Ben Fogle’s mother is the actress Julia Foster and his father is the Canadian-born vet and author Bruce Fogle. That answers most searches on its own. The more interesting part is how a film actress and a London vet raised a son who went on to present programmes about remote places and wild animals.
Plenty of pages online answer this badly. Some invent a mother called “Sarah Fogle”, and some give Ben a brother who doesn’t seem to exist. Below we’ve set out what is publicly confirmed, where it comes from, and what we have deliberately left out.
Who are Ben Fogle’s parents?
| Family member | Who they are |
|---|---|
| Mother | Julia Foster, an English actress born in Lewes, Sussex, and best known for 1960s films including Alfie and Half a Sixpence |
| Father | Bruce Fogle, a Canadian-born vet, author of many books about dogs and cats, and a long-time London practitioner |
| Ben | Born 3 November 1973 in Westminster, London |
| Sisters | Tamara (full sister) and Emily (half-sister, from Julia Foster’s earlier marriage) |
If you only wanted to know who Ben Fogle’s mum is: Julia Foster, a working actress since the early 1960s. She did not take the Fogle surname professionally, which is one reason the scraper sites get her name wrong.
Last reviewed: November 2026. These details come from Ben Fogle’s and Julia Foster’s published biographies and from interviews the family have given themselves. We’ve left out anything they haven’t made public.
Ben Fogle’s family background
Who is Ben Fogle’s mother? Julia Foster’s career
Julia Foster was born in Lewes, East Sussex. Most reference sources give her date of birth as 2 August 1943. She started acting young, and within a couple of years she was appearing in films that defined British cinema in the early 1960s.
Her best-known screen work includes:
- The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), Tony Richardson’s British New Wave film starring Tom Courtenay
- Alfie (1966), in which she played Gilda opposite Michael Caine
- Half a Sixpence (1967), the musical film in which she starred alongside Tommy Steele
She also had a long television and stage career, including Queen Margaret in the BBC Television Shakespeare productions of the Henry VI plays in the early 1980s. When you hear Ben call his mum a “proper” actress, this is the career he is talking about. She was not a celebrity who happened to be on TV. She was a trained, working performer for decades.
Who is Ben Fogle’s father? Bruce Fogle, the vet
Bruce Fogle was born in Toronto in 1944, trained as a vet in Canada and moved to London in the early 1970s. For many years he ran a busy small-animal practice in central London, near Marble Arch.
Outside the clinic he became one of the best-known writers on pets in the English-speaking world. He has written dozens of books on dog and cat behaviour and care, and they have been translated widely. He also co-founded the charity Hearing Dogs for Deaf People in 1982. The charity trains dogs to alert deaf people to sounds such as doorbells and alarms.
He has appeared on radio and television as a vet, but he isn’t a “TV vet” in the way the term is normally used. His reputation comes from clinical practice and his books, not from presenting a series.
Julia Foster’s marriages
Before she married Bruce Fogle, Julia Foster was married to Lionel Morton, the frontman of the 1960s band The Four Pennies, who had a UK number one with “Juliet” in 1964. That marriage ended in divorce. She later married Bruce Fogle, and they have stayed together for more than five decades.
Does Ben Fogle have siblings?
Yes. Ben has two sisters:
- Tamara, his full sister, the daughter of Julia and Bruce
- Emily, his older half-sister, from Julia Foster’s first marriage
Neither sister lives a public life in the way Ben does, and we haven’t gone beyond what the family have confirmed themselves.
Myths to ignore: Ben Fogle’s mother is not called “Sarah Fogle”. We could find no credible source for a brother called Bill or for any brother at all. Claims like these tend to spread from auto-generated celebrity pages that copy one another. If a page gets his mum’s name wrong, don’t trust anything else it tells you.
Childhood and upbringing: where did Ben Fogle grow up?
Ben grew up in central London, in the family home attached to his father’s veterinary clinic near Marble Arch. He has described a childhood surrounded by animals: patients coming through the surgery, the family’s own dogs, and a father whose working day revolved around animal welfare.
That detail explains a lot. Long before Animal Park or Countryfile, Ben was growing up in a household where dogs and cats were part of everyday family life.
Where did Ben Fogle go to school?
- The Hall School, Hampstead, an independent prep school in north London
- Bryanston School, Dorset, a boarding school with a reputation for a less rigid, more independent style of education
After school he spent time in Latin America and studied Latin American Studies at the University of Portsmouth. That interest in travel and remote places later shaped much of his television work.
Ben has said in interviews that he was not an academic star at school. That matters because his first big break, Castaway 2000 on BBC One, came from being willing to spend a year on a remote Hebridean island, not from a media career plan. It is fair to say his parents passed on a love of animals and a working familiarity with performing. How much either shaped his later choices is something only Ben can say, and we’ve kept to what he has said.
Ben Fogle’s relationship with his mum and dad
Ben Fogle’s mum: a close bond
Ben and Julia Foster have spoken about each other warmly and publicly for years. In joint interviews, including a mother-and-son feature for Great British Life, they come across as close. Ben describes his mum as a steady, supportive presence, and she describes being proud of a son whose career took him well away from acting.
Ben has also said his mother’s experience of fame helped him. She had been through public attention in the 1960s, so she could put his sudden visibility after Castaway 2000 into perspective.
Ben and his father
His father’s influence is easiest to see in Ben’s work. Dogs appear again and again in his books and broadcasting, and he wrote Labrador (2015), a history of the breed that reflects the family’s long attachment to Labradors. Father and son have also appeared together in media coverage of animal welfare and of Bruce’s charity work.
A note on privacy: Ben is married to Marina Fogle, and they have children. We don’t cover his children’s lives beyond what the family have chosen to share, and this article is about Ben’s parents rather than his own household.
Public appearances and interviews about his parents
If you want to hear the family speak for themselves rather than through aggregator pages, these are the most reliable places to look:
- Joint mother-and-son interviews, such as the Great British Life feature, where Ben and Julia talk about his childhood and their relationship.
- Ben’s own books, which mention his parents and his upbringing among animals in passing, especially the dog-focused titles.
- Broadcast and podcast interviews, where Ben has often been asked about growing up with an actress mother and a vet father.
- Bruce Fogle’s books and Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, for his professional story told first-hand.
If you’re checking a fact, use the family’s own words before a third-party summary, and check the date on any interview. Things like where someone lives or what they are working on now change over time.
More family background stories
If you like family-background profiles of familiar British TV faces, these are worth reading next:
- John Craven’s Age: Birthday, Career and Key Facts, on Ben’s long-serving Countryfile colleague
- Who Is Melanie Thaw? Career, Family and Key Facts, another child of a well-known acting family
- Natasha Raskin Sharp’s Children and Family Life: What We Know
- Who Is Dawn French’s Husband? Relationship and Family Life
Sources
- Ben Fogle and Julia Foster’s published biographies (including their Wikipedia entries, used as a starting point and checked against interviews)
- Hello! Magazine, feature on Ben Fogle and his mother, Julia Foster
- Great British Life, “Mother love” interview with Ben Fogle and Julia Foster
- Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, the charity’s published history
- Countryfile, Ben Fogle profile
FAQs
Who is Ben Fogle’s mother?
Ben Fogle’s mother is the English actress Julia Foster, born in Lewes, Sussex. She is best known for 1960s films including The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Alfie and Half a Sixpence, and she went on to a long television and stage career.
Who is Ben Fogle’s father?
His father is Bruce Fogle, a Canadian-born vet who moved to London in the early 1970s and ran a small-animal practice near Marble Arch. He has written dozens of books on dogs and cats and co-founded the charity Hearing Dogs for Deaf People in 1982.
What did Ben Fogle’s parents do?
His mum, Julia Foster, is an actress who worked in film, television and theatre. His dad, Bruce Fogle, is a vet and best-selling author on pet care and behaviour.
Does Ben Fogle have siblings?
Yes. Ben has a full sister, Tamara, and an older half-sister, Emily, from his mother’s first marriage to Lionel Morton of The Four Pennies. Claims that he has a brother called Bill are not supported by any credible source.
Where did Ben Fogle grow up?
Ben grew up in central London, near Marble Arch, in the family home attached to his father’s veterinary clinic. He went to The Hall School in Hampstead and then Bryanston School in Dorset.
Is Ben Fogle close to his mum?
Yes. Ben and Julia Foster have given joint interviews describing a close, supportive relationship, and Ben has said her own experience of fame helped him handle being in the public eye.
