James May urged men to “make the effort” as he gave an insight into his relationship with his partner of nearly 25 years in a romantic update.

The former Top Gear presenter took to social media on Friday (Febraury 14) to share how he and his partner, art critic Sarah Frater, would be celebrating Valentine’s Day.

He told his 3.1million followers on X – formerly known as Twitter: “It’s St Valentine’s day. So later on I, for one, will be cooking Sainsbury’s chicken pie with delicious BirdsEye frozen peas for my best girl, followed by a massive piece of cheeeese. Men – make the effort.”

The 62-year-old has been in a relationship with Sarah since 2000, but the pair have never tied the knot. The motoring journalist rarely speaks about their relationship and the pair do their best to keep their romance private.

Sarah has an impressive background in art criticism, primarily focusing her reviews on dance for a range of respected outlets. The couple, who live together in West London, have no children.

In an episode of the Driven podcast, he discussed his decision not to become a father, admitting he was “a late developer”. He told listeners: “I think it was just a result of life, let’s put that down to being a late developer.”

He has admitted he is content being an uncle as he didn’t want to be an older father with young children, believing it would be “unfair” and “weird.”

In an interview with The Times he revealed that he felt uncomfortable about a schoolmate whose father was the same age as his grandfather.

“Maybe ‘unfair’ was a bit strong. But when I was at school there was a boy whose dad was the same age as my granddad and it felt weird,” he said.

In the same chat, he also made reference to Oscar winning actor Al Pacino’s relationship with Noor Alfallah, who is 54 years younger than him. Despite their staggering age gap, the star gave birth to his fourth child in 2023.

James added: “And that actor who recently had a child with a much younger woman? He’s not going to be around very much, is he? Then again, you can be young and still not be around much, so who knows?” he pondered.

Despite the absence of kids in their lives, James enthusiastically assumes the role of uncle, relishing time spent with his nieces and nephews and thrives when working alongside younger colleagues especially those in their twenties.

He confessed: “That’s the nature of TV, it has a big influx of people of that age who disperse and move on to other things, it’s all very fluid.”