| Vanessa Feltz | |
| Birthname: | Vanessa Jane Feltz |
| Birth Date: | 21 February 1962 |
| Birth Place: | London, England |
| Education: | Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls |
| Alma Mater: | Trinity College, Cambridge (BA) |
| Years Active: | 1992–present |
| Employer: | BBC Radio (1989–2022) |
| Spouse: | [1] |
| Domestic Partner: | Ben Ofoedu (2006–2023) |
| Children: | 2 |
| Television: | |
Vanessa Jane Feltz (born 21 February 1962) is an English television personality, broadcaster, and journalist. She has appeared on various television shows, including Vanessa (1994–1998), The Big Breakfast (1996–1998), The Vanessa Show (1999), Celebrity Big Brother (2001), The Wright Stuff (2003–2005), This Morning (2006–present), and Strictly Come Dancing (2013).
Feltz presented an early morning radio show on BBC Radio 2 from 2011 to 2022 and also hosted the Breakfast Show on BBC Radio London. As of May 2024 Feltz works for LBC.[2]
Vanessa Feltz was born in Islington, London, and grew up in Pine Grove, Totteridge. She has a sister, Julia, who is 3 years her junior. During her broadcasting career, she frequently refers to Totteridge as "the Beverly Hills of North London" and her middle class Jewish background as like "growing up in Fiddler on the Roof". Her father, Norman, was in the lingerie business.[1]
Feltz was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls, an independent school in Elstree, Hertfordshire. She then read English at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating with a first class honours degree.[3] [4]
Feltz was the first female columnist for The Jewish Chronicle and later joined the Daily Mirror. She wrote her first book at this time entitled What Are These Strawberries Doing on My Nipples? I Need Them for the Fruit Salad.[5]
Feltz replaced Paula Yates on Channel 4's morning TV show The Big Breakfast, presenting a regular item where she interviewed celebrities whilst lying on a bed. She has alleged that she was sexually assaulted by Rolf Harris while interviewing him on the programme.[6] In 1997, Feltz was tricked by the spoof TV show Brass Eye. She also served as a magistrate from the age of 28, but was asked to stand down when she became recognisable by the defendants from her TV appearances.[7]
She presented the ITV daytime television chat show, Vanessa, made by Anglia Television. She moved to the BBC to host a similar show, The Vanessa Show, in 1998 in a reported £2.7 million deal.[8] ITV replaced her show with Trisha.
In 1999, The Vanessa Show suffered from bad publicity as some guests were alleged to have been actors. Despite her having had no involvement in the booking of guests, Feltz was seen to be at fault, and the show was cancelled soon after.[9]
In 2001, Feltz joined the local radio station BBC London 94.9 to present a mid-afternoon phone-in show and it continued to run since then at various times, from 2005 to 2015 at 09.00 to noon. From 2016 it was broadcast from 07.00 to 10.00 Monday to Friday. She hosted her last show for the station on 26 August 2022.[10]
In 2002, she made a cameo appearance in the comedy film Once Upon a Time in the Midlands. In May 2003, she was voted 93rd on the list of worst Britons in Channel 4's poll of the 100 Worst Britons.[1]
Feltz's other game show appearances include an episode of Russian Roulette, hosted by Rhona Cameron.[11]
Feltz returned to the Big Brother house on 3 September 2010 during Ultimate Big Brother, the last series to be broadcast on Channel 4.[12] She was evicted from the house on 8 September, two days before the final.
Feltz took on a greater workload of radio and TV presenting in 2011. She took over the BBC Radio 2 Early Breakfast Show on 17 January 2011 broadcasting from 05:00 until 06:30 each weekday in the slot formerly occupied by Sarah Kennedy. Writing of her Radio 2 debut, The Daily Telegraph radio critic, Gillian Reynolds described Feltz's voice as "like lemon tea with honey".[13] From January 2021, her show was extended by an hour and began at the earlier time of 04:00. She often covered Jeremy Vine's news and current affairs show on Radio 2 when Vine was away.[5] During this time her early breakfast show was covered by another presenter, usually Nicki Chapman. Feltz announced on 28 July 2022 that she would leave the show the following day, and Radio 2 after 2 weeks of covering for Jeremy Vine on 26 August.[14]
On 7 March 2011, Channel 5 moved The Vanessa Show to an afternoon slot at 14:15 following disappointing ratings for the morning slot. The move allowed Feltz to appear in live editions of her TV show after her morning radio commitments.[15] Ratings eventually improved and a second series of the show was planned to commence in September 2011 but it never went ahead. The Guardians "Media Monkey" blog dubbed Feltz "officially the hardest working woman in broadcasting" due to her weekday broadcasting commitments.[16]
On 7 September 2013, she re-entered the Celebrity Big Brother house to take part in a task. She left the house the same day.[17]
In July 2019, the BBC Annual Report recorded that Feltz was one of three women, along with Claudia Winkleman and Zoe Ball, amongst the ten highest paid BBC presenters, with a salary of £355,000.[18]
In January 2024, it was reported that over 2,000 complaints had been made to Ofcom regarding Feltz's comments on coeliac disease during an episode of This Morning.[19] After a caller said their mother-in-law did not allow them to serve anything but gluten-free food at Christmas dinner, Feltz responded "So she's treating coeliac disease as if it's a potentially fatal peanut allergy and they can't have anything with gluten in the house, which is completely unreasonable."[19] She later apologised for the comments.[19]
From September 2022 to April 2024, she presented the weekday drivetime show on Talkradio and TalkTV.[2] On 1 May 2024, it was announced Feltz has signed to present a 3pm–6pm show on Saturday afternoons on LBC.[2]
In May 2024, she appeared on Late Night Lycett as a wrestling commentator for a Kamikaze Pro wrestling event. At the end of the show, she wrestled Man Like Dereiss, pinning him to win her debut match.[20]
Feltz married surgeon[21] Michael Kurer in 1983; they divorced in 2000.
In December 2006, Feltz became engaged to singer Ben Ofoedu.[22] They originally planned to marry the following year[22] but they remained engaged for many years without marrying.[23] Feltz announced in February 2023 that she and Ofoedu had recently separated.[24] [25]
She has two daughters from her marriage, and four grandchildren.[26] Her elder daughter is Allegra Benitah, a former tax lawyer who is now a television baker and chef.[27] [28]
She lives in St John's Wood, London, in a house which was previously owned by Charles Saatchi, and which was featured in Sir John Betjeman's documentary MetroLand (1973).[29]