner has been relaxed. He told the Radio Times: “She loves ribbing me about the fact I’m older than her. That is a great source of amusement for her.”
Being Frank — When Their Relationship Went on Camera
On 5 November 2020, BBC Two broadcast Being Frank: The Frank Gardner Story, a 60-minute documentary produced by Curious Films. Gardner fronted the film himself, reflecting candidly on disability and speaking with others living through life-changing injuries.
Rizzini appeared in it briefly. She told viewers there is “a big difference between Frank that you see on screen and Frank that you know in real life” and described him as a “devastatingly handsome” man who only appeared to be a “big old stuffed shirt” on television. Gardner later said the comment became something of an embarrassment for her once it was out in the world.
It was the first time either of them had spoken about the relationship in a broadcast setting.
Is Elizabeth Rizzini Married to Frank Gardner?
No. As of May 2026, Elizabeth Rizzini and Frank Gardner are not married. They are in a committed long-term relationship, but no engagement, no announcement and no wedding ceremony has been confirmed by either of them.
The two have been seen together publicly at Wimbledon during the 2024 and 2025 championships and at a media event in London in January 2026. Their closeness, their shared BBC professional world and Gardner’s openness about the relationship in interviews lead many to assume a marriage took place at some point. It did not.
Away from the Weather Map
There is more to Elizabeth Rizzini’s life than daily forecasts.
- In 2016, she ran the London Marathon for Médecins Sans Frontières
- She is an ambassador for the Cats Protection League and served as a judge at the National Cat Awards 2022, selected by the charity itself
- In January 2025, she appeared on Celebrity Mastermind (BBC Two, Series 23, Episode 12), hosted by Clive Myrie, with Celine Dion as her specialist subject. She won. Her prize money went entirely to Hospice in the Weald, the charity that cared for her late cousin Jo before she died in 2021. Rizzini said of her: “Jo was full of life and joy, always there for big moments in my life.”
- She is a regular host and moderator at conferences and award ceremonies, including events for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award programme
- There is a gritter lorry in Ipswich named after her: the Lizzie Grittzini
The Answer, Plainly
Elizabeth Rizzini has not been married since her divorce from her Italian ex-husband around 2016. She has been with Frank Gardner since 2019. Both have spoken about the relationship openly. Neither has indicated a wedding is coming.
For anyone who arrived here wondering whether Frank Gardner is Elizabeth Rizzini’s husband — he is not. He is her partner. From everything both of them have said on record, that is exactly how they would put it too.
