Anne Diamond | |
|---|---|
| Born | Anne Margaret Diamond (1954-09-08)8 September 1954 (age 70) |
| Occupation(s) | Broadcaster,journalist |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 5 |
Anne Margaret DiamondOBE (born 8 September 1954) is a British journalist, broadcaster, and children's health campaigner. She presently hosts the weekend breakfast show onGB News withStephen Dixon as her co-presenter. She hostedGood Morning Britain forTV-am andGood Morning with Anne and Nick forBBC One, withNick Owen. In 2023, she was made anOBE for her service to children's health and is the first non-medic to hold theRoyal College of Paediatrics College Medal.[1]
In 1991, following the death of her third son Sebastian, Diamond successfully campaigned for research intocot death. The campaign, which she co-founded, is reported to have cut the UK's incidence of cot death from over 2,000 a year to approximately 300.[2][3]
She has also worked for LBC, Radio Oxford, BBC London, BBC Berkshire, and is a regular columnist for the various UK newspapers.[4] Since 2003, she has made regular appearances onChannel 5's topical discussion showThe Wright Stuff and now its successor,Jeremy Vine.[5]
Diamond was born on 8 September 1954 inBirmingham,Warwickshire.[6] Her parents were of Irish ancestry, although her father was brought up by his mother inGreenock,Scotland after his father went to Canada.[7] She was brought up inMalvern,Worcestershire, and she attendedWorcester Grammar School for Girls.[8]
Diamond worked at aButlins holiday camp as aredcoat and chalet-maid.[9] She then began her career as a journalist on theBridgwater Mercury andBournemouth Evening Echo.
Diamond began her television career withBBC West inBristol, before moving over toATV Today as a reporter and newsreader in 1979. When ATV becameCentral Television in 1982, she was paired up withNick Owen, to present the new East Midlands edition ofCentral News.[10] The launch of the Nottingham-based service was initially delayed for a month, but then postponed indefinitely. With no end in sight to the dispute,[11][12] Diamond left to join ITN before re-joining theBBC, becoming a reporter on the nightly programmeNationwide and a presenter on BBCNews After Noon.[13]
On Monday 6 June 1983, Diamond joinedTV-am.[14]Greg Dyke, the newly appointed programme director, spoke with Nick Owen about replacements for sacked presentersAnna Ford andAngela Rippon. Owen suggested Diamond, and later that evening they met in a pub. Six weeks later Diamond joined the station.[15]
Diamond left TV-am in 1990,[16] to work full-time onTV Weekly, first produced byTVS and later by Topical Television, which she had presented since 1989. The programme looked behind the scenes of various television programmes and interviewed various personalities from in front and behind the camera. Diamond was rejoined with Nick Owen to present the BBC daytime showGood Morning with Anne and Nick,[17][18][19] which ran four years againstITV'sThis Morning from 1992 till 1996.
In 2002, Diamond took part in thesecond series ofCelebrity Big Brother, and was the second person to be evicted.[20][21]
In 2003 Diamond became a regular panellist and stand-in presenter onThe Wright Stuff, and from 2018 on its successor Jeremy Vine.[citation needed] On occasion Diamond’s role on the show has caused confusion with one caller believing her to be a fish and chip shop owner and subsequently proceeded to attempt to place an order.[1]
During 2008, Diamond became involved in co-developing ajewellery range, which she marketed on shopping channelQVC under her own name brand.[citation needed] She joined ITV's lunchtime chat showLoose Women as a regular panellist on 14 October 2016 after impressing bosses when she previously appeared the week before as a guest.[citation needed] She departed the show in August 2018, in line with her new role as the sole stand-in presenter forJeremy Vine. In 2018, she appeared inChannel 5'sCosta Del Celebrity.[citation needed]
Diamond was a regular reviewer of the newspapers forSky News on Sunday mornings.
In 2022, Diamond joinedGB News to host the weekend breakfast show withStephen Dixon.
In the late 1990s, she presented the breakfast show on the London radio stationLBC, variously withNicholas Lloyd andTommy Boyd. After a few months presenting her own lunchtime show in 1999, she left the station.
In 2001, she spent a week onThe Wright Stuff, and was welcomed back in 2003 afterCelebrity Big Brother and has been there to the present day. In 2002, she also returned to television, appearing inCelebrity Big Brother. In October 2004, she joinedBBC Radio Oxford, presenting the weekday breakfast programme. In 2006, she leftBBC Radio Oxford, presenting her last breakfast programme on 17 March 2006, her replacement beingSybil Ruscoe. Much had been made on the breakfast programme of "Diamond's Dieting Buddies", a scheme whereby Diamond and listeners to the station in 2006 who wanted to lose weight would give one another moral support.[22]
Diamond presented the mid-morning programme onBBC Radio Berkshire and kept a regularblog on the BBC website until 2015.[23]
Diamond has appeared in pantomimes including playing the Wicked Queen inSnow White atStoke-on-Trent in 2005, alongsideKen Morley andSooty. She said that she thoroughly enjoyed the experience.[24]
Diamond became involved in raising awareness ofSudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS, also known as "cot death"), after her son Sebastian died from the syndrome in 1991. She fronted "Back to Sleep", a campaign telling parents to ensure that babies slept on their backs. Since then incidents of SIDS in the United Kingdom fell from more than 2,000 per year to around 300, a drop which has been attributed to the campaign.[5] Diamond was awarded the Gold Medal of theRoyal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the only time it had been awarded to a non-medic.[5]
Diamond spoke out over the cot death and baby-swap storyline in theBBC One soap operaEastEnders, featuring charactersKat Moon andRonnie Branning. "I think it's crass what they've done," she toldITV'sDaybreak breakfast programme, calling the plot "tacky sensationalism". There were many complaints about the episode after it was broadcast on New Year's Eve.
FSID named Diamond as their AnniversaryPatron for their 40th anniversary in 2011.[25]
On 28 March 2008, in an article for theDaily Mail tabloid newspaper, Diamond contributed to an article concerning violence in video games where she is quoted as saying that the gameResident Evil 4 "shouldn't be allowed to be sold, even to adults".[26]
Diamond has been featured in numerous stories in the Britishtabloid press since the mid-1980s. On 28 November 2011, she gave evidence at theLeveson Inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the press.[27] She gave detailed accounts of intrusion by journalists into her life and her dealings with tabloid newspapers.
Diamond was appointedOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the2023 New Year Honours for services to public health and charity.[28]
She is the first non-medic to be awarded the Gold Medal of theRoyal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
Diamond began an affair with Mike Hollingsworth in the mid-1980s while he was married to his first wife. They married in 1989 following the birth of their second child, and went on to have three more children together. Their third child, Sebastian, died ofSudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) when he was three months old. Diamond and Hollingsworth separated in 1998 after he had numerous affairs, and divorced in 1999.[29]
Diamond is a railway modeller.[30]
In June 2023, Diamond announced that she had been diagnosed withbreast cancer. As part of her treatment, she underwent a doublemastectomy and was having "intensiveradiotherapy".[31]
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