Fiona Phillips Biography
Fiona Phillips is a journalist, broadcaster, and television presenter from England. She is best known for her work as a presenter on the ITV Breakfast show GMTV Today.
How old is Fiona Phillips? – Age
She is 62 years old as of 1 January 2023. She was born in 1961 in Canterbury, United Kingdom.
Fiona Phillips Family – Education
Phillips is Phillip and Amy’s daughter. Her grandparents owned the Duke’s Head pub on St Paul’s Church Street. Phillips was a student at Kingsmead Primary School. Phillips attended Millbrook Community School after her family relocated to Southampton. Phillips worked briefly after leaving school at Mr Kipling’s Bakery in Eastleigh, near Southampton. Phillips earned a BA (Hons) in English from Birmingham Polytechnic, as well as a PGCert in journalism.
Fiona Phillips GMTV
Phillips joined GMTV in 1993 as an entertainment correspondent before being promoted to GMTV/Reuters Television’s Los Angeles correspondent in December 1993. Phillips provided daily and weekly reports for over two years, covering a variety of major news stories such as Michael Jackson’s alleged child molestation case, the Los Angeles earthquake, the first O.J. Simpson trial, and the Oscars. She also spoke with some of the industry’s biggest names, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Clint Eastwood, Brad Pitt, and Mel Gibson.
She was the main anchor on GMTV from 1997 to 2008, presenting GMTV Today every Monday through Wednesday. Phillips announced her departure as GMTV’s main anchor on August 28, 2008, citing family obligations. On December 18, 2008, she presented her final performance. In GMTV’s final season in 2010, Phillips made a comeback and guest presented on the show with Lorraine. She has frequently served as a guest presenter on ITV’s Lorraine since September 2010.
Fiona Phillips Smooth Radio
Phillips hosted a show on Smooth Radio from 2 to 5 p.m. every Sunday from Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008, until her departure in 2009. From March 30 to April 3, 2009, she filled in for Simon Mayo on Radio 5 Live.
Fiona Phillips Politics
Phillips is a Labour Party supporter. She claimed she was offered a job as public health minister in Gordon Brown’s administration, as well as a peerage, in November 2007. Phillips declined because she had two small children to care for. She spoke at the 2009 Labour Party Conference in Brighton, where she introduced Home Secretary Alan Johnson. In June 2009, she appeared as a panelist on BBC One’s Question Time.
Phillips is a patron of the anti-racist organization Hope Not Hate, which have the slogan “Celebrating Britain’s diverse society”. In the run-up to the September referendum on Scottish independence, Phillips was one of 200 public figures who signed a letter to The Guardian opposing it.
Fiona Phillips Career
Phillips began her career in independent radio as a reporter for Surrey’s County Sound, Hereward Radio, and Sussex’s Radio Mercury. After transitioning from radio to television, she co-hosted BBC South East’s Weekend programme before joining CNN News as a reporter, later becoming the station’s entertainment editor, producing, reporting, and presenting CNN News’ entertainment output.
Phillips has also hosted OK! TV, Baby House and Room to Rent, Carlton’s entertainment guide Good Stuff, LWT’s Friday evening entertainment show Start the Weekend, and ITV’s Sunday Night and the Rich and Famous series.
Phillips currently works as an agony aunt in New! magazine and writes an opinion column in the Daily Mirror on Saturdays. Phillips appeared on Loose Women as a regular panelist in 2002 and as a guest anchor in 2004 and 2005. She returned as a guest anchor to Loose Women in March 2009 and again in March 2010. She was a panelist on the short-lived ITV chat show 3@Three in August 2010.
In 2005, she competed in the third series of Strictly Come Dancing with professional partner Brendan Cole. Following several weeks of low scores, the pair was voted out in Week 4.
On November 8, 2007, Phillips appeared in the documentary The Killer in Me, in which four celebrities agreed to take a groundbreaking test that revealed the secret killers lurking in their genes. Phillips joined ex-England footballer John Barnes, political commentator and presenter Andrew Neil, and Heart FM DJ Toby Anstis in learning their risk of developing 11 major diseases, including cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s.
Phillips is a regular consumer affairs reporter for BBC One’s Watchdog. Phillips presented The Truth About…Sugar on March 19, 2015, and The Truth About…Healthy Eating on June 2, 2016. Both shows aired on BBC One.
Fiona Phillips TV Shows
♦ 1993–2008 – GMTV
♦ 2002, 2004–2005, 2009–2010 – Loose Women
♦ 2005 – Strictly Come Dancing
♦ 2007 – The Killer in Me
♦ 2009 – The Wright Stuff
♦ 2010 – GMTV with Lorraine
♦ 2010–2012, 2015–2016 – Lorraine
♦ 2015 – Watchdog
♦ 2016 – The Truth About…Healthy Eating
♦ 2017 – The Truth About…Stress
♦ 2019 – Ryanair: Britain’s Best Hated Airline