Paula Radcliffe enjoyed a remarkably successful running career (Image: Getty)
Paula Radcliffe claimed victory at three London Marathons throughout her remarkable career as the iconic annual race prepares to take place on Sunday. The 52-year-old became a nationally recognised figure through her extraordinary accomplishments, securing marathon, half-marathon and cross-country world titles.
Beyond her victories in London, Radcliffe also triumphed at three New York Marathons and the 2002 Chicago Marathon. Her time of two hours, 15 minutes, and 25 seconds at the 2003 London Marathon stood as a mixed field women’s world record for 16 years. The four-time Olympian announced her withdrawal from competitive racing in 2015 but returned to compete in the Tokyo and Boston Marathons last year.
While she experienced extraordinary success throughout her distinguished athletics career, Radcliffe has also weathered challenging periods in her personal life. Here, we take a closer look at the Team GB icon’s life away from the sport.
The three-time London Marathon winner has an estimated net worth of around £6million. The former world champion received considerable sums in prize money and has further bolstered her income through a number of investments.
Radcliffe channelled a portion of her earnings into building a property portfolio. In an interview with The Telegraph, Radcliffe previously spoke openly about her collection of homes.
“In Monaco we rent, but we kept our four-bedroom house in Loughborough and let it,” Radcliffe explained. “I also own a student house I bought in 1996 and I let that.
“I’m lucky because I don’t have a mortgage on either property. So, although they will undoubtedly have fallen in value, at least they are earning something for me.
“We can’t afford to buy in Monaco – everything here is very expensive. Two-bedroom apartments cost anything from £1m up to £6m or £7m for a really good location with views. I’m certainly not in that bracket.”
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Radcliffe won the London Marathon in 2002, 2003 and 2005 (Image: Getty Images)
Radcliffe chose to leave Britain shortly after sustaining a leg injury at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. She experienced stomach problems as a result of her medication and failed to finish the marathon while also withdrawing from the 10,000m event, in which she had been amongst the leading contenders for gold.
In the wake of those events, Radcliffe and her husband, Gary Lough, a former middle-distance runner, opted to relocate to Monaco. Partly driven by a desire to escape the intense scrutiny she faced in Britain, Radcliffe also wished to train overseas and for her future children to grow up bilingual.
“I found it too distressing to stay in England after what happened in Athens,” she admitted to The Telegraph. “I felt like I’d let the country down. I decided I didn’t want to live somewhere where I was recognised all the time.”
Radcliffe met her husband while they were both studying at Loughborough University and got married in 2001. The couple have two children together, with their daughter Isla being born in 2007 and their son Raphael arriving in 2010.
The family was dealt a devastating blow, however, when Isla was diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer at just 13 years old. Radcliffe described how rapidly events unfolded after her daughter began suffering from stomach pains.
“On the Tuesday she visited the doctor, we had a scan on the Wednesday and one week later we were already in the hospital starting the first round of chemo,” Radcliffe told the Radio Times.
“It’s the hardest thing a parent can go through. You can support them and be with them the whole way through, but you can’t do that chemo for them. It’s horrible to watch your child suffering through that, but at the same time we believed that if it felt bad, it was killing the cancer.”
Isla was subsequently given the all-clear and, last year, followed in her mother’s footsteps by completing the London Marathon.