Kate Thornton

Kate Thornton (born 7 February 1973)[2] is an English journalist and television presenter, best known as the first presenter of The X Factor (2004–2006) and for presenting daytime shows including Loose Women (2009–2011) and This Morning (2009–2012). In 2010, she co-presented the first series of 71 Degrees North alongside Gethin Jones.

Kate Thornton
Thornton in 2010
Born	7 February 1973 Cheltenham, Gloucestershire,[1] England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Television presenter, journalist
Years active	1992–present
Television	Don't Try This at Home! (1998–2001) The X Factor (2004–2006) Loose Women (2009–2011) This Morning (2009–2012) 71 Degrees North (2010)
Partner(s)	Darren Emerson (2004–2011)
Children	1

Career

Journalism

In 1995, she became the youngest ever editor of pop magazine Smash Hits at age 22, producing her first issue in February 1996 covering the breakup of boy-band Take That.[3] She left a year later, having been unable to prevent a further slide in sales of the magazine.[4] In 1997, she became a Features Editor at the Sunday Times, a post she held until 2001, and also a contributing Editor for magazine Marie Claire, in which position she continued until 2003.[5]

Television

Whilst undertaking these new editorial roles, Thornton began a second career in television. In February 1997, Thornton was given her first TV presenting job, on the ITV current affairs programme Straight Up. She was tasked with putting together a photo tribute with music for Princess Diana on the day of her death. In an interview in March 2011, Thornton said: "...because it was a Sunday, the music library was shut and the only thing I had in my car, the only piece of music that was appropriate was "Candle in the Wind" from Elton John's greatest hits." Colleagues attributed the subsequent airplay and then the re-recording of the song to this event. Thornton is quoted as having been doubtful initially, but later having come to accept the possibility: "I never dared to assume for one minute that I was the link. But Nick Knowles (co-presenter on the show) has convinced me that whatever came as a result of it was all down to me."[6]

Thornton was the first presenter of the UK series of The X Factor. She presented three series of the show from 2004 until 2006 before being replaced by Dermot O'Leary. Thornton later anchored ITV's daytime series Loose Women, in rotation with Andrea McLean. She presented 233 episodes of the show from 2009 until 2011. She was replaced by Carol Vorderman.

Thornton was a regular stand-in presenter on This Morning and in 2010, she co-presented the first series of 71 Degrees North alongside Gethin Jones. Neither returned for the second series. In 2010, she narrated The Nation's Favourite Abba Song. Thornton also presented A Night with Will Young in 2011. She guest presented six episodes of Lorraine in 2012.

Thornton also presented Gravity Games for BBC Two, Women: The Naked Truth Honest for Channel 4 and Breasts Uncupped for Sky1.[5]

Radio

Thornton has presented a number of programmes for BBC Radio 2 since 2002. Along with presenting, Thornton was also the writer of the radio documentary From Band to Brand in 2004, and the creator of the radio series Line of Enquiry, inviting an audience to put questions to a number of celebrities, which began in 2007.[5]

From 10 March until 28 April 2013, Thornton presented The Boots Feel Good Forum, a radio show dedicated to health and fitness, which aired on Real Radio and Smooth Radio.[7]

Since 2014, Thornton has presented Paper Cuts, a radio series for BBC Radio 2.

Other work

Thornton launched cashback site TBSeen in January 2016,[8] along with TV presenters Myleene Klass, Amanda Byram and Denise Van Outen, celebrity chef Lisa Faulkner, actresses Tamzin Outhwaite, Julie Graham and singers Heidi Range and the band All Saints, Nicole Appleton, Natalie Appleton, Mel Blatt and Shaznay Lewis. TBSeen entered administration in September 2018.[9]

Thornton hosted the live Strictly Come Dancing tour in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013. She also voiced the role of the red carpet presenter in the UK Version of Shrek 2.

Kate currently hosts Yahoo! podcast White Wine Question Time where she asks three friends, three questions over three bottles of wine. Guests have included Jo Joyner, Nadia Sawalha, Malin Andersson, Leigh Francis, Angela Griffin and Amanda Holden. The podcast first aired in December 2018.[10] During lockdown, she also created and hosted Up Close And Socially Distant, a video series for Yahoo!, where she chatted over the phone to famous faces, front line workers and those leading initiatives to help serve the community during lockdown.[11] The show ran for nine weeks.

Personal life

Thornton began dating DJ Darren Emerson in 2004.[12] The couple became engaged in 2007. She gave birth to her first child, a boy named Ben on 13 May 2008.[13] On 3 February 2011, she announced live on air that she and Emerson had separated.

In January 2012, Thornton said that after leaving Loose Women she had enrolled at college to study counselling because her television career had "hit the kerb".[14]

She has been in a relationship with construction worker Mat Vincent since 2013.

Filmography

Television

Year	Title	Role
1998–1999	Top of the Pops	Presenter
	Dishes
	The Power List
1998–2000	The Kate and Jono Show	Co-presenter
	Don't Try This at Home	Presenter
	This Morning	Reporter
2000	The TV BAFTAs	Presenter
2001–2003	Pop Idol: Extra
2001	The Brits are Coming
	The Brits: Backstage
	BAFTA Children's Awards
2001–2002	The Ideal Home Show
2001–2003	Holiday – You Call the Shots
2002	Lad's Army
2003	VH-1's Behind the Movies: Top Gun	Narrator[15]
2004	American Idol	Guest
2004	Westlife - She's The One	Host
2004–2006	The X Factor	Presenter
2005	Celebrity Wrestling	Co-presenter
	Happy Birthday Elton John	Presenter
	Greatest Britons	Presenter
2007	Britain's Classroom Heroes	Co-presenter
	Royal Variety Performance
2008	Countdown to Midnight: Take That Live	Presenter
	Don't Miss a Trick	Presenter
	Hello Goodbye
	Elton's New Year's Eve Party
2009–2011	Loose Women	Anchor
2009–2012, 2014, 2018	This Morning	Relief presenter
2010	71 Degrees North	Co-presenter
	The Nation's Favourite Abba Song	Narrator
2011	A Night with Will Young	Presenter
2011, 2012	This Morning's Hub	Relief presenter
2012	Lorraine	Guest presenter
2018	The One Show	Presenter of special segment on Smash Hits
2019	Richard Osman's House of Games	Panellist
2020–	Children in Need	Co-presenter

Radio

Year	Title	Role	Network	Notes
2005–2020	Let's Talk	Presenter	BBC Newcastle	Regular presenter
2011	Going Out with Alan Carr	Stand-in presenter	BBC Radio 2
2013	The Boots Feel Good Forum	Presenter	Real Radio & Smooth Radio	1 series
2014–2016, 2019	Paper Cuts		BBC Radio 2	4 series (2014–2016) Christmas Special (2019)
2015	Magic's Music of My Life		Magic	1 series
2017	Saturday Breakfast	Stand-in presenter	BBC Radio 2
	Kate Thornton's 90s	Presenter		One-off special
2017–2019	The Zoë Ball Show	Stand-in presenter
2017–	Kate Thornton's Breakfast Show	Presenter	BBC Radio Shropshire	Saturday–Sunday

References

1. Hellomagazine.com. "Kate Thornton. Biography, news, photos and videos". hellomagazine.com. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
2. Hellomagazine.com. "Kate Thornton. Biography, news, photos and videos". hellomagazine.com. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
3. Can 'Smash Hits' survive the end of Take That? by Andy Beckett The Independent – Sunday 18 February 1996
4. About Smash Hits! Archived 2 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine Smash Hits Pop Channel website
5. Kate Thornton CV at Troika Talent PDF file accessed September 2011
6. Kate Thornton: Single motherhood, guilt and why she worries about Kate Middleton, Interview by Marianne Kavanagh.
7. West, Gillian (8 March 2013). "Boots UK launches radio and online programme hosted by Kate Thornton". The Drum. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
8. Julia Llewellyn Smith (2 January 2016). "TV presenter Kate Thornton's new venture that could save you money". The Daily Telegraph.
9. "Cashback Site TBSeen Goes Into Administration". Skint Dad. 5 November 2018. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
10. "iTunesCharts.net: 'White Wine Question Time' by Yahoo! UK (British Podcasts iTunes Chart)". www.itunescharts.net. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
11. "Yahoo UK launches new series: Up Close and Socially Distant". www.inpublishing.co.uk. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
12. Melanie Swan. Joy of X. The People. 29 October 2006.
13. McGrath, Nick (29 December 2019). "Kate Thornton: For a loose woman, I'm obsessed with saving". Retrieved 4 January 2020 – via www.thetimes.co.uk.
14. "HuffPost is now a part of Verizon Media". consent.yahoo.com. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
15. Doug Rittenhouse (2003). Behind The Movies - Top Gun (Television production). VH1. Event occurs at 40:34. Retrieved 9 August 2019.

External links

• Kate Thornton at IMDb
• Kate Thornton's CV