Carol Vorderman

Carol Jean Vorderman (born 24 December 1960) is a Welsh broadcaster, media personality, and writer. Her media career began when she joined the Channel 4 game show Countdown, appearing with Richard Whiteley from 1982 until his death in 2005, and subsequently with Des Lynam and Des O'Connor, before leaving in 2008.

While appearing on Countdown, Vorderman began presenting shows for ITV, including How 2 (1990–1996), Better Homes (1999–2003) and The Pride of Britain Awards (1999–present), as well as guest hosting shows, such as Have I Got News for You (2004–2006) and The Sunday Night Project (2006). She was a presenter on the ITV talk show Loose Women from 2011 until 2014. She has also appeared as a contestant on reality shows, including Strictly Come Dancing (2004), I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (2016) and The Great Celebrity Bake-Off (2020), winning the last. From 2022 to 2023, Vorderman was a news-reviewer for This Morning.

Vorderman was honoured as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to broadcasting in the Queen's Birthday Honours in June 2000. She has also worked as a newspaper columnist and nominal author of educational and diet books. From 2023 to 2024, Vorderman presented her own show for the talk radio station LBC.

Early life and education Vorderman was born on 24 December 1960 in Bedford, Bedfordshire, the youngest of three children Her parents separated three weeks after her birth, and her mother took the family back to her home town of Prestatyn, Flintshire (now in Denbighshire), North Wales, grew up. Vorderman did not see her father again until she was 42. In 1970, her mother remarried, separating ten years later. Vorderman's father remarried; his wife died in the early 1990s. Vorderman did not trace the Dutch side of her family until 2007 (as part of the BBC genealogy programme Who Do You Think You Are?). It was only then that she discovered that her father had been an active member of the Dutch resistance during the Nazi occupation. He died while the programme was being filmed.

Early career Vorderman initially found employment as a junior civil engineer at Dinorwig Power Station in Llanberis, Wales, and later as a graduate management trainee in Leeds. In her spare time, she was briefly a backing singer with friend Lindsay Forrest in the Leeds-based pop group Dawn Chorus and the Blue Tits, fronted by radio DJ Liz Kershaw during the early 1980s. The group recorded, among other songs, a version of The Undertones' hit "Teenage Kicks" (one of the tracks Vorderman had to identify during the "intros round" when she appeared on Never Mind the Buzzcocks in December 2009; the series often includes questions from contestants' pasts).

During 1984–85, Vorderman made regular appearances on the Peter Levy show on Radio Aire, appearing mid-morning to read a story for pre-school children. In the mid-1980s, Vorderman worked part-time in the Information Services Department of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, principally in the production of in-house video programmes. asking for "a woman with good mathematical skills"

Initially, Vorderman's only contribution to the show was the numbers game, and she formed part of a five-person presentation team, billed as one of the "vital statisticians" along with Linda Barrett. However, over the following years, the team was pared down, and Vorderman began handling tiles for both the letters and numbers games. Vorderman thus became a new type of game show hostess, revealing her intellectual ability by carrying out fast and accurate arithmetic calculations during the numbers game to reach an exact solution if neither contestant was able to do so. Her lasting success on the show led to her becoming one of the highest-paid women in Britain, ultimately earning her an estimated £1 million per year. She had considered leaving the show when the show's original host Richard Whiteley died in 2005, but remained on the show when Lynam took over, and until 2008 when his eventual replacement O'Connor announced he was also to step down as the show's host. Vorderman and O'Connor both left the show in December 2008.

Vorderman recorded her last Countdown show on 13 November 2008 which was broadcast on 12 December 2008. Both of her children were in the audience, together with many of the previous guests from "Dictionary Corner". After the prizegiving at the end of the show, Des O'Connor was presented with a bouquet of flowers by the show's lexicographer Susie Dent, and Vorderman received one from Gyles Brandreth. She was too moved to complete her farewells. A special show, One Last Consonant, Please Carol, hosted by Brandreth and featuring Vorderman's highs and lows during the 26 years of the show, was also filmed and transmitted just before her final Countdown appearance.

After leaving Countdown, Vorderman continued to contribute her column to the British magazine Reveal. Channel 4 admitted in 2009 that all Countdown presenters had always worn earpieces, and that producers would "sometimes supply extra ideas as there are often multiple options to ensure viewers are given the best possible answers." A source close to Vorderman denied that she had worn an earpiece or cheated in her mental arithmetic answers.

Loose Women

In July 2011, Vorderman and Sally Lindsay were tipped for roles on Loose Women following ITV's decision to axe Kate Thornton and Zoë Tyler from the programme. This was later confirmed, with Vorderman presenting her first live show on 5 September 2011. From September 2011 to June 2013, Vorderman and fellow Loose Women host Andrea McLean hosted two to three shows per week. However, after the show returned from its summer break in September 2013, she began to host one episode per week, with McLean anchoring the remaining four. On 3 October 2013, it was announced that former Loose Women presenter Kaye Adams would be returning to the show later in the year and Ruth Langsford would join the panel in January 2014. Adams, Langsford and Andrea McLean hosted the show in rotation, with Vorderman remaining as an occasional presenter on the programme, usually presenting one episode a fortnight.

On 14 July 2014, Vorderman announced her departure as a presenter on Loose Women. Vorderman explained:

In 2016, Vorderman finished in eighth place in the sixteenth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! On 7 April 2020, Vorderman appeared on The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off and won. Broadcast on S4C on 19 April 2020, Vorderman took part in the show ('Language Road Trip') and, with the help of Owain Wyn Evans, learned Welsh and completed various challenges in the language. An extra episode, ('Language Road Trip: Christmas') was broadcast at the end of 2020, interviewing each of the celebrities about whether they were still making use of their Welsh and the opportunities they had had to use Welsh during lockdown.

In 2023, Vorderman appeared in I'm a Celebrity... South Africa. On 16 June 2023, she appeared as herself in Episode 1 of the BBC One comedy Queen of Oz. Vorderman is seen and heard on her radio programme questioning the outrageous antics of spoiled spare to the British crown, Princess Georgiana, played by Catherine Tate.

Filmography Television Year Title Role Channel 1982–2008 Countdown Vital statisticianCo-presenter (4,832 episodes) Channel 4 1987–1989 Take Nobody's Word for It Co-presenter BBC1 1990–1996, 1998 How 2 Co-presenter CITV (ITV) 1993 World Chess Championship Co-presenter Channel 4 1994 Tomorrow's World Co-presenter BBC1 Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe Narrator ITV 1996 Entertainment Today Presenter ITV Out of this World PresenterBBC1 1997 Hot Gadgets Presenter The Antiques Inspectors Presenter This is Your Life Herself, Guest of Honour 1998 Points of View Presenter What Will They Think of Next Presenter ITV 1999 Dream House Main presenter BBC One 1999–2003 Better Homes PresenterITV 1999–present Pride of Britain Awards Presenter 2000 Star Lives Presenter 2001–2002 Britain's Brainiest Kid Presenter 2004 Strictly Come Dancing ContestantBBC One 2004, 2006, 2023, 2024 Have I Got News for You Guest host, guest panellist 2005–2006 Carol's Big Brain Game Co-presenter Sky One 2006 The Sunday Night Project Guest presenterChannel 4 2008 One Last Consonant, Please Carol Subject 2011, 2018–2019, 2022 Lorraine Guest presenter (26 episodes)ITV 2011–2014 Loose Women Presenter 2013 Food Glorious Food Presenter 2016 I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! Participant 2020 Iaith ar Daith Participant S4C2020–present The Wheel Expert (multiple episodes) BBC One2021 Carol Vorderman: Closer to Home Presenter BBC One Wales Great British Menu Guest judge; Series 16 – The Finals: Main Course BBC Two Pride of Britain Awards Co-host ITV2022 Beat the Chasers Contestant ITV 2022–2023 This Morning News Reviewer (2022–2023)ITV 2023 Taskmaster's New Year Treat Contestant Channel 4I'm a Celebrity... South Africa Herself BBC One RuPaul's Drag Race UK Herself; Guest judge (Series 5) BBC Three Steph's Packed Lunch Herself; Guest host (one episode) Channel 4 The Masked Singer Contestant / Reindeer (one episode) ITV 1 2024 Cooking with the Stars ContestantITV 2025 Celebrity Puzzling Team captain 5

Radio

After leaving the BBC in 2023, Vorderman was an occasional guest host on LBC. In January 2024, two months after her BBC departure, she was to present her own show from 4pm to 7pm on Sunday afternoons. She said "I'll be using my voice – as you might expect – to cause a commotion. I won't be shy to say things that others won't and I'll hold the corrupt to account without fear or favour." Vorderman announced on 11 October 2024 that she would leave LBC following a "health scare".

Other work

Journalism Vorderman has had newspaper columns in The Daily Telegraph, and in the Daily Mirror on Internet topics. She has written books on Detox diets. Her No. 1 bestseller was Detox For Life, produced in collaboration with Ko Chohan and Anita Bean and published by Virgin Books, which sold over a million copies. Many school textbooks have been published under her name, chiefly by Dorling Kindersley in series such as English Made Easy, Maths Made Easy, Science Made Easy and How to Pass National Curriculum Maths.

In the autumn of 2008, soon after she completed her final regular Countdown show, Vorderman announced a new commercial venture, her own property development and sales company that would specialise in overseas holiday and retirement homes in the Caribbean, including the Bahamas, and Spain. It was called Carol Vorderman Overseas Homes Limited. She saw the company as a natural extension of her own experiences in buying and selling properties over recent years and was aiming at a target market of "families aged 35 plus". However, due to the 2008 financial crisis, the venture proved short-lived. During March 2009, Vorderman publicly withdrew her name from the firm, which suspended trading soon afterwards. On 2 March 2010, Vorderman publicly launched her new commercial venture of an online mathematics coaching system for 4- to 12-year-old children under the name of the MathsFactor.

Endorsement controversy Vorderman had maintained a long-standing endorsement of the debt consolidation company FirstPlus, an association that ceased in 2007. In 2006, the charity Credit Action attempted to highlight the potential dangers of debt consolidation, calling on Vorderman to stop giving First Plus credibility. Her agent responded that Vorderman had no intention of curtailing the contract for a service which was perfectly legal and offered by an excellent company. When interviewed by The Daily Telegraph in November 2008 Vorderman herself responded with: The secured loans market was criticised and it was pertinent to pick me out, because I was a face. I advertised FirstPlus for 10 years. We had something like £1.5billion out on loan and until a matter of months ago there were no repossessions. When that programme [BBC's Real Story] was made, [there were] no repossessions. Did they say that? Funnily enough, no. On 2 June 2012, Vorderman named a Class 91 (91110) "Battle of Britain Memorial Flight" at the National Railway Museum as part of the Railfest 2012 Event. In 2014, Vorderman qualified for a private pilot's licence and announced that she planned to fly solo around the world. She named her plane Mildred after Mildred, Mrs Victor Bruce, a British record-breaking racing motorist, speedboat racer and aviatrix in the 1920s and 1930s, who Vorderman has described as "my heroine. She's one of the most incredible women of the last century".

On 20 November 2014, Vorderman accepted the appointment of ambassador to the Royal Air Force Air Cadets, and was granted the honorary rank of group captain in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (Training Branch). In 2017, her honorary commission was extended to 19 November 2020. Vorderman has also taken up learning the Welsh language and has been using the Say Something in Welsh online course. In early 2020, she said "I've been learning Welsh ... and I love it. It's taken me back to my roots".

Personal life Vorderman is a Catholic. She was first married in 1985

After meeting at a Christmas party in 1999, Vorderman and Des Kelly lived together in London from 2001, also using their other house in Glandore in County Cork, Ireland. After five years together, Vorderman and Kelly separated in December 2006, publicly announcing the amicable split in January 2007, and after a brief reconciliation in Bristol, according to reports.

Vorderman shares her Bristol home with her two children. Vorderman has lived with or very near to her mother all her life, until her mother's death in 2017. On 6 June 2020, she complained in a number of UK newspapers of being harassed by photographers in the road outside her home. Vorderman in 2022 declared a lack of interest in traditional monogamy, preferring to have "special friends" with benefits.

Political views In 2009, Vorderman mocked the Labour Party's education policies, as part of her work heading a task force established by the Conservative Party to look at the teaching of mathematics. David Cameron commented, "Carol has got a passion for maths. We have all seen that on Countdown with her brilliant mental arithmetic and she is going to lead this task force so we can get the answers right." In an appearance on Question Time in March 2010, Vorderman was critical of all three major parties for hypocrisy in taking donations from non-domiciled taxpayers.

In 2023, Vorderman was critical of the Conservative administration, labelling it a "despicable government", In 2022, Vorderman was praised by The Herald as the "real leader of the opposition" after criticising members of the government for exploiting their positions for personal gain.

In November 2023, the BBC objected to Vorderman's social media postings reflecting her personal opinions; she said that she would "not be silenced" by the BBC's new social media guidelines, and resigned from her weekly BBC Radio Wales show. She immediately made several posts criticising several people and policies of the Conservative government in power at the time.

In August 2024 she delivered the Alternative MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival, saying "Our industry is [full] of snobbery – regional snobbery, class snobbery and educational snobbery – and don't even get me started on the political issues...Working class people feel they are not represented, their situation is not represented, the lack of opportunities and lack of money and jobs is not represented...What [social media] gives everyone, in towns and cities outside the wealthy south-east, the opportunity to do, is to see and hear views they recognise, in language they recognise."

In May 2026, Vorderman demanded an apology from Robert Kenyon, the Reform UK candidate in the Makerfield by-election, for misogynistic comments he had made against her on social media. Kenyon later refused to apologise.

Honours and awards Vorderman was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to broadcasting in the 2000 Birthday Honours. She was elected an Honorary Fellow of Bangor University in North Wales and, in 2000, received an Honorary MA from the University of Bath.

Vorderman was voted UK Female Rear of the Year in 2011. In 2014, she became the first celebrity to win the award twice.

Charity work

Vorderman is a patron of the Cleft Lip and Palate Association (CLAPA) (her older brother, Anton, was born with a cleft lip and palate). In 2005, she was the winner of Ant and Dec's Gameshow Marathon. As part of its 50th anniversary celebrations ITV ran a series of the nation's favourite game shows featuring celebrities competing to become Gameshow Marathon winner and raise money for the charity of their choice. As series winner Vorderman won £60,000 for CLAPA. In November 2011, she appeared in the music video in aid of CLAPA for New Vorder's Carol O Carol, a song written by Jim Salveson in 1999 about his love for Vorderman, and directed by Tim Cocker.

Vorderman appeared in a short film, Run for the future, promoting prostate cancer awareness, and took part in a charity run held every year on the Bristol Downs to raise funds for the BUI prostate appeal. She also took part in the Great North Run on several occasions, to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care in memory of Richard Whiteley's sister Helen, who died of cancer. Vorderman is an active supporter and advocate of the RAF Association charity, appearing at airshows and taking part in other fundraising events.

Videos and published writings Dirty, Loud and Brilliant, 1988 Carol Vorderman's Pop Music Times Tables, 1990 Carol Vorderman's How to Write a Perfect Letter, 1991 How Mathematics Works, 1996 Carol Vorderman's Guide to the Internet (written with Rob Young), 1998 30-Day Cellulite Plan, 2004 Carol Vorderman's How to Do Sudoku, 2005 Carol Vorderman's Massive Book of Sudoku, 2005 Eat Yourself Clever, 2008 Carol Vorderman's Guide to Maths Carol Vorderman's Detox Diet, 2009 It All Counts, 2010 Now What? On a Mission to Fix Broken Britain, 2024