‘We had to fight to get married’

June Bernicoff, 81, shot to fame with her late husband, Leon, as husband-and-wife armchair telly experts on Gogglebox. They have two daughters, Helen, 55, and Julie, 53. June, congratulations on the book! Did you shed a few tears writing it? Leon always talked about writing a book about our life, so it’s exciting. I did shed some tears, but it brought me a lot of joy. Did you talk a lot about the old days? Oh yes, especially in the last few months when he wasn’t so well. Leon was a great one for reminiscing! He’d remind me of things I’d forgotten. This book would have made him very happy. You met as teenagers. How did it happen? At teacher training college. Leon was studying history. In the student lounge, he’d be there talking about it and I’d zone out. But we both smoked – he offered me a cigarette one evening and the rest is history. Both your parents were against your romance, weren’t they? Yes. I was Protestant and he was Jewish. We had to fight to get married. It’s why Leon would always say you need to work at things – we knew. Anyone would think it was World War II to hear him, but we went through a lot. You became parents in 60s Liverpool – how was that? Len was a very hands-on dad to our two girls. He had no brothers or sisters, so having children was wonderful for him. We were in the thick of Beatlemania, but it wasn’t so much swinging 60s as up-inthe-night 60s! Gogglebox made you household names. Was