Fiona Phillips

Fiona Phillips (born 1 January 1961, Canterbury, Kent) is an English journalist, broadcaster and television presenter.

Early life

Phillips was born in Kent and Canterbury hospital in 1961. Her grandparents ran the Duke's Head pub in Church Street St. Paul's. Phillips attended Kingsmead primary school.^[1] The family later moved to Southampton where Phillips completed her schooling at Millbrook Community School. After leaving school, Phillips worked for a short time at Mr Kipling's Bakery in Eastleigh, near Southampton. Fiona graduated from the University of Birmingham with a BA (Hons) in English; she also undertook a PGC in journalism.

Career

Phillips started her career in independent radio working as a reporter for local stations County Sound in Surrey, Hereward Radio and Radio Mercury in Sussex.

Moving from radio to television several years later, she joined BBC South East's Weekend Programme as co-presenter, before becoming a reporter with CNN News, later moving on to become the station's entertainments editor, producing, reporting and presenting CNN News' entertainment output.

Phillips claimed to have been offered a job in November 2007 as public health minister in the administration of Gordon Brown, as well as a peerage. Phillips said she declined due to her responsibilities to her two small children.^[2]

GMTV

In 1993, Phillips joined GMTV as entertainment correspondent and was promoted to GMTV/Reuters Television's LA correspondent in December 1993. For over two years Fiona provided daily and weekly reports and covered a number of big news stories including the Michael Jackson alleged child molestation case, the LA earthquake, the first OJ Simpson trial and the Oscars. She also interviewed some of the industry's biggest stars from Leonardo DiCaprio and Clint Eastwood, to Brad Pitt and Mel Gibson.

From 1996 to 2008, she was the main anchor on GMTV, presenting GMTV Today every Monday to Wednesday. On 28 August 2008 Phillips announced that she was to quit her role as main anchor on GMTV for family reasons.^[3] She presented her final show on 18 December 2008.^[4] At the end of 2009, she will be returning to GMTV.^{[citation needed]}

Other activities

Phillips has also presented other programmes, including as the celebrity lifestyle show OK!TV, Baby House and Room to Rent, Carlton's entertainment guide Good Stuff, LWT's Friday evening entertainment show Start the Weekend, ITV's Sunday Night and the Rich and Famous series. Phillips currently writes an opinion column in The Daily Mirror on Saturdays.

Phillips was a regular panelist on Loose Women in 2002, and was guest host in 2004 and 2005. She returned to Loose Women as a relief presenter for Jackie Brambles in March 2009.

She voiced the character of Katie Current in the British release of Shark Tale. She took part in the third series (2005) of Strictly Come Dancing with professional partner Brendan Cole. The pair were voted out on Week 4 following several weeks of low scores.

Fiona had also been in the documentary The Killer in Me on 8 November 2007, a show that saw four celebrities agree to take a groundbreaking test that revealed the secret killers lurking in their genes. Fiona joined former England footballer John Barnes, political commentator and presenter Andrew Neil, and Heart FM DJ Toby Anstis who all found out their risk of developing 11 major diseases, including cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's disease.

Phillips hosted a show on Smooth Radio in the 2-5pm slot every Sunday, starting from Easter Sunday, 23 March 2008,^[5] until 2009 when she left the station. On 13 March 2008, Phillips, who is the Age Concern Ambassador, presented the Age Concern Grandparent Of The Year 2008, which took place in the Houses of Parliament.^[6]

On 7 September 2008 she was a guest on Soccer Aid and again on 12 September 2008, this time on Al Murray's Happy Hour both shown on ITV1.

She has also stood in for Simon Mayo on BBC Radio Five Live from Monday 30 March to Friday 3 April 2009.

Charity works

Already a supporter of many charities, Phillips' mother suffered from breast cancer, before dying on 15 May 2006 from Alzheimer's disease. Phillips took a break from her work on GMTV, and has since supported many organisations associated with the two diseases. On 15 February 2007 she appeared as a contestant with her brother Andrew on Dale's Supermarket Sweep, playing to raise money for their charity for Alzheimer's sufferers.

Phillips is well known as one of the judges of the Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards, and for presenting the GMTV Emergency Services award. She has also been one of the judges for the Children of Courage awards. From 15 October 2007, she reported from Geita, North Tanzania, for one week to visit Neema, a 13-year-old girl who Phillips has been sponsoring, and her family, friends and local schools.^[7] On 1 March 2007 she had published a 'Quick Reads' book for World Book Day A Day To Remember which is aimed at emergent readers and adult learners. Phillips hosted the Breast cancer Care's annual fashion show in October 2007.

Phillips is also a patron of Barnardos, Alzheimer's Society, Age Concern, Richard House Children's Hospice, and Mildmay Mission Hospital.

Honours

In 1996 Phillips was nominated for the Royal Television Society Interview of the Year Award.

On 7 November 2007, Phillips received an Honorary Master of Arts degree from Southampton Solent University, for "being a person distinguished in eminence and by attainments".^[8]

Personal life

Already the Los Angeles based entertainment reporter for GMTV, Phillips had previously thought her replacement for the Christmas holidays Martin Frizzell "arrogant and cold."^[9] But when he came out to LA, the pair had dinner. When she returned to the UK four months later, the pair met up at a friend's dinner party, and began dating soon after. The couple married in May 1997 and have two sons, Nathaniel, born 1999, and Mackenzie, born 2002.

A vegetarian, in June 2007 Phillips was a nominee for PETA Europe’s “Sexiest Vegetarians” poll, and subsequently won the award as 'Sexiest Female Vegetable 2007', with Russell Brand taking the award for sexiest male vegetable.^[10]

Phillips is also known to be a supporter of Chelsea Football Club.

Phillips is a member of the Labour Party and was reportedly offered a job as a special adviser in Gordon Brown's government in 2007, as part of his plans for a "Government of all the talents".^[11] She attended the 2009 Labour Party Conference in Brighton, where she introduced an address by the Home Secretary Alan Johnson.^[12][13]

References

External links

• Fiona Phillips at gm.tv
• Fiona Phillips at the Internet Movie Database
• Fiona Phillips column at the Daily Mirror
• Fiona Phillips at SmoothRadioLondon.com