The Repair Shop’s Suzie and Steve Fletcher Reveal ‘Barbaric’ Childhood Struggles in Heartbreaking Confession!

They’re known for their calm, kind-hearted presence on The Repair Shop, but behind the scenes, siblings Suzie and Steve Fletcher have opened up about a much more difficult family reality. While the pair have spoken fondly about growing up in a “tight family” in their charming but “ramshackle old house” in Oxfordshire, life wasn’t always as idyllic as it looked on the surface.

In a recent podcast with Catherine Carr, Steve was asked whether their upbringing had been “overwhelmingly happy.” His honest answer revealed the reality many families quietly endure. “We did have our problems, like most families do. But we got through them and it didn’t really have a huge impact on us,” he said, reported Hello! Magazine.

Steve then shared that their mum had suffered badly from postnatal depression, which led to a nervous breakdown for their father. “So, we went through a bit of a rocky period,” he admitted. “We spent a lot of time with our grandparents and people coming and babysitting.” It was a difficult chapter that left lasting impressions, even if it wasn’t fully understood at the time.

Suzie, who is just as open-hearted and thoughtful off-screen as she is in the barn, reflected on how tough it must have been for their mum, especially with the lack of support and understanding back then. “And actually, for mum, I feel incredibly sorry because of course back then they didn’t really appreciate how devastating it was and the treatment that they offered her was barbaric,” she said.

Her voice was full of empathy as she spoke about how much their parents still managed to give, despite what was going on behind closed doors. “I just look back at the whole thing and just feel even more appreciative of what they were able to do for us considering what was going on behind the scenes because of course families didn’t share,” she explained. “It’s no longer a taboo subject, but back then it very much was.”

The two have gone on to live very different personal lives. Steve has a big family of his own and is a dad to five children – Fred, Amelia, Milly, Nicole and another daughter whose name hasn’t been publicly shared. He credits his long-term partner Mel for giving him the nudge to reply to an email from The Repair Shop producers back in 2016 – a message he almost deleted.

Suzie’s journey took her to America, where she built a life with her husband Rob in Colorado, living what she described as a “ranching life.” But her time there wasn’t without pain. Suzie bravely shared that their relationship became abusive. “I honestly thought I was going to die,” she told the Mail on Sunday. “He was choking me and could easily have killed me… Now I knew what my husband was capable of.”

It’s a powerful reminder that even the gentlest souls on our screens often carry the heaviest stories — and why their bond, both with each other and the people they help on the show, feels so genuine.