Grand Designs 'saddest house ever' owner has huge regrets over dream build

The owner of what's been dubbed the most heartbreaking project on Grand Designs has revealed his biggest regret.

Years back, Edward Short graced the show to construct his ultimate home. Set in Croyde, Devon, Chesil Cliff House was envisioned as the perfect residence for Edward, his spouse Hazel, and their family.

Yet, the completed project came at a high price, leading to his marriage collapsing and an overwhelming £7million debt. In an exclusive chat with us, Edward explained his biggest regret.

"My regrets are probably things that happened around the round that impacted the build, which are out of my control. If I could have avoided things like COVID and it would be a very different story," he admitted.

"COVID has a huge impact on the price of materials, and Brexit had a huge impact on the imports and exports, and has continued to. And then everyone goes, 'Well, all my figures I've given you are out the window, Mr Short.'"

With the dwelling now on the market, Ed seems to nod towards an inevitable conclusion.

"Well, right now Hazel and I still own the house. I could be fairly sure what the ending is, but I don't know," he expressed at Grand Designs Live during a meeting with fellow Grand Designs icons from the past quarter-century.

Kevin McCloud, the face of the show, recently provided an update on the saddest house ever.

"As far as I know, it's still on the market. Ed is in neutral waiting for that to happen. He's very busy. I don't think he's suffering in the way he was. When we did a revisit to that project, and the original was about overreaching, to an extent he was far more humble about it and there was a degree of resolution I guess. That's the best way of describing it," he expressed.

"Ed's story shows if you screw up, it's not the end of the . Only the end of the world is the end of the world and everything else can be dealt with. It was a sad story but we've got people with terminal cancer and people who lost partners sometimes during the filming process, and you come to realise the problems they face - not having enough money, being in by - these are all not important. They're huge in the moment but when you're dealing with a life threatening illness and it's going to knock years off their time here, actually there are far more important things on the planet to deal with."

Ed was speaking at Grand Designs Live, where he took part in panels to celebrate 25 years of the Channel 4 show.