Nigel Farage: five things we learned from his wife Kirsten

Nigel Farage "drinks and smokes too much" but is not an adulterous racist, according to his wife Kirsten Farage. As the Ukip leader was celebrating his party's victory in the European Parliament elections this weekend, his wife was lifting the lid on their home life in what is claimed to be her first newspaper interview. Mrs Farage was grilled by a Daily Telegraph journalist as she manned the door at a Ukip "victory party" in an upmarket Westminster hotel. After 15 years of marriage, here's what she had to say:

Farage 'drinks and smokes too much'Mrs Farage says she is worried about her husband's "very hectic" lifestyle. "He doesn't get a lot of sleep, he doesn't get a lot of rest," she says. "He lives on adrenaline a lot, he doesn't eat regular meals, now I am beginning to sound like his mother, and he smokes and he drinks too much." However, she adds that his type of lifestyle "keeps the adrenaline going".

He is virtually computer illiterateThe leader of the UK's most popular party in the European elections apparently has no idea how to use a computer. Mrs Farage has defended her husband's decision to pay her £27,000 in taxpayer money to work as his secretary – an arrangement that has now been vetoed by the European Parliament – saying that he is virtually computer illiterate. He has a "steampowered telephone", she says, and can only send and receive texts. Mrs Farage adds that she works unsocial hours, telling the Telegraph: "I sit at my computer in my nightie and am very dutiful."

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He loves Dad's Army Away from the political frontline, it's more Dad's Army than the People’s Army for Farage. He is a big fan of the BBC comedy series, as well as other 1970s repeats, says his wife. He also loves fishing and walking. “When he is out and about, he is noisy and extrovert and all this. And [when] you come home you have to put your feet up, and cut the grass and put the bins out," she says.

He is not an adulterous racistMrs Farage has brushed off "outrageous" claims that her husband had an affair with a former press officer Annabelle Fuller. She says that Nikki Sinclaire, the former Ukip MEP who made the claim, "wouldn't possibly know" even if it was true – "which it isn't". She has also revealed that her husband was privately hurt by suggestions that he is racist. "If he was a racist I wouldn’t be with him," says Mrs Farage, who was brought up in Germany. "I don’t think he has got a nasty bone in his body – he is not a bully, he likes things done properly."

His children have 'suffered a lot' because of his jobMrs Farage says that their four children have "suffered a lot" because of her husband's job. They do not get a lot of time for family holidays and are often bothered by members of the public, she says. “We used to go on holiday to Cornwall, and we can’t do that anymore, we can’t even have a meal or a drink in public," she tells the Telegraph. With money tight – in part because of their decision to put all four children through private school – Mrs Farage now takes the children caravanning in France or Italy, but she adds: "Nigel does not go camping."