She was born in Cheshire in 1952 as Angela J. Jucker, the daughter of Eleanora June "née" Dore (1918–1998) and Adrian Fontana Jucker (1920–2012), a bomb disposal expert who served during the Battle of El-Alamein during World War II and who was awarded the Military Cross. In 1977 she married Peter A. K. Passmore in London. The marriage was later dissolved.