Adi Higham, widely known as Adi from BBC One’s The Bidding Room, has become a familiar name among fans of antiques, vintage furniture and unusual collectibles. His straightforward personality, strong knowledge of French brocante and enthusiasm for unusual objects made him one of the most recognisable dealers on the programme. As viewers became interested in his professional life, many also began searching for information about “Adi Bidding Room wife” and wondering who the woman behind the antiques dealer is.
Adi’s partner is Tara Franklin ,adi bidding room wife , a respected antiques and textiles dealer who has worked alongside him for years. The couple’s relationship is closely connected to their shared professional interests because they run Hoof Brocante together. Tara specialises particularly in textiles, vintage French clothing and related decorative pieces, while Adi is known for vintage toys, furniture, signs, mechanical objects and French brocante. The Antiques Trade Gazette has independently described Hoof Brocante as being owned by Tara Franklin and Adrian “Adi” Higham, identifying Tara as a textiles expert and Adi as a vintage toy specialist.
Who Is Adi Higham From The Bidding Room?
Adrian “Adi” Higham is a British antiques dealer who became widely recognised after appearing as one of the expert dealers on The Bidding Room. The BBC programme brings members of the public together with professional dealers who compete to purchase unusual, valuable or historically interesting objects. Adi quickly developed a following because of his distinctive personality and his obvious enthusiasm for objects with character and history. adi bidding room wife.
His route into the antiques business was not originally planned as a conventional career. According to an interview reproduced by sources covering his career, Adi began dealing after buying a mountain bike at a village auction for £10 and selling it for £90. The excitement of making money from an auction purchase encouraged him to attend more auctions and explore the antiques trade. This eventually developed into a career lasting several decades. adi bidding room wife.
Adi’s particular interest in French antiques and brocante became an important part of his professional identity. He has spent substantial periods in France and developed a strong connection with French markets and decorative antiques. His interests are broad, covering everything from old signs and furniture to vintage toys, mechanical objects and unusual pieces that might appeal to collectors or interior designers. adi bidding room wife.
Who Is Adi Higham’s Wife or Partner Tara Franklin?
Tara Franklin is the woman most commonly identified as Adi Higham’s wife or long-term partner. However, online biographies do not consistently use the same wording when describing their marital status. Some sources call Tara his wife, while other recent sources describe her as his partner. Because of this inconsistency, it is more accurate to identify Tara as Adi’s long-term partner and business associate rather than make an unsupported claim about the exact legal details of their marriage.
What is much better established is that Tara and Adi have a close personal and professional relationship. They work together in the antiques trade and have jointly built Hoof Brocante into a distinctive business focused heavily on French decorative antiques. An Antiques Trade Gazette feature describes Tara as a textiles expert and Adi as a vintage toy specialist, with the pair running Hoof Brocante in East Sussex.
Tara is not simply known because she is associated with a television personality. She has her own expertise within the antiques industry, particularly in textiles, vintage clothing, linens and French decorative material. This gives the couple complementary skills, allowing them to approach antiques from different perspectives while sharing the same enthusiasm for sourcing unusual and historically interesting pieces. adi bidding room wife.
Tara Franklin’s Role in the Antiques Business
Tara Franklin has established her own identity within the antiques world through her specialist interest in textiles. Her expertise complements Adi’s interest in vintage toys, furniture, mechanical objects and brocante. Together, they have created a business model that combines their different areas of knowledge rather than relying solely on Adi’s television profile. adi bidding room wife.
Hoof Brocante is particularly associated with French decorative antiques, vintage furniture, textiles, architectural pieces and unusual decorative objects. A trade publication reported that the business occupies a group of buildings on the Romney Marshes and contains a wide range of stock, including French mirrors, antique textile screens, fauteuils, architectural antiques and country furniture.
Their professional partnership is also connected to sourcing trips to France. Adi has a long-standing fascination with French brocante, and the couple have travelled across France to find pieces for their business. Their approach is based on finding objects with personality and history, which fits naturally with the type of items that Adi became known for buying on The Bidding Room. adi bidding room wife.
Adi Higham and Tara Franklin’s Hoof Brocante
Hoof Brocante is one of the most important parts of Adi Higham and Tara Franklin’s professional story. The business operates from an unusual setting on the Romney Marshes in East Sussex, close to the Kent border. Rather than presenting itself as a conventional high-street antiques shop, Hoof Brocante uses old buildings associated with a former RAF site to display a varied collection of vintage and decorative pieces.
The stock reflects both partners’ interests. Visitors and collectors can encounter French furniture, decorative antiques, textiles, old signs, mirrors, architectural salvage and other unusual pieces. Adi’s passion for vintage toys and mechanical objects also contributes to the eclectic character of the business, while Tara’s knowledge of textiles brings another layer to its collections. adi bidding room wife.
The name Hoof became strongly associated with Adi during his television career, but the business existed independently of The Bidding Room. This is important because it shows that Adi was already an established antiques dealer before becoming a television personality. His work with Tara was therefore not created for television; the programme introduced an existing antiques career to a much larger audience. adi bidding room wife.
How Adi and Tara Work Together
One of the most interesting aspects of Adi and Tara’s relationship is the way their personal partnership overlaps with their professional lives. They share an enthusiasm for antiques and regularly work on sourcing, buying and selling vintage objects. Their different areas of expertise can be useful when assessing collections because Tara can bring specialist knowledge of textiles and clothing while Adi focuses heavily on furniture, toys, signs and unusual mechanical pieces. adi bidding room wife.
Their partnership has also taken them beyond the traditional antiques shop environment. In 2023, Adi and Tara appeared together on the podcast The Gavel and The Gabble, where they discussed their antiques business, their trips to France and some of their unusual experiences outside the shop. The programme introduced Tara as Adi’s wife and described her as an important force behind their business.
The couple’s shared work illustrates why relationships between antiques dealers can be particularly productive. Buying vintage objects requires knowledge, patience and an eye for potential. It also involves travelling, negotiating and understanding what different customers are looking for. Because Adi and Tara specialise in complementary areas, their joint business can cover a broader range of antiques than either specialist might handle alone. adi bidding room wife.
Adi Higham’s First Wife and Personal Loss
Information about Adi Higham’s earlier personal life is considerably more limited than information about his antiques career. Several biographical sources report that his first wife died in 2003. Accounts of Adi’s life describe this loss as a major personal tragedy that affected him deeply and became part of the story behind some of his later struggles. adi bidding room wife.
Because detailed primary documentation about his first marriage is limited, it is important not to add private details that have not been reliably confirmed. Public accounts do, however, consistently connect the death of his first wife with a difficult period in Adi’s life. Later reporting has described him as having experienced significant emotional and lifestyle challenges after the loss. adi bidding room wife.
His relationship with Tara subsequently became an important part of his life. Rather than presenting their relationship simply as a celebrity marriage, it is more accurate to view it as a partnership that developed around shared interests, work and a mutual passion for antiques. Their joint business has become one of the clearest public examples of their relationship. adi bidding room wife.
Tara Franklin and Adi Higham on Television and Beyond
Tara is not as familiar to mainstream television viewers as Adi because Adi was the person who became a regular face on The Bidding Room. Nevertheless, Tara has appeared alongside him in antiques-related media and events. Their joint appearances provide a glimpse into the professional relationship that exists behind the scenes of their business. adi bidding room wife.
Adi’s television profile increased dramatically through The Bidding Room, but his relationship with Tara remained connected to the antiques trade rather than celebrity culture. Their work at Hoof Brocante continued to be an important part of their professional lives, and Tara’s own role as a textiles specialist gave her an independent position within the industry. adi bidding room wife.
The couple have also been associated with antiques events and sourcing activities. An antiques trade feature specifically identified Tara as the textiles expert behind Hoof Brocante and Adi as the vintage toy specialist. This independent trade coverage is useful because it confirms that Tara’s role in their business is substantial and professional rather than simply being based on her relationship with a television personality. adi bidding room wife.
Adi Higham’s Life Away From The Bidding Room
Fans searching for “Adi Bidding Room wife” are often also interested in what happened to Adi after his television appearances. His public career has experienced changes in recent years, and his visibility on television has not remained constant. Reports have connected his reduced television presence with personal and professional difficulties, including health problems and a prolonged dispute involving a neighbour. adi bidding room wife.
Because these events concern private and sensitive matters, they should be treated carefully. Some online reports contain conflicting accounts, and not every claim has been independently verified. What can be said with greater confidence is that Adi has experienced significant personal challenges while continuing to be associated with the antiques trade. His business relationship with Tara remains one of the more consistently documented aspects of his life. adi bidding room wife.
Adi’s career also demonstrates that appearing on television is only one part of an antiques dealer’s professional identity. His knowledge was developed through decades of buying, selling and sourcing objects. Hoof Brocante provides a continuing connection to that career, while Tara’s specialist work in textiles complements the broader range of antiques offered through their business.
What We Know About Adi Higham and Tara Today
As of 2026, Tara Franklin remains closely associated with Adi Higham and the antiques business they built together. Recent online reporting continues to identify Tara as his partner or wife and describes their joint connection to Hoof Brocante. However, because different sources use different descriptions of their relationship, readers should avoid treating every online biography as equally authoritative.
The strongest evidence comes from antiques-industry coverage and direct media appearances. The Antiques Trade Gazette identified Tara and Adi as the owners of Hoof Brocante, while their joint appearance on The Gavel and The Gabble provides direct evidence of their personal and professional connection. adi bidding room wife.
Tara also maintains her own professional identity as an antiques and textiles specialist. This is important when understanding the couple because she is not simply “Adi Higham’s wife.” She is an antiques dealer in her own right, with specialist knowledge that contributes directly to their shared business. Their relationship is therefore best understood as both personal and professional, with antiques playing a central role in their life together. adi bidding room wife.
The Truth About Adi Bidding Room Wife
The most accurate answer to the question “Who is Adi Higham’s wife?” is Tara Franklin, although some sources describe her as his long-term partner rather than using the word wife. Tara is a specialist antiques and textiles dealer and has worked closely with Adi in their shared business, Hoof Brocante. The antiques trade has independently documented their joint ownership of the business, providing stronger evidence than many celebrity biography websites. adi bidding room wife.
Tara’s importance in Adi’s life goes beyond being the partner of a television antiques dealer. She has her own professional knowledge, particularly in vintage textiles, French fabrics, linens and clothing. Together, she and Adi have created a business based around their shared interest in French brocante and decorative antiques. Their professional partnership also reflects the wider reality of the antiques world, where sourcing, specialist knowledge and personal relationships often work together.
For anyone researching Adi Higham’s wife, family or personal life, the safest approach is to distinguish verified information from internet speculation. Tara Franklin is clearly connected to Adi both personally and professionally, while details about their private life should not be expanded beyond what they or reliable sources have made public.
Conclusion: Adi Higham and Tara Franklin’s Antiques Partnership
Adi Higham became famous through The Bidding Room, but his story began long before television. adi bidding room wife His career developed from a chance auction purchase into decades of work as an antiques dealer specialising in French brocante, vintage objects and unusual collectibles. Alongside him is Tara Franklin, an experienced textiles and antiques specialist whose own career has become closely connected with his through Hoof Brocante.
Although online sources differ over whether Tara should be described specifically as Adi Higham’s wife or long-term partner, there is strong evidence that they are a couple and business partners. The Antiques Trade Gazette has documented their ownership of Hoof Brocante, while their joint media appearances have further demonstrated their close working relationship.
Their story is ultimately about more than a television personality and his wife. Adi and Tara have built a shared life around antiques, French design, vintage textiles and the excitement of finding unusual objects. For fans of The Bidding Room, Tara provides an important glimpse into the professional world behind Adi’s television persona, while their long-running antiques business shows that their connection to the trade is genuine and much broader than what viewers see on television.
