Melanie Sykes

Career

In the mid-1990s Sykes first came to public attention as the face of the Boddingtons Brewery beer advertisements as a girl with the broad "Northern" accent. Amongst other work, Sykes also modelled for Berlei lingerie.

Television

After first reporting for The Big Breakfast, Sykes has continued her television career, including presenting stints on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! and as presenter of EastEnders Revealed. In 1999, Sykes presented Melanie Sykes' Southall Stories, a documentary for BBC Two on Asian culture in Great Britain. She has also hosted a variety of awards ceremonies, including Miss World, the BAFTA Awards and the Q Awards.

Sykes' television career stalled for a period, although she made a successful comeback as host of Today with Des and Mel with Des O'Connor in 2003. On 12 May 2006, ITV announced that the show would be one of a number to be axed in a "painful, but utterly necessary" move.

Sykes' other work for ITV has included hosting shows The Vault (2003–2004), Celebrities Under Pressure (2003–2004) and The British Soap Awards (2003).

Sykes appeared as a guest panellist on Loose Women in October and November 2005 and later returned as a guest anchor in October 2008 and May 2009.

From 2006 to 2009, Sykes regularly filled in for Paul O'Grady as presenter of The Paul O'Grady Show when O'Grady was unable to appear. She presented the show on eleven occasions.

Sykes was the presenter of the daytime series Gene Detectives for BBC One. In 2008, Sykes was a judge on 'The Sofa Factor', an item for GMTV, where viewers sent in short clips and the winner got to present TV Pick of the Day and win a trip to Las Vegas.

In 2010, Sykes guest presented five episodes of The 5 O'Clock Show with Denise van Outen on Channel 4. In August 2011, Sykes returned to daytime television, co-hosting Let's Do Lunch with Gino & Mel and Let's Do Christmas with Gino & Mel with Gino D'Acampo on ITV. The show was axed in 2014.

On 13 September 2011, Sykes co-hosted the three-part series Missing Millions with Paul Heiney on ITV.

In February 2014, BT Sport announced that Sykes would become part of their MotoGP team. Due to other work commitments, she left the channel in May 2014.

In 2014, Sykes took part in the fourteenth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! where she finished in third place, behind runner-up Jake Quickenden and winner Carl 'Foggy' Fogarty.

In 2015, Sykes co-presented Humble Pie, a cookery series for Watch, alongside Marco Pierre White. On 4 April 2017, Sykes was confirmed as the new voice of Blind Date, taking over the role most famously held by Graham Skidmore in the original series.

Radio

Sykes presented The A List, a national radio chart show based on total sales, produced by Unique the Production Company at the studios of London's Heart 106.2. She left the show towards the end of 2006 and was replaced by Gail Porter.

Sykes was heard on BBC Radio 2 with Aled Jones sitting in for Steve Wright in the Afternoon on 22, 23 and 24 December 2008. In May 2010, she began co-hosting the BBC Radio 2 show Going Out with Alan Carr after Emma Forbes' resignation. Sykes continued on the show until its end in March 2012. She returned on Boxing Day 2015 with Alan Carr for a one-off show on BBC Radio 2. In January/February 2017 she and Alan again returned to Radio 2 to sit in for Paul O'Grady for 4 weeks. Sykes and Carr presented their own Saturday morning show called Alan and Mel's Summer Escape on BBC Radio 2 for 10 weeks during the summer of 2017.

For a time, Sykes presented her own radio show on Capital FM.

Other work

Sykes has been the face of Head & Shoulders shampoo in Britain, appearing in print and television advertising and the high street chain Matalan. She has also appeared in advertisements for Morrisons, Wynsors World of Shoes and Churchill Insurance.

In 2006, the book Blooming Beautiful: My Plan for Looking Great, Being Healthy and Surviving Hormonal Havoc, Throughout Pregnancy and as a New Mum, co-written by Sykes with Hilary Boyd, was published by Michael Joseph.

Sykes posed naked for the December 2011 edition of men's magazine Esquire.

On 24 December 2013, on an episode of Let's Do Christmas with Gino & Mel, Sykes and D'Acampo set the new Guinness World Record for "The most jumpers put on in one minute". They managed to put on 11 jumpers in a minute.

Sykes has her own line of underwear and lingerie with high street chain and retailer Debenhams. In June 2016, Sykes launched a lifestyle website which features fitness, food and lifestyle content as well as celebrity interviews and competitions.

Personal life

Sykes was born in Ashton-under-Lyne to an English father and a Catholic Anglo-Indian mother, Wendy. She attended Mossley Hollins High School and studied A-level Religious Studies at Ashton Sixth Form College. Sykes was a member of the Ashtonian Brass Band along with her father, mother and two sisters, playing the baritone horn.

Sykes married actor Daniel Caltagirone in January 2001, and the couple had two children: Roman (born 2002) and Valentino Luca (born 21 July 2004), who was diagnosed with autism in 2006. In July 2008, it was reported that the couple had split up, with Sykes having "grown apart" from Caltagirone, who had moved out of their Hampstead, London home. They divorced in June 2009. Sykes married her boyfriend Jack Cockings on 18 May 2013 at Sherborne Castle in Dorset.

In November 2013, Sykes was arrested and cautioned by police over an assault against Cockings. Soon after the domestic assault charges, after less than one year of marriage, Sykes began the process of filing for divorce. On 20 August 2014, the common assault caution was removed from police records.

Filmography