text: Television presenter Clare Balding has married her partner of 14 years. The 44-year-old said she and Alice Arnold returned to the register office where their civil partnership ceremony was held in 2006. This time they did not have a ceremony at Chiswick House, West London, nor did they invite any guests. Balding said she and Alice Arnold (right) returned to the register office where their civil partnership ceremony was held in 2006 . Miss Balding told the Daily Telegraph: ‘They just backdate it to when you did your civil partnership, so officially now we have been married since 2006. We didn’t have a big party at all actually, nobody came apart from us.’ Miss Balding has always made clear her intentions to marry once gay marriage became legal in the UK. ‘We will convert,’ she said. ‘I don’t know when yet. It is a conversion, a piece of paper. It is not an all-singing, all-dancing event but it is terribly important. ‘The next thing is to be able to say “married” and have people, businesses, ask what your husband or wife does without assuming you are straight or gay. ‘Alice and I are very, very happy and we go to a lot of things together. We are conscious of the responsibility we have [as a high-profile gay couple] and are quite happy to embrace it.’ Former BBC newsreader Miss Arnold, 53, has written in several newspapers in support of the legalisation of gay marriage. Clare Balding on the Jonathan Ross Show with Kylie Minogue and Bear Grylls . She said: ‘That one word “married” is crucial because it defines our relationship. The way we see ourselves and the way we wish others to see us.’ Miss Balding studied English at Cambridge University before following family tradition and heading into the racing profession. She was awarded an OBE in 2013 for services to broadcasting and journalism. The couple live in West London with their Tibetan terrier, Archie.
target: The 44-year-old has tied the knot with Alice Arnold in Chiswick, London .
  The pair did not have a ceremony, nor did they invite any guests .
  Balding made clear her intentions to marry once gay marriage was legal .