Jennie Bond

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Jennie Bond
Gender	Female
Birth name	Jennie Bond
Born	August 19, 1950
Birth place	Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England
Circumstances
Occupation	Journalist (former royal correspondent) and television presenter
Marital status	Married
Spouse	Jim Keltz
Children	Emma
Ethnicity	English
Notable credit(s)	I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! Great British Menu

Jennie Bond (born August 19, 1950 in Hitchin, Hertfordshire) is an English journalist. She worked for thirteen years as the BBC's royal correspondent.

Contents 1 Royal correspondent 2 Other work 3 Personal life 4 Bibliography 5 External links

[edit] Royal correspondent

Jennie Bond was educated at St. Francis' College, a girls' independent school in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, and at Warwick University, from where she graduated with a degree in French and European Literature in 1968. Her career began in the print where she worked for various local newspapers in London in journalism and sub-editing roles. In 1977 she moved to BBC radio, working in producing and editing. In 1985 she became a radio news reporter and in 1988 she moved on to report on television. She began her role as royal correspondent, which was to bring her to wide public attention, in 1989. She has occasionally fronted the BBC Six O'Clock News during the 1990s. She has also done work for BBC Breakfast.

Bond held the position as royal correspondent until the summer of 2003. During that time she reported on many dramatic events to do with the British Royal Family, including Windsor Castle fire, two royal weddings, the breakup of Prince Andrew's marriage to Sarah Ferguson, the divorce of Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales, Diana's subsequent death and the Queen and Prince Philip's Golden Jubilee celebrations. Bond was also there in Australia, in January 1994, when an attempt was made to shoot Prince Charles. Bond's reporting style suggested that she was very close personally to members of the Royal Family. She wrote a book in 2001 called Reporting Royalty, which tells how she covered the Royal Family for the BBC in the 1990s. Impressionists such as Ronni Ancona on Alistair McGowan's Big Impression took to spoofing Bond's royal reports by posing as Bond and pretending to be the Queen herself, crown and all.

[edit] Other work

Following from her departure from the BBC in 2003, Bond's career took a different turn. In 2003, Bond made an appearance in an episode in the comedy series Little Britain. In February 2004 Bond proved popular with the public, when she finished as runner-up in the third series of reality TV show I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!. The episode where Bond became the runner-up, on I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! on February 9, 2004, received viewing figures of 14.99 million, making it the most watched programme on ITV and BBC1 that week [1]. She appeared on the show to raise money for the Devon Air Ambulance Trust. As a result, Bond managed to raise £260,989.85 for the Devon Air Ambulance Trust which the charity used to buy a state-of-the-art navigation system and to extend its helicopter flying time throughout the summer.[2] During Bond's time on the reality television show, she was required to do a bushtucker trial, which involved her eating various creatures such as a stick insect and a witchety grub.

Shortly afterwards she presented E!'s coverage of the BAFTA film awards, "Live from the Red Carpet." She also presented her own three part documentary called Jennie Bond's Royals on Five and in 2005, she presented the BBC's daytime coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show, alongside Charlie Dimmock. In the same year, Bond appeared in Have I Been Here Before?. She currently works as an after dinner speaker, offering insider tales from her time at the palace.

More recently she appeared in Posh Swap on Five, where she was transformed into a Brummie woman. Bond had to convince two of her best friends she really was the Brummie lass. Bond has also hosted Great British Menu in which different chefs had to compete by cooking meals, where the winner had to chance to cook for the Queen on her 80th birthday. As well as this, Jennie has presented the BBC's Cash in the Attic. In 2006, Bond was a celebrity guest on Stars in Their Eyes where she sang as Debbie Harry.

[edit] Personal life

Bond is married to a former journalist, Jim Keltz. Together, they have one daughter, Emma. She also has two stepchildren, Stephen and Danielle.

[edit] Bibliography

• Reporting Royalty: Behind the scenes with the BBC's Royal Correspondent (2001)
• The Little Princess (2002)
• Elizabeth: Fifty Glorious Years (2003)
• Elizabeth (2006)

[edit] External links

• Jennie Bond on Posh Swap
• BBC profile
• Bond's profile at "Speakers for Business"
• Jennie Bond at the Internet Movie Database