Jenni Falconer

Jenni Falconer (born 12 February 1976) is a Scottish radio and television presenter. She appears on the ITV daytime show This Morning as a regular travel reporter and was a regular presenter of the National Lottery Draws on BBC One.

Jenni Falconer
Falconer at the 2008 BAFTA Television Awards
Born	(1976-02-12) 12 February 1976 (age 47) Glasgow, Scotland
Occupation	Broadcaster
Employer(s)	ITV, Smooth Radio
Television	Entertainment Today The National Lottery Draws This Morning
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Spouse	James Midgley (m. 2010)
Children	1

She was a radio presenter on Heart FM, presenting Heart Early Breakfast on weekdays from 4 am to 6:30am and Sunday Breakfast from 6 am to 9 am. She stepped down from Sunday Breakfast in June 2019 after Early Weekday Breakfast was extended from 4-6am to 4–6.30am (an extra 30 minutes) due to changes of scheduling and presenting at Heart Breakfast. In December 2019, it was announced that Jenni Falconer would leave the show after the new year. She presented her final show on Friday 20 December 2019. In January 2020, it was announced that Falconer would be the new host for Smooth London breakfast & hosting on Saturday mid-mornings.

Early life

Falconer spent her formative years in Bishopbriggs and Milngavie, two towns on the outskirts of Glasgow.^[1] After her family relocated to the South of England when she was seven, she was educated at the independent Abbey School and attended the University of Leeds in 1994 to study Spanish and Italian with minors in Latin, Geography and Management Studies. Whilst studying at university, she also launched her television career. She was offered a contract by ITV to make a documentary and a consumer show on the proviso that she left her studies.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Television

Falconer made her television debut in 1994 as a contestant on Blind Date, and later presented BBC Scotland's Big Country, ITV's documentary series 3D and consumer show We Can Work It Out alongside Judy Finnigan and Jane Harvey. She hosted travel shows, Holiday and How to Holiday. She was the main co-host of Entertainment Today from its launch in 2000 until its end in July 2008 on GMTV.

Falconer's other work includes reporting on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! in Australia for GMTV in 2003, 2004 and 2006, hosting The National Lottery Draws in September 2006 and hosting Cirque de Celebrité in October 2007. She also worked on a show about 24 for Sky1 24 in 24 which she suggested in the first place so she could meet Kiefer Sutherland.

In 2006, Falconer won the Sport Relief showjumping competition Only Fools on Horses riding an 8-year old 16 hands mare called J-Lo.

She hosted three series of Fantasy Homes By the Sea, which was broadcast around the world.

In 2009, Falconer was the host of the daytime quiz show Wordplay on Channel 5 (previously called Brainteaser).

Between 17 and 21 August 2009, Falconer was a guest presenter on STV's The Hour, with main anchor Stephen Jardine.

Falconer currently works as a travel reporter for This Morning. She also guest presented the show during Holly Willoughby's maternity leave from May to July 2011, sharing duties with Ruth Langsford and returned in 2013.

In January 2013, Falconer participated in the first series of the ITV's diving show Splash!, but was voted off by the judges. In August 2015, Falconer guest presented five episodes of Lorraine, standing in for regular host Lorraine Kelly.^{[citation needed]}

Radio

On 14 March 2013, Global Radio announced that Falconer would join Heart to host the Sunday morning show from 6 am to 8 am, replacing Jason Donovan who took a break from the network to tour in the musical Priscilla: Queen of the Desert.^[2] She has since also presented the 4 – 6 am Early Breakfast slot during the weekdays, known as 4 O'Clock Club.

Later, her Sunday show was expanded by an hour, now finishing at 9 am.

In June 2019, her early breakfast show was extended 4–6:30am due to Heart Breakfast (usually 6am-10am) becoming national with the new Scheduled of 6.30am-10am. As a result, she decided to step down from her Sunday show. Zoe Hardman replaced Jenni on the Sunday Show.

In December 2019, It was announced that Falconer had decided to leave Heart and would be replaced on her Early Breakfast slot by James Stewart. In January 2020, it was announced that Falconer would be the new host for Smooth London breakfast & hosting on Saturday mid-mornings, the latter being broadcast across the UK.

Other work

In June 2009, Falconer was unveiled as the face and body of Adore Moi underwear range by Ultimo.

Falconer has also posed for photographs in Arena Magazine and FHM. In 2016, she starred in the Very television advertisements.

In March 2019 Falconer, a dedicated runner, announced the launch of her new podcast, RunPod, in which she meets celebrities and former sports stars who also love running for pleasure.^[3]

In July 2020 Falconer became the new running coach in the Start 2 Run app, guiding and motivating others to start and keep on running.

Personal life

Falconer married James Midgley at Babington House in June 2010.^[4] She gave birth to a daughter, Ella, in September 2011.^[5]

Since 2002, Falconer has been a celebrity patron of the charity Breast Cancer 2000.^[6] In 2012, Falconer took part in the London Marathon, raising money for CLIC Sargent. She finished with a time of 3 hours and 53 minutes.^[7] In the following two years, Falconer took part in the London Marathon, where she raised money for The Children's Trust the UK's leading charity for children with brain injury and neurodisability. In 2014, she completed the marathon in 3 hours and 57 minutes.^[8][9][10] Falconer took part in the 2015 London Marathon, raising money for Cancer Research UK.^[11] In January 2019 Falconer became an Ambassador of The Children's Trust, having been a supporter since 2009.^[12] She has run three marathons for the charity in 2009, 2014 and 2019 and hosted gala fundraising events in London.

Filmography

Television

Year	Title	Role	Channel	Notes
1995	The Big Country	Presenter	BBC Scotland
1998–1999	We Can Work It Out	Co-presenter
2000–2008	Entertainment Today	Co-presenter	ITV	Part of GMTV
2004	How to Holiday^[13]	Co-presenter
2006–2015	The National Lottery Draws	Presenter	BBC One	In-rotation
2006	Only Fools on Horses	Competitor		Comic Relief show
2009	Wordplay	Presenter	Channel 5	1 series
	The Hour	Guest presenter	STV	5 episodes
2009–2010	Something for the Weekend	Guest presenter	BBC Two
2011–2018	This Morning	Various roles	ITV
2013	Splash!	Contestant		Series 1
2013–?	Fantasy Homes by the Sea	Presenter	Really
2015	Lorraine	Guest presenter	ITV	5 episodes

Guest appearances

• Blind Date (1994)
• Never Mind the Buzzcocks (2001, 2006)
• Celebrities Under Pressure (2004)
• The Paul O'Grady Show (2005, 2007)
• Hider in the House (2007)
• All Star Family Fortunes (2007)
• School's Out (2007)
• Alan Carr's Celebrity Ding Dong (2008)
• Daily Cooks Challenge (2008)
• All Star Mr & Mrs (2010)
• Countdown (2010)
• Ten Mile Menu (2010)
• The Cube Celebrity Special (2010)
• Live with Gabby (2012)
• What's Cooking? (2013)
• The Chase: Celebrity Special (2013)
• Sport Relief's Top Dog (2014)^[14]
• Tipping Point: Lucky Stars (2014)^[15]
• Celebrity Antiques Road Trip (2016)
• Pointless Celebrities (2016)^[16]
• The Saturday Show (2016)
• Celebrity Ninja Warrior (2017/2018)
• James Martin's Saturday Morning (2021)^[17]
• The Chase Celebrity Christmas Special (2021)^[18]
• The Weakest Link (2022)^[19]

References

1. Tibbetts, Graham (16 March 2001). "Love split put me on the road to telly fame; GMTV star Jenni on secret heartache". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
2. "Jason Donovan takes a break from Heart". Radio Today. 14 March 2013. from the original on 18 March 2013. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
3. "RunPod: Don't miss Jenni Falconer's new running podcast". Heart. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
4. "Jenni Falconer Names Daughter 'Ella Rose'". Contactmusic.com. 21 September 2011. from the original on 5 June 2013. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
5. "Falconer 'smitten' with baby girl". Belfast Telegraph. 21 September 2011. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
6. "Our Patron". Breast Cancer 2000. 6 June 2014. from the original on 28 July 2014. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
7. "London Marathon 2012 Celebrity Runners Times". Therunningbug.co.uk. 24 April 2012. from the original on 16 April 2014. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
8. "Virgin Money Giving | Fundraising | JENNI FALCONER LONDON MARATHON 2013". Uk.virginmoneygiving.com. from the original on 16 April 2014. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
9. "jenni falconer – So I nailed the first half but burnt out in the". Officialjennifalconer.com. from the original on 16 April 2014. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
10. "Virgin Money Giving | Fundraising | JENNI FALCONER LONDON MARATHON 2014". Uk.virginmoneygiving.com. from the original on 16 April 2014. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
11. "Archived copy" (PDF). (PDF) from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
12. "KBC All India Sim Card Lucky Draw Competition".
13. "Falconer lands ITV travel show". 6 November 2003. from the original on 24 June 2004. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
14. "BBC Two - Sport Relief's Top Dog, Episode 7". from the original on 30 April 2014. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
15. "Tipping Point: Lucky Stars Episode 6 | presscentre". Itv.com. from the original on 28 July 2014. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
16. "BBC One - Pointless Celebrities, Series 9, Radio". from the original on 21 April 2017. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
17. "James Martin's Saturday Morning". itv.com. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
18. "The Chase Celebrity Christmas Special". itv.com/presscentre. Retrieved 24 December 2021.
19. "The Weakest Link". BBC. Retrieved 1 January 2022.

External links

• Official Website
• Smooth Breakfast on Smooth Radio
• Jenni Falconer on Smooth Radio
• Jenni Falconer at IMDb