Vanessa Feltz

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox person Vanessa Jane Feltz (born 21 February 1962) is an English television presenter, broadcaster, and journalist. She has hosted numerous versions of her own chat shows and appeared on various television shows, including Vanessa (1994–1998, 2025), The Big Breakfast (1996–1998), The Vanessa Show (1999, 2011), Celebrity Big Brother (2001), The Wright Stuff (2003–2005), This Morning (2006–2025), 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 December 2024 Feltz works for LBC.<ref name="lbc">Template:Cite web</ref>

Early life

Vanessa Feltz was born in a hospital on the Holloway Road, and grew up on Pine Grove in Totteridge.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="Cochrane"/>

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 degree.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Career

1980s and 1990s: Early career

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.<ref name="Scotsman2010">Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Vanessa Feltz My Hampstead Template:Webarchive</ref> ITV replaced her show with Trisha.

In 1999, The Vanessa Show suffered from bad publicity as some guests were alleged to have been actors and the show was cancelled soon afterwards.<ref>Vanessa 'will be back' on BBC BBC News, 10 June 1999</ref>

2000s

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref name="Cochrane"/>

Feltz's other game show appearances include an episode of Russian Roulette, hosted by Rhona Cameron.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2004, she made a guest appearance in a Marjorie Dawes sketch in Little Britain.

2010s

Feltz returned to the Big Brother house on 3 September 2010 during Ultimate Big Brother, the last series to be broadcast on Channel 4.<ref>Josie wins Big Brother before ex-housemates return Template:Webarchive BBC News, 24 August 2010</ref> 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".<ref>Gillian Reynolds Vanessa moves in for permanent slot on Radio 2 Template:Webarchive</ref> 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.<ref name="Scotsman2010"/> 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She was succeeded by weatherman Owain Wyn Evans permanently in February 2023.

In January 2011, she started hosting The Vanessa Show on Channel 5. On 7 March 2011, Channel 5 moved the topical daytime 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.<ref>Channel 5 moves The Vanessa Show Template:Webarchive Digital Spy, 3 March 2011</ref> The show featured a mix of celebrity interviews, news items and debate around a range of issues. Ratings eventually improved and a second series of the show was planned to commence in September 2011 but it never went ahead. The GuardianTemplate:'s "Media Monkey" blog dubbed Feltz "officially the hardest working woman in broadcasting" due to her weekday broadcasting commitments.<ref>Media Monkey Media Monkey's Diary Template:Webarchive guardian.co.uk, 24 January 2011</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

2020s

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.<ref name="Ofcom-24">Template:Cite news</ref> 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."<ref name="Ofcom-24"/> She later apologised for the comments.<ref name="Ofcom-24"/>

From September 2022 to April 2024, she presented the weekday drivetime show on Talkradio and TalkTV.<ref name="lbc"/> On 1 May 2024, it was announced Feltz had signed to present a 3pm–6pm show on Saturdays on LBC.<ref name="lbc"/> In November of the same year, it was announced that Feltz would also present on Sundays from 3pm to 6pm on the same station.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Vanessa returned to Channel 5 in 2025 as a daytime talk show being advertised as an alternative to ITV daytime talk show Loose Women.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

Feltz married surgeon<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Michael Kurer in March 1985; they divorced in 2000.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In December 2006, Feltz became engaged to singer Ben Ofoedu at the Clarence Hotel in Dublin.<ref name="confetti.co.uk">Winter wedding for Vanessa Feltz Template:Webarchive Confetti, 21 May 2007</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> They originally planned to marry the following year<ref name="confetti.co.uk"/> but they remained engaged for many years without marrying.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Feltz announced in February 2023 that she and Ofoedu had recently separated.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

She has two daughters from her marriage to Kurer, and four grandchildren.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Her elder daughter is Allegra Benitah, a former tax lawyer who is now a television baker and chef.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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 [[Metro-Land (1973 film)|MetroTemplate:NbhLand]] (1973).<ref>Vanessa Feltz's House History Template:Webarchive BBC London, June 2007</ref> In 2017, she bought a holiday home in Ballycotton in east Cork.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

• Template:IMDb name
• Vanessa Feltz on LBC (LBC)
• P's and Q's (BBC Radio 4)
• Vanessa at 5
• Vanessa at the British Film Institute's Screenonline