BBC horse racing commentator John Hunt lost wife Carol and daughters Hannah and Louise to a brutal triple murder 20 months ago and has spoken about his grieving process
John Hunt has opened up on his grieving process as he prepares to commentate at Cheltenham less than two years after his wife and two daughters were brutally murdered. Hunt has found solace in sport as he tries to navigate a world without his wife Carol and daughters Hannah and Louise.
Kyle Clifford was handed three life sentences with three whole life orders in March 2025 for the murders. He will never be released from prison after stabbing Carol to death, raping his former partner Louise and killing her and sister Hannah with a crossbow.
Hunt is the BBC’s much-loved and long-serving horse racing commentator and recently took centre stage while covering the Winter Olympics. Twenty months on from the day that changed his life forever, he is readying himself for Cheltenham Festival, his biggest work event of the year.
In an interview with The Telegraph he has explained how he has managed to get “comfortable” in life. He and his surviving daughter Amy have supported each other and Hunt has also found his work helpful, alongside therapy, yoga, exercise and socialising.
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“A couple of times, I’ve pushed it too hard,” he said. “And I’ve unravelled because of it.”
He added: “It writes its own rules, it’s the strangest thing. You can wake up at half past seven one morning and think, ‘I feel quite bright today’. And then, for no reason at all, come half past eight, you’re on your knees again.
“Ultimately, you have no control over how you’re feeling from one minute to the next. There’s a strength in the surrender to that. The next time it hits, you know that the intensity won’t be quite the same in an hour’s time.
“You develop a confidence that you can cope, even though nothing changes. I’m still exploring it, as you can tell. I’m still working it out.”
Hunt is also using his tragedy to campaign around the issue of male violence. “There will be another girl, there will be another woman, at the hands of a young boy or man. That will happen,” he told The Mirror last month.
“But if that young boy or man is out there at the moment feeling they’re drifting, they’re lacking focus, lacking self-esteem, just think about what your next move is.
“We just hope any young man watching doesn’t feel like we’re piling on them. Our boys are to be cherished and boys, we are completely with you. It’s certainly too late for people like Kyle Clifford but it’s the kids who are not yet at school that we’ve got to be thinking about.”
Hunt appeared in an upcoming TV series, Ross Kemp: Lost Boys, Deadly Men, to explore the issue of growing violence against women and girls across the UK.
