Biography and Age

Penelope Jane "Penny" Smith was born on September 21, 1958, in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire. Growing up in Rutland, Penny attended Uppingham Primary School and the Rutland High School for Girls in Oakham. As a young girl, she had an obsession with carrots. "When I was growing up, my mum grew most of our vegetables herself, but not many made it to the dinner table because I was permanently grazing in the garden. I am still absolutely obsessed with veggies. If I go around to a friend's house for dinner and they present me with a plate of pasta, I've been known to forage around for some veg to brighten things up. Whenever I go on a long car journey, I always take a bag of carrots with me to snack on, and I generally get through the lot. My friends laugh at my "travel carrots," but they always keep me going and are certainly a more nutritious alternative to coffee and cake."

Marriage, Wife, and Kids

Penny married Tony Birtley, a fellow journalist, in 1984. The marriage did not last for a long time, as it ended in divorce in 1987. Rory Bremner and Paul McKenna are Penny's only two past relationships known to the public. She has been in a relationship with the actor Vince Leigh since 2001. After her three-year marital life with Tony, she had no desire to marry another man again.

Penny and Vince have been living together for more than a decade. They met each other when Vince started a tour in a gender-bending adaptation of a Winter's Tale.