Bargain Hunt star Roo Irvine’s tragic family loss and the major impact it had on her career

Roo Irvine has made her name as an antiques expert on some of the BBC’s most-loved daytime shows, including Antiques Road Trip and Bargain Hunt. But did you know that it was a devastating family loss that shaped her career in antiques? 

The TV presenter, who runs the antiques shop Kilcreggan Antiques in Scotland alongside her husband Mark, previously revealed on an episode of the podcast, Things I Forgot Were Good For Me, how the sudden loss of both her father and her father-in-law prompted the couple to make a big change to their everyday lives.

Explaining how the business venture was formed, Roo, whose full name is Arusha, said in 2022: “Up until about eight years ago, we owned a call centre on the Isle of Man, we were travelling around, we were in marketing sales and we were very much in the rat race.

“And about eight years ago, both of our fathers passed away within three weeks of each other. Completely unexpected on my part, the worst day of my life.”

© @rooirvine/Instagram

The expert continued: “And we recently became addicted to auctions, and we furnished our big Victorian house from them and we had so much surplus stuff. And my hubby said, ‘Well listen, why don’t we start selling some of these on eBay online?’

“We only discovered antiques because we discovered auctions and wanted to furnish a house and that’s the first real contact I had with beautiful antiques that were one 200 to 300 years old.”

© BBC

Expanding on the tragedy on her website, Roo opened up about her devastation. “Kilcreggan Antiques came about quite by (bad) luck when suddenly, and unexpectedly, in 2013 my wonderful Dad passed away. I was heartbroken and devastated,” she wrote. 

“Then just three weeks later my husband Mark also lost his father to a long battle with cancer. We walked away from our senior corporate jobs and focused on taking care of our widowed mothers.”

After the couple’s shop was visited by the BBC in 2015, it wasn’t long before the producers of Antiques Road Trip invited her onto the show. “It is one of those stories where from the darkest day of your life, a whole new adventure starts and it goes to prove what that day has in store for you,” she said on the podcast, adding: “Just when you think you’re heading down a path, it will take you down a different one.”

Opening up about how she came to tar on the show, Roo previously told the BBC: “After 12 months of meetings, shadowing, screen tests and lots of studying, I was told I was ‘in’.”