Having a stable home life that let him embrace his true self gave Owain Wyn Evans the confidence to believe he could make it in the entertainment industry. He feels incredibly grateful for that support and so devotes himself to epic Children In Need challenges to try to do his bit (and then some) for those who may not have had that experience. His latest impressive achievement was a five-day, almost 400-mile cycle across four nations – Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales, completed this afternoon.

“I was really lucky that I had that safety at home when so many kids have struggles in that area of their life,” Evans explained just a few weeks before commencing the epic bike ride on his lovingly-named mode of transport, Shania Chain. “This is why I love Children in Need so much as they provide aid and guidance, but only one in six projects that approach Children in Need can be helped by them because of funding. I did the 24-hour drumathon to raise a load of money, and now I’m going to be doing this cycle challenge, which hopefully will raise a load of money as well to help those kids that don’t have that in their life or don’t have advantages.”

A load of money is right. He was able to raise £3,853,530 with the public firmly behind him, and even received video messages from the Princess of Wales, who said, in Welsh: “Hi Owain, it’s Catherine, you’re doing so well. Keep going. Wishing you all the very best,” and Shania Twain, who told him, “Congratulations on completing your incredible challenge for Children in Need. You’re still the one my friend, sending you all my love.”

Reflecting on his journey, Evans told the BBC: “This has been the hardest challenge of my life, 100 per cent. I can’t believe I’m here. It’s overwhelming, all the love and passion and commitment people have shown.”

For Evans, his childhood home was a sanctuary from a world that didn’t always accept him. Curtains hung from wooden poles on one wall of the bedroom to represent his love of theatre; his parents fluttered around the kitchen, always reminding him how adored he was; and a pink moped rescued from a skip then restored by his handy dad in the garage.

“It was a refuge. I felt so safe there,” says Evans, whose modest childhood home near Swansea offered a stark contrast to life outside. He had hoped that the moped he so loved and the time he spent on it may have helped him in the endurance event, but when training commenced, it became quickly apparent it would not.

“I thought the fact that I’d been on a motorbike as a child might help me with my Children In Need challenge but considering that I was on that bike 35 years ago and I’ve not been on a bike since, it’s definitely not helped me in any way, shape or form,” he shared. “I was always falling off the thing anyway. I was never a very good rider because I’ve got terrible balance and sense of co-ordination.”

Life was not easy for Evans growing up in the shadow of Section 28, which banned the “promotion” of homosexuality in schools, and the Government’s “Don’t Die of Ignorance” Aids campaign, with its notorious gravestone imagery.

“It felt like if you were gay, you were going to get it and die. It was complete bollocks and scaremongering, and it has a very unsavoury legacy,” says Evans, who was bullied for being an effeminate child.

“I hated going to school because of it, but I was lucky that I could go home and close the door,” he adds.

Evans would imagine this other life in his first job, unloading deliveries for a clothes shop. Then, at 18, he started working for a Welsh children’s news programme, and in 2012, he moved into weather forecasting after the BBC sent him on a Met Office course.

In 2020, Evans uploaded a YouTube clip of himself drumming along to the BBC News theme. It went viral, attracting more than four million views. Drumming is something he has loved since the age of eight after he was given a second-hand kit.

“There was something about being part of something that was bigger, noisier and more confident than me,” he says. “The drums definitely saved me in a lot of ways because they became a joyous activity, a talking point for people and a generator of friends. It was a way to express myself when I didn’t have the social tools to be able to do so. It paved the way for me wanting to work in this world.”

That viral moment raised his profile and he began doing reports for . In 2021, he performed the aforementioned 24-hour drumathon for Children in Need, raising £3.8m, before landing a presenting role on BBC Radio 2’s . He now has a successful career, a loving husband with whom he has been for 17 years, and most importantly, feels comfortable in who he is.

“At the end of the day, you can’t be liked by everyone,” says Evans, who has spoken previously about receiving homophobic messages from viewers. “I try to be as nice as I can be and authentically me, then if someone doesn’t like me, there is nothing that I can do.”

Something that hasn’t changed from childhood is the importance of having a safe space. “I always want that feeling I got during childhood to exist in my home as an adult. I don’t get too attached to the bricks and mortar. Instead it’s where my husband, stuff and dog is,” he says, as he strokes his border terrier, Brillo Pad, who is sitting lazily on his lap.

Evans has renovated multiple homes in places he’s lived for work, including London, Leeds and Manchester. Since 2024, he’s combined that passion with his broadcasting experience as one of the presenters on the BBC’s .

“There are dozens of shows that are very similar in format, but this is the OG, and to be working on it is great. But like a lot of BBC shows, you have to look at how it spends money now, so the team is smaller than it’s been before. It’s often just myself, a researcher and a camera operator doing our filming, and they make great TV,” he says.

His latest venture – the podcast Love What You’ve Done with the Place  is a further extension of his fondness for the places we live. In each episode, he questions celebrities on their interior design choices, finding out what makes a home for them. “I’ve learned that everyone is the same. Whether it’s my home, my mother and father’s home, or H from Steps’s home, there is this universal feeling that it is your little place. It is full of things that build up the image of what you are like,” he says. “The house is almost peripheral – it’s stuff that you put inside it and the way that you decorate it.”

Evans’s home, just outside Cardiff, is also like a museum of his life. There’s the glitterball from a Cardiff nightclub he used to frequent that his husband gave him, a Welsh stick chair that belonged to his grandmother, and the pink moped, no longer working but on display in his kitchen. He is clearly a fan of making bold choices – on the podcast, he responds “stunning” to everything from Tom Allen’s description of his yellow sitting room to a fish tank in Nicky Chapman’s bathroom.

But there is one thing you won’t catch Evans approving of: “It breaks my heart when you see people removing original features. It is a crime.”

“On  I have pleaded with some people not to take out the original balustrade stairs, or the porch door. You go back and they’ve put in these grey glass things, and it removes all of the character.”

He adds: “But these places aren’t my home. I’m sure plenty of people would walk into my house and think, ‘Oh God, I would never have done that’.”

With such a varied career, nobody can guess Evans’s next move, including Evans himself – but it means he is always learning.

“When I first got my radio show, I was so terrified because it was such a big deal. I felt like a competition winner every day. I was so busy concentrating on the next live link that I wouldn’t take time to listen, but being on and the podcast has helped me. It is really all about sharing people’s stories.

“Now I feel like this is my show – I’m a Radio 2 DJ, and that’s amazing,” he says. 

Love What You’ve Done with the Place is available on all major platforms