Carol Vorderman MBEHonFIET
Vorderman in 2018
Born	Carol Jean Vorderman (1960-12-24)24 December 1960 (age 65) Bedford, England
Education	Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (BA)
Occupations	Broadcaster media personality writer
Years active	1982–present
Spouses	Christopher Mather ​ ​ (m. 1985; div. 1986)​ Patrick King ​ ​ (m. 1990; div. 2000)​
Partner	Des Kelly (2001–2006)
Children	2
Relatives	Adolphe Vorderman (great-grandfather)

Carol Jean Vorderman (born 24 December 1960) is a Welsh^[1] broadcaster, media personality, and writer. Her media career began when she joined theChannel 4 game showCountdown, appearing withRichard Whiteley from 1982 until his death in 2005, and subsequently withDes Lynam andDes O'Connor, before leaving in 2008.

While appearing onCountdown, Vorderman began presenting shows forITV, includingHow 2 (1990–1996),Better Homes (1999–2003) andThe Pride of Britain Awards (1999–present), as well as guest hosting shows, such asHave I Got News for You (2004–2006) andThe Sunday Night Project (2006). She was a presenter on the ITV talk showLoose Women^[2] from 2011 until 2014. She has also appeared as a contestant on reality shows, includingStrictly Come Dancing (2004),I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (2016) andThe Great Celebrity Bake-Off (2020), winning the last. Since 2022, Vorderman has been a news-reviewer forThis Morning.

Vorderman was honoured as a Member of theOrder of the British Empire (MBE) for services to broadcasting in theQueen's Birthday Honours in June 2000. She has also worked as a newspaper columnist and nominal author of educational and diet books. In 2023, Vorderman began presenting her own show for the talk radio stationLBC, but has since stepped down from presenting regularly on the station.

Vorderman was born on 24 December 1960^[3] inBedford,Bedfordshire, the youngest of three children^[4] of aDutch father, Anton Vorderman (1920–2007), and aWelsh mother, Edwina Jean Davies (1928–2017).^[5] Her parents separated three weeks after her birth, and her mother took the family back to her home town ofPrestatyn,Flintshire (now inDenbighshire),North Wales,^[5] where Vorderman and her brother and sister^[6] grew up. Vorderman did not see her father again until she was 42. In 1970, her mother remarried, separating ten years later.^[4] Vorderman's father remarried; his wife died in the early 1990s.^[4]

Vorderman was educated atBlessed Edward Jones Catholic High School in nearbyRhyl. In 1978, aged 17, she began studying engineering atSidney Sussex College, Cambridge. She left with athird-class degree, a result which she has described as having been "disappointing".^[7] Vorderman did not trace the Dutch side of her family until 2007 (as part of theBBC genealogy programmeWho Do You Think You Are?). It was only then that she discovered that her father had been an active member of theDutch resistance during theNazi occupation. He died while the programme was being filmed.^[5] Her great-grandfatherAdolphe Vorderman played a key role in the discovery ofvitamins.^[8]

Vorderman initially found employment as a junior civil engineer atDinorwig Power Station inLlanberis, Wales, and later as a graduate management trainee inLeeds. In her spare time, she was briefly abacking singer with friend Lindsay Forrest in the Leeds-based pop group Dawn Chorus and the Blue Tits, fronted by radio DJLiz Kershaw during the early 1980s.^[9]

The group recorded, among other songs, a version ofThe Undertones' hit "Teenage Kicks" (one of the tracks Vorderman had to identify during the "intros round" when she appeared onNever Mind the Buzzcocks in December 2009; the series often includes questions from contestants' pasts).

During 1984–85, Vorderman made regular appearances on thePeter Levy show onRadio Aire, appearing mid-morning to read a story for pre-school children. In the mid-1980s, Vorderman worked part-time in the Information Services Department of the UKAtomic Energy Authority, principally in the production of in-house video programmes.

Vorderman's mother noticed an advertisement inThe Yorkshire Post^[10] asking for "a woman with good mathematical skills"^{[citation needed]} to appear as co-host on a quiz show for the fledgling fourth terrestrial channel. She submitted an application on behalf of her daughter, then aged 21. Vorderman appeared onCountdown from the show's inception in 1982 until 2008.^[11]

Initially, Vorderman's only contribution to the show was the numbers game, and she formed part of a five-person presentation team, billed as one of the "vital statisticians" along with Linda Barrett.^[12] However, over the following years, the team was pared down, and Vorderman began handling tiles for both the letters and numbers games.^[13] Vorderman thus became a new type of game show hostess, revealing her intellectual ability by carrying out fast and accurate arithmetic calculations during the numbers game to reach an exact solution if neither contestant was able to do so. Her lasting success on the show led to her becoming one of the highest-paid women in Britain, ultimately earning her an estimated £1 million per year.^{[citation needed]}

In June 2005, the producers ofCountdown asked Vorderman if she wanted to fill the role of main presenter vacated by the recently deceasedRichard Whiteley. Vorderman declined, and a search for a new presenter began while the show went into a four-month hiatus. In October 2005,Des Lynam replaced Whiteley and co-hosted with Vorderman. In January 2007,Des O'Connor replaced Lynam while Vorderman continued to co-host the show. On 25 July 2008, after 26 unbroken years with the show, it was announced that Vorderman was stepping down fromCountdown.^[14] She later said she had resigned after failing to agree terms for a new contract, and it was reported that she had been asked to take a cut of 90% from her previous salary, estimated as £900,000.^[15] She had considered leaving the show when the show's original host Richard Whiteley died in 2005, but remained on the show when Lynam took over, and until 2008 when his eventual replacement O'Connor announced he was also to step down as the show's host.^[16] Vorderman and O'Connor both left the show in December 2008.^[17]

Vorderman recorded her lastCountdown show on 13 November 2008 which was broadcast on 12 December 2008. Both of her children were in the audience, together with many of the previous guests from "Dictionary Corner". After the prizegiving at the end of the show, Des O'Connor was presented with a bouquet of flowers by the show'slexicographerSusie Dent, and Vorderman received one fromGyles Brandreth. She was too moved to complete her farewells. A special show,One Last Consonant, Please Carol, hosted by Brandreth and featuring Vorderman's highs and lows during the 26 years of the show, was also filmed and transmitted just before her finalCountdown appearance.^[18]

After leavingCountdown, Vorderman continued to contribute her column to the British magazineReveal. Channel 4 admitted in 2009 that allCountdown presenters had always wornearpieces, and that producers would "sometimes supply extra ideas as there are often multiple options to ensure viewers are given the best possible answers." A source close to Vorderman denied that she had worn an earpiece or cheated in her mental arithmetic answers.^[19]

In July 2011, Vorderman andSally Lindsay were tipped for roles onLoose Women following ITV's decision to axeKate Thornton andZoë Tyler from the programme.^[20] This was later confirmed, with Vorderman presenting her first live show on 5 September 2011.^[21] From September 2011 to June 2013, Vorderman and fellowLoose Women hostAndrea McLean hosted two to three shows per week. However, after the show returned from its summer break in September 2013, she began to host one episode per week, with McLean anchoring the remaining four. On 3 October 2013, it was announced that formerLoose Women presenterKaye Adams would be returning to the show later in the year andRuth Langsford would join the panel in January 2014. Adams, Langsford and Andrea McLean hosted the show in rotation, with Vorderman remaining as an occasional presenter on the programme, usually presenting one episode a fortnight.^[22]

On 14 July 2014, Vorderman announced her departure as a presenter onLoose Women. Vorderman explained:

I am getting into the hard work for my planning and training to go round the world next year. In the first two years on Loose I did over 100 days a year but in the last year I have only managed just over 20 days because I kept having to cancel days due to other work commitments. I tried appearing just once a week up until Christmas and I just couldn't do it. I write a lot of educational books and have a big maths website so my time is spent with those too. I like to do things properly and it's unfair to commit to something half-heartedly.

Vorderman is the presenter of the annualPride of Britain Awards, which are televised byITV. She began hosting the awards when they were introduced in 1999. In 2004, Vorderman took part in thesecond series ofStrictly Come Dancing, partnered with professional dancerPaul Killick. She was the second celebrity to be eliminated from the show. She guest presentedHave I Got News for You in 2004 and 2006 and also presented an episode ofThe Sunday Night Project. Vorderman guest presented 15 episodes ofLorraine in 2011. She presented theITV Food showFood Glorious Food in 2013. In March 2013, Vorderman recorded anITV gameshow pilot calledRevolution. On 29 June 2013, it was announced that the show had been "scrapped" by ITV.^[23]

In 2016, Vorderman finished in eighth place in thesixteenth series ofI'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! On 7 April 2020, Vorderman appeared onThe Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off and won. Broadcast onS4C on 19 April 2020, Vorderman took part in the showIaith ar Daith ('Language Road Trip') and, with the help ofOwain Wyn Evans, learnedWelsh and completed various challenges in the language. An extra episode,Iaith ar Daith 'Dolig ('Language Road Trip: Christmas') was broadcast at the end of 2020, interviewing each of the celebrities about whether they were still making use of their Welsh and the opportunities they had had to use Welshduring lockdown.^[24]

In 2023, Vorderman appeared inI'm a Celebrity... South Africa.^[25] On 16 June 2023, she appeared as herself in Episode 1 of theBBC One comedyQueen of Oz. Vorderman is seen and heard on her radio programme questioning the outrageous antics of spoiled spare to the British crown, Princess Georgiana, played byCatherine Tate.

After leaving the BBC in 2023, Vorderman was an occasional guest host onLBC. In January 2024, two months after her BBC departure, she was to present her own show from 4pm to 7pm on Sunday afternoons. She said "I'll be using my voice – as you might expect – to cause a commotion. I won't be shy to say things that others won't and I'll hold the corrupt to account without fear or favour."^[41] Vorderman announced on 11 October 2024 that she would leave LBC following a "health scare".

Vorderman has had newspaper columns inThe Daily Telegraph, and in theDaily Mirror on Internet topics. She has written books onDetox diets. Her No. 1 bestseller wasDetox For Life, produced in collaboration with Ko Chohan and Anita Bean and published byVirgin Books, which sold over a million copies. Many school textbooks have been published under her name, chiefly byDorling Kindersley in series such asEnglish Made Easy,Maths Made Easy,Science Made Easy andHow to PassNational Curriculum Maths.

Vorderman expanded her business ventures, launching a number ofSudoku products. In March 2007, she launched a brain-training game calledCarol Vorderman's Mind Aerobics together withBSkyB. Also in 2007, she released a video game forPlayStation 2 andPlayStation Portable in the United States entitledCarol Vorderman's Sudoku. In 2007, Vorderman did TV commercials for the frozen food chain Farmfoods – advertising "Chippy Chips for £1" and "Cadbury's Cones for 99p".^[42]

In the autumn of 2008, soon after she completed her final regularCountdown show, Vorderman announced a new commercial venture, her own property development and sales company that would specialise in overseas holiday and retirement homes in the Caribbean, including the Bahamas, and Spain. It was called Carol Vorderman Overseas Homes Limited.^[43] She saw the company as a natural extension of her own experiences in buying and selling properties over recent years and was aiming at a target market of "families aged 35 plus".^[44] However, due to the2008 financial crisis, the venture proved short-lived. During March 2009 Vorderman publicly withdrew her name from the firm, which suspended trading soon afterwards. On 2 March 2010, Vorderman publicly launched her new commercial venture of an online mathematics coaching system for 4- to 12-year-old children under the name of the MathsFactor.^[45]

Vorderman had maintained a long-standing endorsement of thedebt consolidation company FirstPlus, an association that ceased in 2007. In 2006, the charity Credit Action attempted to highlight the potential dangers of debt consolidation, calling on Vorderman to stop giving First Plus credibility. Her agent responded that Vorderman had no intention of curtailing the contract for a service which was perfectly legal and offered by an excellent company.^[14] When interviewed byThe Daily Telegraph in November 2008 Vorderman herself responded with:

The secured loans market was criticised and it was pertinent to pick me out, because I was a face. I advertised FirstPlus for 10 years. We had something like £1.5billion out on loan and until a matter of months ago there were no repossessions. When that programme [BBC's Real Story] was made, [there were] no repossessions. Did they say that? Funnily enough, no.^[44]

On 18 September 2010, Vorderman, a Catholic, co-presented events leading up to thePapal Vigil inHyde Park, alongside authorFrank Cottrell Boyce.^[46][47] On 2 June 2012, Vorderman named aClass 91 (91110) "Battle of Britain Memorial Flight" at theNational Railway Museum as part of the Railfest 2012 Event. In 2014, Vorderman qualified for aprivate pilot's licence and announced that she planned to fly solo around the world.^[48] She named her planeMildred afterMildred, Mrs Victor Bruce, a British record-breaking racing motorist, speedboat racer and aviator in the 1920s and 1930s, who Vorderman has described as "my heroine. She's one of the most incredible women of the last century".^[49]

On 20 November 2014, Vorderman accepted the appointment of ambassador to theRoyal Air Force Air Cadets, and was granted the honorary rank ofgroup captain in theRoyal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (Training Branch).^[50][51] In 2017, her honorary commission was extended to 19 November 2020.^[52] Vorderman has also taken up learning theWelsh language and has been using the Say Something in Welsh online course. In early 2020, she said "I've been learning Welsh ... and I love it. It's taken me back to my roots".^[53]

Vorderman is aCatholic.^[54] She was first married in 1985^{[citation needed]} at age 24 to Christopher Mather, aRoyal Navy officer, but the marriage lasted only twelve months. Her second marriage was to management consultant Patrick King in 1990 at the age of 30.^{[citation needed]} Vorderman had two children with King, Katie (b. 1992) and Cameron (born 1997);^[48] the couple separated in 2000.^[55]

After meeting at a Christmas party in 1999, Vorderman andDes Kelly lived together in London from 2001, also using their other house inGlandore,West Cork, Ireland. After five years together, Vorderman and Kelly separated in December 2006, publicly announcing the amicable split in January 2007,^[56] and after a brief reconciliation inBristol, according to reports.^[57][58]

Vorderman shares her Bristol home with her two children.^[59][60] Vorderman lived with or very near to her mother all her life, until her mother's death in 2017.^[61] On 6 June 2020, she complained in a number of UK newspapers of being harassed by photographers in the road outside her home.^[62][63] Vorderman in 2022 declared a lack of interest in traditionalmonogamy, preferring to have "special friends" withbenefits.^[64]

In 2009, Vorderman mocked theLabour Party's education policies,^[65] as part of her work heading a task force established by theConservative Party to look at the teaching of mathematics.^[66]David Cameron commented, "Carol has got a passion for maths. We have all seen that onCountdown with her brilliant mental arithmetic and she is going to lead this task force so we can get the answers right."^[67] In an appearance onQuestion Time in March 2010, Vorderman was critical of all three major parties for hypocrisy in taking donations fromnon-domiciled taxpayers.^[68]

In 2023, Vorderman was critical of the Conservative administration, labelling it a "despicable government",^[69] and described herself as beingpolitically independent.^[69] In 2022, Vorderman was praised byThe Herald as the "realleader of the opposition" after criticising members of the government for exploiting their positions for personal gain.^[70]

In November 2023, the BBC objected to Vorderman'ssocial media postings reflecting her personal opinions; she said that she would "not be silenced" by the BBC's new social media guidelines, and resigned from her weekly BBC Radio Wales show. She immediately made several posts criticising several people and policies of theConservative government in power at the time.^[64] She referred to the then government as "a lying bunch of greedy, corrupt, destructive, hateful, divisive, gaslighting crooks".^[41] In late 2023, she became the face oftactical voting initiativeStopTheTories.vote.^[71][72]

In August 2024 she delivered the Alternative MacTaggart Lecture at theEdinburgh Television Festival, saying "Our industry is [full] of snobbery – regional snobbery, class snobbery and educational snobbery – and don't even get me started on the political issues...Working class people feel they are not represented, their situation is not represented, the lack of opportunities and lack of money and jobs is not represented...What [social media] gives everyone, in towns and cities outside the wealthy south-east, the opportunity to do, is to see and hear views they recognise, in language they recognise."^[73]

Vorderman was appointedMember of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to broadcasting in the2000 Birthday Honours.^[74] She was elected an Honorary Fellow ofBangor University in North Wales^[75] and, in 2000, received an Honorary MA from theUniversity of Bath.^[76]

Vorderman was voted UK FemaleRear of the Year in 2011.^[77] In 2014, she became the first celebrity to win the award twice.^[77] In November 2021, she was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of theInstitution of Engineering and Technology in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the engineering profession.^[78]

Vorderman is apatron of the Cleft Lip and Palate Association (CLAPA)^[79] (her older brother, Anton, was born with acleft lip and palate). In 2005, she was the winner ofAnt and Dec's Gameshow Marathon. As part of its 50th anniversary celebrationsITV ran a series of the nation's favourite game shows featuring celebrities competing to become Gameshow Marathon winner and raise money for the charity of their choice. As series winner Vorderman won £60,000 for CLAPA.^[80] In November 2011, she appeared in the music video in aid of CLAPA for New Vorder'sCarol O Carol, a song written by Jim Salveson in 1999 about his love for Vorderman, and directed by Tim Cocker.^[81]

Vorderman appeared in a short film,Run for the future, promotingprostate cancer awareness, and took part in a charity run held every year on theBristol Downs to raise funds for the BUI prostate appeal. She also took part in theGreat North Run on several occasions, to raise money forMarie Curie Cancer Care in memory ofRichard Whiteley's sister Helen, who died of cancer.^[82] Vorderman is an active supporter and advocate of theRAF Association charity, appearing at airshows and taking part in other fundraising events.^[83][84]

• Dirty, Loud and Brilliant, 1988ISBN 0340426195
• Carol Vorderman's Pop Music Times Tables, 1990
• Carol Vorderman's How to Write a Perfect Letter, 1991
• How Mathematics Works, 1996
• Carol Vorderman's Guide to the Internet (written with Rob Young), 1998
• 30-Day Cellulite Plan, 2004ISBN 978-0753509173
• Carol Vorderman's How to Do Sudoku, 2005
• Carol Vorderman's Massive Book of Sudoku, 2005
• Eat Yourself Clever, 2008
• Carol Vorderman's Guide to Maths
• Carol Vorderman's Detox Diet, 2009ISBN 978-0753516812
• It All Counts, 2010ISBN 978-0755360079
• Now What? On a Mission to Fix Broken Britain, 2024ISBN 9781035421244

• List of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (British TV series) contestants
• List of Strictly Come Dancing contestants

Wikimedia Commons has media related toCarol Vorderman.

• Carol Vorderman atIMDb
• Debrett's People of Today
• Carol Vorderman at Biogs.com
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