Name	Sarah Beeny
Height	5'5
Naionality	England
Date of Birth	9 January 1972
Place of Birth	Reading, Berkshire, England, UK
Famous for

Beeny was born in Reading, Berkshire, and has one brother. The daughter of an architect for Bovis Homes,[1][2] her mother loved the self-sustained outdoor life. The family lived in two converted brick cottages in a nine acre plot on the edge of the Duke of Wellington's estate Stratfield Saye,[3] in a style that Beeny describes as "a bit like The Good Life."[1] The family kept goats, chickens and ducks, while her father made Dolls House furniture to raise extra cash: "They were crafty-entrepreneurial but more craft than entrepreneurial."[1]

After her mother Annie died when Sarah was aged 10,[1][4] she was educated as a weekly boarder at the all-girls Luckley-Oakfield School in Wokingham.[5] Although her friends were off to university, Beeny was not academic and was encouraged to study drama by her English teacher, resultantly taking a leading role in Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle.[6] Pursuing the idea of becoming a professional actress, she studied drama at Queen Mary's College, Basingstoke, but failed to get into a drama school.[6]

Advised by her father and stepmother to get out and see the world, Beeny travelled around the world solo at the age of 17 and felt "lonely and seasick" most of the way round.[4][1] She returned to the UK to take a series of jobs, including: working for Save the Children; window cleaning; door-to-door vacuum cleaner selling and running her own sandwich making business.[1][6][4] Assuming she would be self-employed for the rest of her life, at weekends she would study the property market, which gave her a good grounding in the market. Having saved up a deposit, without any formal training Beeny began her own property developing business with her brother and her husband. Beeny is also the co-founder of the popular UK dating website Mysinglefriend,[5] with childhood friend Amanda Christie.[4]

Beeny met her husband and business partner, Graham Swift, when she was 18 - her brother is married to Swift's sister.[7] Beeny and Swift have four children: Rafferty, Charlie, Billy and Laurie. They have homes in Streatham.[8] and Yorkshire.[5] She has recently given birth to their fourth child.

Sarah is supporting Breakthrough Breast Cancer's Crocus Walk campaign in 2009.