1 week Ago By [email protected] (Holly Clarke)
The TV star "loves her job" on the BBC show Fiona Bruce is well-known face in the TV world, particularly for her long-standing appearances on several BBC programmes. She is best known for her roles on BBC One's Question Time and Antiques Roadshow. The journalist and newsreader has lived all over the world, including in Merseyside, before settling in London to kickstart her journalism career.
The 60-year-old first made her way into the industry in 1989 as a researcher for Panorama . According to an interview with BBC news, she met the then-editor of Panorama, Tim Gardam, at a wedding and persuaded him to interview her. Fiona continued to move up in the business as a newsreader, appearing on BBC Breakfast News , Newsnight and Crimewatch.
She later made history as the first female to present the BBC ten o'clock news. Her career went from strength to strength and she joined the Antiques Roadshow as lead presenter in 2008. The popular programme sees Fiona travel across the country as hundreds of guests arrive to have their items valued by antique specialist.
In recent episodes, the value of a food-stained napkin “blew away” the presenter. Viewers were took to Ebrington Square in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. A chef named Mike shared the story behind how he got his hands on a drawing by Muhammad Ali on a napkin.
He recalled Muhammad Ali visited his restaurant back in 2003. Towards the end of the meal Ali asked if he could draw on a napkin and Mike gave him a pen to do so. An expert valued the napkin in the thousands, claiming it could go for anything between six to eight thousand pounds.
After hearing about the value, Fiona said: "Of all the things we might see today. That's why I love this job. You never know what someone's going to bring along.
And this has blown me away. Wow. What a brilliant, brilliant thing.
You lucky man." In 2019 she took on the role of lead host on Question Time . The political debate programme is broadcast on BBC One at 10:45pm on Thursdays.
Last year, she moderated the heated debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer ahead of the general election. She celebrated her 60th birthday in April this year by continuing with her usual hosting duties on Question Time. She was quick to brush off the milestone as she tried to move the conversation on.
She joked: "OK everybody I am 60 today let's just get that said." Away from the screen, Fiona was born in Singapore to an English mum and Scottish dad. She later moved to Port Sunlight, and then to Heswall where she attended Gayton Primary School in Wirral .
She also attended the International School of Milan before studying French and Italian and Oxford University. Fiona has been married to Nigel Sharrocks since 1994 after they met while both working at an advertising agency. The couple live a quiet life with their two children.
They had son Sam in 1998 and daughter Mia in 2001, and currently share two houses, one in London and the other in Oxfordshire reports The Mirror . Fiona previously told the Guardian that Nigel is "happy to be in the background and let her get on with her thing". Fans questioned Fiona's maternal qualities when she decided to return to work 16 days after she gave birth to her daughter Mia.
She addressed the public controversy in an interview with The Telegraph as she said: "I'm not some mad career monster. "I don't want people to think I'm setting a terribly bad example here - the last thing I would advocate is women rushing back to work with a baby." In 2021, Fiona revealed that she was able to balance work and motherhood by "having the same nanny living with us for 20 years".
In a Good Housekeeping interview, Fiona spoke about spending not enough time with her children when they were young. She said: "I don't think there's such a thing as quality time with your children. I think it's quantity.
But there's never been any question that they take precedence over everything in my life, and always have done.".
