Anne Diamond

Anne Diamond (born 8 September 1954) is an English television journalist and presenter

She is known for hosting "Good Morning Britain" for TV-am and the (deliberately) similarly-titled "Good Morning... with Anne and Nick" for BBC1, both with Nick Owen as her co-presenter

Anne makes regular appearances airing her views as a panelist on Channel 5's "The Wright Stuff" and frequently hosts programmes on BBC London..

Biography

Diamond was born and grew up in Great Malvern and she attended Worcester Grammar School for Girls.

20th century

She then began her career as a journalist on the "Bridgwater Mercury" and "Bournemouth Evening Echo." She began her television career with "ATV Today" in 1979 and "Central News", before joining the BBC in 1983.

After ITV's franchised breakfast show "TV-am"'s chief executive Peter Jay quit, new producer Greg Dyke sacked presenters Anna Ford and Angela Rippon, to be replaced in 1983 by new team Nick Owen, Diamond - and puppet, Roland Rat [ http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2008/05/20/breakfast_anne_nick_feature.shtml|BBC London news article ] . The show's figures slowly picked up.

Diamond became involved in raising awareness of cot death after her son, Sebastian, died from the syndrome in 1991. She fronted a campaign telling parents to ensure that babies slept on their backs. Since then, there has been a significant fall in the incidence of cot death in the United Kingdom, from more than 2000 per year to less than 200, which has been attributed to the campaign. Even to this day the "back to sleep" campaign remains the UK's most successful health campaign in the United Kingdom ever.Diamond was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal College of Paediatricians, the only time it has ever been awarded to a non-medic.

After "TV-am" lost its ITV breakfast franchise in 1992, Diamond was rejoined by Nick Owen to present daytime show "Good Morning with Anne and Nick". The program ran for 4 years against ITV's "This Morning", before going off air.

In the late 1990s she presented the breakfast show on the London radio station LBC, variously with Sir Nicholas Lloyd and Tommy Boyd. After a few months presenting her own lunchtime show in 1999, she left the station.

21st century

In 2002 she returned to television, appearing in "Celebrity Big Brother".

In October 2004 she joined BBC Radio Oxford, presenting the weekday breakfast programme.

In 2006, she appeared in "Celebrity Fit Club". She was initially made team captain but was later demoted for walking off on her team. It was then revealed that she received Adjustable gastric banding surgery before appearing on the show, which provoked much press outrage. It subsequently emerged that the operation had not been successful, although Diamond had quit the show in week seven - Diamond later had a successful second operation. Shortly afterwards she left BBC Radio Oxford, presenting her last breakfast programme on 17 March 2006, her replacement being Sybil 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 [citeweb|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/content/articles/2006/01/11/celebrity_fitclub.shtml|title=Celebrity Fitclub|publisher=BBC Oxford|date=11 January 2006|accessdate=2008-01-06]

In 2008, Diamond hosted a series of special 25th year reunion "TV-am" daily shows on the BBC London 94.9 breakfast show between 27th - 30th May 2008 along with Nick Owen.

Diamond now often sits in for Vanessa Feltz's morning call-in show on BBC London 94.9 on Bank Holidays and during Feltz's personal holidays.

Diamond became involved in co-developing a jewellery range, which she currently markets on QVC under her own name brand. [citeweb|url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=506305&in_page_id=1773|title=Anne Diamond's journey: From golden girl of breakfast TV to selling jewellery on QVC|publisher=Daily Mail|date=6 January 2008|accessdate=2008-01-06]

Personal life

She married Mike Hollingsworth in 1989, and the couple have four children: Oliver, James, Jake and Conor. But after he had an affair with radio presenter Harriet Scott, they separated. Hollingsworth tried to get back together with Diamond after rows with Scott, [ [http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/stechilton/harriet.htm Harriet Scott ] ] but the couple have since divorced

References

External links

* [http://www.fathappens.co.uk Fathappens.co.uk Anne Diamond's project]
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