Husband Martin Corbett announces Mr Wallace’s death: ‘My beloved husband and soulmate… I am heartbroken’
Mr Wallace was a founding partner of award-winning architecture and design firm Douglas Wallace Architects.
He was also a judge on the hit RTÉ show Home of the Year every year since its inception in 2015, and also presented The Great House Revival and My Bungalow Bliss.
He is survived by his husband Martin Corbett. They were together for 39 years and got married in 2012.
Writing on social media, Mr Corbett said: “It is with deep sadness and shock that I share the news that my beloved husband and soulmate, Hugh Wallace, passed away suddenly at home last night. I am heartbroken.
“Please respect my privacy at this deeply painful time.”
His family also released a statement: “It is with deep sadness and shock that we announce our beloved friend and client, architect, Hugh Wallace, RIAI passed away suddenly at home last night.
Hugh Wallace
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“Hugh was a director and co-founder of architecture firm, Douglas Wallace Consultants and was widely known and admired for his work as the presenter of RTÉ’s The Great House Revival and as a judge on Home of the Year. His passion, creativity and warmth touched colleagues, audiences, and his many, many friends across the country.
“Hugh’s husband, Martin Corbett has called for privacy at this difficult time. Our thoughts and prayers are with Martin and Hugh’s family and friends. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.”
Mr Wallace, from the south Dublin suburb of Dundrum, had previously spoken to the Irish Independent about his upbringing and growing up gay in a “bubble of Protestantism”.
“I didn’t want to be gay,” he said, having taken a year out in college to move to New York to find himself.
“Particularly at that time in Ireland. Sure, I didn’t know anyone gay. That’s the truth… because everyone was in the closet, with the door locked. And then they would jump out every so often.”
Mr Wallace recently revealed that he set up his company in order to not rely on others due to his dyslexia diagnosis.
That company has been working this year on the redevelopment of the Waterford North Quays in conjunction with the local council.
He also shared with this publication his struggles with alcoholism, revealing that his doctor told him at age 55 that he was an alcoholic. He subsequently became sober after attending the Stanhope Centre on north Dublin’s Lower Grangegorman Road.
He spoke affectionately about losing his mother in his mid-20s, a woman he described as “an amazing lady” who he became “slightly estranged” from owing to his sexuality, which he said he regretted.
