Christine Bleakley

Early life

Bleakley was born in Daisy Hill Hospital, Newry to Mina and Frederick Bleakley, and grew up in Newtownards. She has a younger sister, Nicola.

Bleakley started her television career as a runner and then trained to become a floor manager while studying for her A-Levels at Bloomfield Collegiate School in Ballyhackamore, Belfast. She continued to work at BBC NI while studying for a politics degree at Queen's University, Belfast. Bleakley did not complete her degree course, however, instead moving into television work full-time.

BBC

Bleakley worked on the long-running BBC Northern Ireland comedy Give My Head Peace. She returned to make a cameo appearance in the show in its 2016 special.

Bleakley moved into television with BBC Northern Ireland hosting a wide variety of shows. One of her programmes was called Sky High which saw her flying around Northern Ireland in a helicopter in 2004. A weekly entertainment show called First Stop followed, and she also hosted Would You Pass The 11+ and BBC NI coverage of Children in Need. She presented the BBC Northern Ireland cookery show, Spill the Beans in 2005.

Outside Northern Ireland, Bleakley co-hosted BBC Two's Let Me Entertain You with Brian Conley and in July 2007, she became co-host of The One Show on BBC One, replacing Myleene Klass. Bleakley and Adrian Chiles hosted the show for three years. On 20 January 2010, comedian Patrick Kielty was a guest on The One Show, when he revealed Bleakley's mobile number to the camera, to prove that he had her number to celebrate their double birthday celebrations. Within five minutes of Kielty's mistake, Bleakley was bombarded with calls and text messages. She has since changed her number.

In October 2009, Christine co-presented The Teaching Awards alongside Jeremy Vine on BBC Two. In 2009, Bleakley occasionally hosted The National Lottery Draws on BBC One. Bleakley co-hosted a segment of the Sport Relief telethon with Gary Lineker in March 2010.

When Chiles left the BBC in 2010, there was a great deal of speculation on whether Bleakley would extend her BBC contract or move to ITV. After the speculation, Bleakley also left The One Show to join ITV as the co-host of Daybreak following Adrian Chiles' departure from the BBC to ITV. Questions were raised in Parliament over the size and scale of the proposed £900,000 per year two-year BBC contract. Shortly after she fired her long-term manager and signed with Chiles' management company, on 20 June 2010, the BBC announced that it had withdrawn an offer to extend her current contract. Later that day ITV (owners of GMTV) announced she would again partner Chiles by co-hosting the revamped breakfast show with him, and also hosting other entertainment programmes. On 8 July 2010, the BBC confirmed that Bleakley was not returning to The One Show after the programme returned from the World Cup break on 12 July.

In September 2016, it was announced that Bleakley would return to the BBC to co-present Adrian and Christine's Friendship Test (working title). She will co-host three-part series with Adrian Chiles and it will air on BBC Northern Ireland.

ITV

Bleakley moved to ITV less than three hours after the BBC had withdrawn their £1 million offer for her to remain on the channel. She joined ITV on a four-year contract worth £4 million.

On 6 September 2010, Bleakley joined Chiles to host ITV Breakfast's Daybreak. The programme suffered mixed reviews and poor viewing figures in its first weeks on air, and Bleakley herself was the subject of criticism. On 18 November 2011, Bleakley and co-presenter Chiles were replaced by Dan Lobb and Kate Garraway who presented on an interim basis. In September 2012, they were replaced by Aled Jones and Lorraine Kelly.

In February 2011, Bleakley presented a game show pilot for ITV called Control, but it wasn't commissioned for a series.

From 2011 until 2015, Bleakley co-hosted ITV's Christmas telethon Text Santa. In 2011, 2014 and 2015, she co-hosted the charity appeal with Phillip Schofield and with Paddy McGuinness in 2012 and 2013.

Bleakley has hosted a number of ITV Specials, including Simply Red: For the Last Time in 2010, Duran Duran: One Night Only in 2011 and Michael Flatley: A Night to Remember in 2014. On Boxing Day 2012, Bleakley hosted That Dog Can Dance.

In 2011, Bleakley became Phillip Schofield's co-presenter on Dancing on Ice, replacing Holly Willoughby. She presented three series of the show between 2012 and 2014 when it came to an end after the ninth series on 9 March 2014. For each episode of Dancing on Ice, Bleakley was paid £24,163. When she was hosting the show, she was the highest paid female television star, earning around £400 per minute. A revived series of Dancing on Ice will start in January 2018. Bleakley will no longer present the show as Holly Willoughby will return to host with Phillip Schofield.

On 11 May 2011, Bleakley presented The National Movie Awards.

In 2013, Bleakley presented a six-part series called Off The Beaten Track. On 3 March 2014, it was announced the show had been axed. Of this announcement, a spokesperson for the channel said "We're looking at several other projects to work on with Christine, who remains a big part of the ITV presenting line-up".

Bleakley is a frequent stand-in host on This Morning, subbing whenever Phillip Schofield or Holly Willoughby are unable to appear.

On 23 December 2014, Bleakley co-hosted one-off documentary Roman Britain From the Air with Michael Scott. On 27 December 2014, Bleakley hosted the one-off magic special Darcy Oake: Edge of Reality and acted as Oake's assistant in two illusions, first being made to appear on a large motorcycle and then being sawed in half in Oake's Clearly Impossible sawing illusion.

In 2015, Bleakley hosted the six-part documentary series Wild Ireland which saw her travel across the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland. In October 2016, she was a guest panellist on an episode of Loose Women. She guest anchored numerous episodes of the show before becoming a permanent anchor, hosting the show in-rotation with Ruth Langsford and Andrea McLean.

Since February 2017, she has guest presented numerous episodes of the ITV Breakfast show, Lorraine.

UKTV

In October 2016, Bleakley co-presented Celebrity Haunted Hotel Live for UKTV's W channel. The show, which she co-hosted alongside Matt Richardson and Jamie East, aired for five consecutive nights from 27–31 October. In early 2018, Bleakley and Richardson will present Celebrity Haunted Mansion for the W channel.

Strictly Come Dancing

In 2008, Bleakley took part in the sixth series of Strictly Come Dancing, in which she was partnered with professional dancer Matthew Cutler. Bleakley and Cutler were eliminated on 30 November 2008, leaving the competition in fifth place, after Rachel Stevens and Vincent Simone beat them in the dance-off.

Radio

At the beginning of her career, Bleakley worked at Belfast Citybeat as a newsreader and presenter, working with Stephen Nolan. From January to March 2015, Bleakley presented a Sunday afternoon programme called Sunday Lunch from 3–4pm on Magic Radio.

Film

Bleakley was the voice of the Newsreader in the 1998 film Divorcing Jack and the voice of Sandra in the 2010 film A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures.

Other work

She set up Chrisola Entertainment Limited in 2009 and is the company's director. In 2010 and 2011, Bleakley was on the judging panel for the Pride of Britain Awards. She released a 60-minute fitness DVD called Christine Bleakley – The Workout in December 2011.

On 20 March 2010, Bleakley made her stand-up comedy debut when she took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a benefit show in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, filmed at the O2 Arena in London.

In August 2014, Bleakley was announced as the new brand ambassador for Soft & Gentle anti-perspirant. In 2014, Bleakley was a Sainsbury's Active Kids ambassador, which encouraged children to be more physical at school. She became an ambassador for BT Call Protect in January 2017.

Awards

In November 2010, Bleakley was awarded the title 'Top TV Host' at the 2010 Cosmopolitan Ultimate Women of the Year Awards.

Personal life

Bleakley dated Belfast Giants star Curtis Bowen as she started her TV career. After breaking up with Bowen in 2003, Bleakley dated Dublin restaurant owner Christian Stokes to whom she got engaged in 2004. She was then in a relationship with entrepreneur Mark Beirne for 3 years until they split in January 2009.

In October 2009, after attending the Pride of Britain Awards, Bleakley began a relationship with footballer Frank Lampard. The couple married in Knightsbridge, London on 20 December 2015. She assumed her husband's surname. Through her marriage to Frank Lampard, she has two stepdaughters.

Charity

Bleakley is a Northern Ireland ambassador for The Prince's Trust. In 2010, Bleakley did a water skiing challenge, raising £1,321,623 for Sport Relief, making her the first person ever to water-ski across the English Channel.

In the same year, her co-host on The One Show, Adrian Chiles grew a beard, which was later shaved off by Bleakley for Sport Relief, raising £60,000 in the process.

In 2012, Bleakley took part in a 5 km run for Cancer Research UK with Heidi Range and Roxanne Pallett.

Bleakley is a patron for the Sparks children's charity. In 2015, she hosted the charity's winter ball alongside Jon Culshaw. She also supported the Text Santa appeal and presented their annual telethon from 2011 until 2015.

Filmography