Clare Balding Parents: Meet Ian Balding and Emma Hastings-Bass

Prominent broadcaster Clare Balding was born to her parents Emma Hastings-Bass and Ian Balding.

Emma Hastings-Bass

Balding ‘s mother, Emma, is a British horse-trainer and has links to both the University of Derby and the Earls of Derby.

Ian Balding

Balding’s father, Ian Balding, is a retired British horse-trainer, born on November 7, 1938.

He is the son of the polo player and racehorse trainer Gerald Matthews Balding and the younger brother of trainer Toby Balding.

Ian attended Marlborough College and and later, Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he studied Rural Estate Management.

He began horse-training in 1964 and has trained the Queen’s horses over the years.

Who Is Clare Balding?

Clare Balding is a broadcast journalist and author, famous for presenting BBC Sport, Channel 4 and BT Sport and previously, Good Morning Sunday on BBC Radio 2.

Born on January 29, 1971, in England, Balding graduated from Newnham College, Cambridge, where she studied English, and was President of the Cambridge Union Society.

Balding has “reported from seven Olympic Games, for BBC Radio in Atlanta and for BBC Television in Sydney, Athens, Beijing, London, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.”

She has also presented “five Paralympic Games, the Winter Olympics from Salt Lake City, Turin, Vancouver, Sochi Pyeongchang and Beijing as well as the Commonwealth Games from Melbourne, Delhi, Glasgow, and Gold Coast.”

Balding presented Grandstand from a Rugby League Challenge Cup semi-final, and later went on to serve as the 30th president of the Rugby Football League.

Balding hosts the Lord Mayor’s Show and other BBC shows like Trooping the Colour, New Year’s Eve and lead commentary for the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, and several others.

Balding now hosts her own sports chat show tagged The Clare Balding Show, on BT Sport and BBC Two, where she has interviewed the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Tom Daley, Mike Tyson, Martina Navratilova, Frankie Dettori, Judy Murray and Ronnie O’Sullivan.