Turner bid farewell to the saddle in exactly the same place as she had begun it – the Southwell racecourse, on a winning horse. It was April 2025, exactly 25 years to the week since her first ride at the track. And as she announced her retirement at the same time, she also let it be known: she was pregnant with her first child. It’s the sort of news that would traditionally be couched in the name of a partner. It wasn’t. And it is for this very reason “Hayley Turner partner” remains in the top search results over a year later.
What Turner Actually Said
Turner, in her announcement of her retirement (published in April 2025), was specific about just about everything apart from that one thing everyone else wanted. She said she was pregnant “in October, all being well”, and “been planning for the last two years”. That is important – it means she had a relationship, and she was not knocked up through happenstance. What it doesn’t say is who.
The winning rider, who refused to speak after the race, congratulated her trainers – Michael Bell, David Simcock, Andrew Balding and Harry Eustace – and her long-standing agent, Guy Jewell. There was no mention of, or thanks to, any of her partner, boyfriend, or the father of her child in that statement, and none has been in any interview since.
Large outlets covering the announcement, like Racing Post, Sky Sports and Horse & Hound, told us the same things: retirement, pregnancy, due date, career wins. None of them mentioned a partner, because none of them knew one. That’s not a mistake on any of those outlets’ behalf; that’s just how close Turner has kept this nugget of information to herself.
A Career Spent Mostly Out of the Tabloids
Some of the reason this is so familiar for the rest of Turner’s public life is that she never really used her voice for relationship talk. Over a career spanning 25 years, during which she banked in excess of 1,000 winners, picked up three Group One wins, earned an OBE, and became the first female jockey in Europe to reach four figures in victories, her private life was rarely front-page news. Racing journalists who covered her in detail for the duration of her racing career have written about her rides, the crashes, the career-best seasons, but not much about the club she was seen heading out with.
No shortage of public interest. Search interest for Hayley Turner partner has increased in the meantime – the pregnancy was announced in 2025 – because, for the first time in her career, an alliance had the ring of a union around it, with the evidence of circumstances.
The Jamie Spencer Story — Old News, Often Recycled
Search through previous articles on the subject of Turner’s relationship history and one person you are sure to see mentioned is fellow jockey, Jamie Spencer. An extract from some previous papers stated that he had a brief fling with Spencer during the time he was going through his divorce from TV presenter Emma Spencer. Let’s be clear about this – all of these reports are more than 10 years old and have nothing to do with Turner’s 2025 pregnancy.
Some of the recycled celebrity-bio sites continue to use the Spencer story as the lead on Turner’s CURRENT relationships, giving the false (but not the “Official”) appearance that it’s actually current or relevant to her current circumstances. It’s not. There’s nothing to suggest the two have had any contact in recent years.
The Names That Get Thrown Around Now
In the week since the retirement and pregnancy announcement, a few lesser-known entertainment websites have mentioned a few more potential boyfriends – in particular the jockey Nick Scholfield and the ITV Racing presenter Oli Bell. Let’s be honest: neither of those has come from an interview, press release or article from a big-name site such as Racing Post, Sky Sports or the BBC.
The Scholfield link seems to come from one or two older, completely unrelated gossip pages, whereas the Bell one seems to be based mainly on the two appearing in tandem in ITV’s race coverage at events such as Royal Ascot and Goodwood (television appearances, not personal ones). Also, websites rehashing either name tend to refer to each other rather than to a source for either of them, which usually indicates no one has checked it.
Why the Privacy, Probably
The ever-stunning Turner has spoken of how racing consumed her life from day one, always followed by early starts, ever-present travel, and painful injuries from her 25 years riding at the top level. There just isn’t much space in that life to have a public relationship, and for her, marriage and children weren’t a priority.
That appears to have been different once retirement, of course, entered the equation. The go-to line about “planning for the last two years” implies the timing of her pregnancy was never a coincidence, that it was always linked to her stage of career that would allow her to leave the saddle, anyone she may have been planning it with…she clearly hasn’t shared that publicly.
Where Things Stand Now
Up to and including the current time that this article is being written, Hayley Turner has not come out with a partner, the name of the father of the child, or mentioned her relationship status. All the as-is information is that she has mostly been shown to live with her family after her retirement and hasn’t tried to reveal her relationship status to date. Her someday revealing her relationship is by having an interview, having a social media post, or having an event with a guy she claims is her partner.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS)
Does Hayley Turner have a husband?
No. Despite no official marriages on record and her own admission in years past that she wasn’t desperate to find a marriage when she was a jockey, we haven’t heard of her getting hitched once she retired from racing in 2025.
Who is the father of Hayley Turner’s baby?
No one. During her announcement of her pregnancy and her retirement in April 2025, Turner claimed the pregnancy had been in the works for a while – but he refused to say who she was actually expecting the baby with, and no reputable source has filled in that blank since.
Was Hayley Turner and Jamie Spencer dating?
Rumors of a brief liaison between her and fellow jockey Jamie Spencer hit the headlines a while back, following the end of his marriage to Emma Spencer. But that’s ancient history, and shouldn’t have any relevance to the fact that she’s expecting in 2025 – even if some aged bios still mention it as current.
Is Hayley Turner dating Oli Bell or Nick Scholfield?
Neither has been confirmed. Both names have been reported by lesser-known celebrity sites, but these have reported them only as professional colleagues (Nick and Ollie as TV Racing colleagues) and nothing more. Neither they nor any major racing or national source has confirmed either as her partner.
When did Hayley Turner retire from race riding?
Turner – who rode her first ever race at the same course back in 2000 – retired from the sport in April 2025. Speaking about her decision, Turner revealed she was set to become a mother in October 2025.
