It appears Lucy Beaumont has every reason to have a smile on her face again as she settles into her new life after the end of her marriage to fellow comic Jon Richardson.
The star is currently performing her new stand-up show to sold-out venues across the UK – with audience demand seeing its run extended to the end of the year.
But Lucy, 42, clearly hasn’t just been throwing everything into her work as she rings the changes after the split.
The Daily Mail can reveal that Lucy has been spotted publicly for the first time wearing a dazzling new engagement ring.
She made no attempt to hide the gold band featuring three sparkling diamonds when she appeared at the Big Feastival in the Cotswolds last Sunday.
Lucy – dressed in a blue and white sleeveless top, ripped jeans and wedge shoes – was spotted with the ring on her engagement finger as she walked through crowds and queued up at a taco stall at the event held on the Oxfordshire farm owned by Blur bassist Alex James.
And, if her stand-up routine is anything to go by, the mother-of-one could even be planning to start a new family.
Lucy told laughing fans that her concerns over her growing anger had led to her visiting a doctor as she believed she may be going through ‘the menopause’.
Comedian Lucy Beaumont has been spotted wearing a dazzling ring on her engagement finger sparking speculation that she may have moved on since her split from Jon Richardson
Lucy was spotted with her sparkler at the Big Feastival in the Cotswold – a year after she was spotted out with hunky sound engineer Martin Wallace (pictured)
The comedian, 42, was first spotted with Mr Wallace last October at the Lowry Theatre in Manchester where he picked Lucy up (pictured) before they sped off into the night
Lucy appearance with Mr Wallace came six months after she and her comedian husband Jon Richardson (pictured) announced they were separating after nine years together
While it is not known when Beaumont and Wallace first met – he previously worked as a sound engineer on her ex’s 2014 stand up special, Jon Richardson Live: Nidiot
But Lucy said to the woman doctor told her : ‘Oh no you are alright, you have a bit longer to go yet.’
The comedian – who has also been lined up to star in the first BBC series of The Celebrity Traitors – has not publicly spoken about her new romance but last year she was reported to be dating sound engineer Martin Wallace, 44.
The pair were first spotted out last October at the Lowry Theatre in Manchester where Wallace picked Lucy up before they sped off into the night.
Later that month they were pictured leaving the Royal Hall, Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
Wallace – who runs a recording studio which is based in an old mill in Stockport – was seen carrying Lucy’s bags and wheeling a suitcase to a car they got into together.
Wallace is thought to have known the Richardsons for some time and worked with Jon on his live ‘Nidiot’ tour back in 2014 where a show at Hammersmith Apollo was recorded for a TV special.
The experienced sound tech – who grew up in the south Manchester suburb of Didsbury and went to school with culture secretary Lisa Nandy – has worked as tour manager and technical director with a number of comics including Rob Beckett and Dara Ó Briain as well as rock bands.
It’s now been 16 months since Lucy and Jon, also 42, announced the end of their nine year marriage.
Lucy – dressed in a blue and white sleeveless top, ripped jeans and wedge shoes – was spotted (above) with the ring on her engagement finger as she walked through crowds
She made no attempt to hide the gold band featuring three sparkling diamonds (above) when she appeared at the Big Feastival in the Cotswolds last Sunday
The couple – who have an eight-year-old daughter – insisted they had ‘jointly and amicably’ decided to go their separate ways and divorce.
It later emerged Lucy had walked away with a £1.625 million pay out after Jon – who is best known as a team captain on Channel 4’s popular show 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown – bought out her shares in the £4 million business which managed their affairs.
The couple are said to have accumulated a £6 million fortune during their marriage while co-owning two properties – a £1 million house complete with swimming pool and another flat in London also worth £1 million.
Lucy is said to have moved out of the couple’s historic home they shared in the hills above the quaint market town of Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire after the split.
Lucy and Jon revealed their marriage was over in a statement in April 2024.
They said: ‘After nine years of marriage, we would like to announce that we have separated.
‘We have jointly and amicably made the difficult decision to divorce and go our separate ways.
‘As our only priority is managing this difficult transition for our daughter, we would ask that our privacy is respected at this sensitive time to protect her well-being. We will be making no further comment.’
Lucy – who grew up in Hull and worked as a cleaner and teaching assistant before hitting the big time – often gives insights into her life through her observational comedy style and has described herself as ‘an oversharer’.
But she gave little more away when asked about the split in a magazine interview last September.
She said: ‘People might think I should talk about it because we were so public and everyone knew us as a couple, but I won’t, and not because there’s any animosity.
‘We both agreed that while it might be weird for other people not hearing anything about it, we wouldn’t talk about anything to do with the marriage or each other.’
News of the split came as a shock to fans of the couple who had worked together on a number of shows and starred in their own TV comedy Meet the Richardsons.
The hit comedy, which has run for five seasons and is also co-written by Lucy, features the couple as ‘exaggerated versions of themselves’ in a ‘mocumentary’ format .
Episodes often feature celebrities as well as Lucy’s mother, playwright Gill Adams.
The couple split as the fifth season was being aired with Lucy letting slip in the final episode as part of the plot that it may be the last.
Mr Wallace (pictured with Lucy last October) is thought to have known the Richardsons for some time before he and Lucy apparently struck up a romance
Lucy has told how the former couple’s frequent squabbling in the series was all part of their act although explained that many viewers ‘didn’t seem to realise it’s not real’.
She once said of their off screen relationship: ‘I don’t henpeck – we wouldn’t have lasted this long if I was as mean to him in real life.’
Describing the comedy she added: ‘You don’t want to see a smug couple in love, in a nice house, with a stable career and a lovely little child. Who wants to see that? I wasn’t doing it if we were going to be like that.
‘We’ll show the other side where we’re just at each other constantly. It’s a more truthful portrayal. The world we’ve got around us is slightly bizarre, but I think people still feel like they recognise themselves in it, which is good.’
She added: ”We like working together and enjoy Meet The Richardsons and we really wanted to make something that people could relate to.
‘Meet The Richardsons is basically an excuse for us to channel tensions into comedy and you see that in the studio, someone might start saying something thinking they’re going to land a blow but as soon as us and the audience start laughing at them, they realise it’s all nonsense.’
Growing up in Hull, Lucy was a cleaner and teaching assistant before hitting the big time
Lucy and Jon began dating in 2013 after meeting through fellow comedian Roisin Conaty, before tying the knot in April 2015 and welcoming their daughter in September the following year.
Recalling their first meeting in her book, Drinking Custard: Diary of a Confused Mum, Lucy said they ‘hit it off’ straight away.
She explained how she had just moved to London to pursue a career in comedy when Roisin invited her to a gig at The Fighting Cocks pub in Kingston-upon-Thames.
She wrote: ‘I felt someone’s presence behind me. I nearly fainted; honestly my heart was beating like the clappers as I was sure Jon knew I fancied him.’
Speaking in an interview with The Sunday Times, Lucy joked: ‘It was quite symbolic as we have been fighting like cocks ever since.’
Two weeks after meeting at the gig, the pair went on to have their first date.
Revealing in her memoir how ‘something quite weird happened’, Lucy said: ‘Jon dropped me off in his car to the train station and we swapped phone numbers.
‘Lo and behold, via Bluetooth, on his dashboard in big LED letters flashed ‘MY WIFE’. I have never got out of a car so fast.
‘I rang my friend Jackie and she told me very calmly that he must be a psychopath and to leave London immediately and come back and live in Hull with her again.’
But the couple, who have also appeared on Channel 4’s Celebrity Gogglebox and teamed up to front campaigns to help disadvantaged youngsters, went on to form a successful partnership both on and off the TV screen.
Now it seems Lucy has found happiness again as she moves on with the next chapter of her life.
Lucy and husband Jon began dating in 2013 before tying the knot in April 2015 – and welcoming their daughter in September the following year
But Lucy and Jon announced their decision to divorce in April last year after nine years of marriage, in a move that surprised their army of fans
Meanwhile Jon shocked fans earlier this year after announcing on social media that, after taking a break from stand-up, he was retiring from the comedy circuit to take up teaching.
He highlighted a diary entry he wrote as a 14-year-old schoolboy in which he wrote: ‘Although I would love to be a stand-up comedian. I will probably end up being a teacher.’
Jon told his 200,000 followers: ‘I’ve been thinking a lot about that. I loved being a comedian. It was absolutely the right choice but I have to say it would have been nice to try the other option so that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
‘I’ve been doing some training. I’ve taken a teaching position. I will update you as and when I can.’
It later emerged that the posting was an April Fools joke and he was actually joining the cast of the BBC school drama Waterloo Road for its latest series which is set to be broadcast later this year.
Jon later joked: ‘I would say that joining Waterloo Road is a dream come true, but in truth most of my dreams about school revolve around not having done my homework or put on my uniform.
‘I wanted to be a teacher growing up so hopefully this role will put all those ambitions to bed, and I can stop telling my friends and family that I will be testing them on what I’ve been saying or telling audiences on tour that it’s their own time they’re wasting.’
