Kirsty Young
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kirsty Jackson Young (born 23 November 1968 in East Kilbride) is a Scottish television journalist, presenter, actress and radio presenter. She is currently head newsreader on Five News, the news programme on British television channel Five, and was there for its launch in 1997.
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[edit] Early life
Born 23 November 1968 to Catherine and Joe Jackson, she was brought up with elder sister Laura and younger brother Iain. Joe Jackson left the family when Kirsty was six weeks old. Her mother remarried to John Young, a joiner from Glasgow, who brought Kirsty and Laura up as his own. Kirsty has always considered him to be her father.
At age 7, Kirsty and her family moved to Stirling where she attended school and eventually gained two Highers in History of Art and English. She did not go on to university.
[edit] Career
Kirsty's journalistic career began in 1989 when she worked as a continuity announcer for BBC Radio Scotland. In 1992 she moved to STV where she presented the main evening news programme, Scotland Today and also hosted her own chat show, Kirsty. She left STV and Scotland itself in 1996.
In 1996 she guest presented The Time, The Place and also featured on The Holiday programme. She hosted her own consumer show The Street on BBC Two.
In 1997, she joined the news team of the new terrestrial channel, Channel 5. She left Channel 5 to join ITV in 1999 and hosted a quiz show called The People Versus in 2000. In 2001, after giving birth to her first child, she decided to return to Channel 5. In 2002, she returned, with a new look and hosted both the 5.30pm and 7pm editions until her maternity leave began in January 2006, when she was replaced by John Suchet and Helen Fospero.
In November 2003, she guest-presented an edition of Have I Got News For You to critical acclaim, despite not being a comedian. She has, in total, guest-presented four times. She appeared on Room 101 in 2004 during which cowboy boots, Britney Spears and 'baby on board' stickers went in. She also had a cameo role in Trauma, a 2004 film starring Colin Firth and Mena Suvari.
In June 2006, it was announced that Young was to be the new presenter of the long-running BBC Radio Four programme Desert Island Discs, replacing Sue Lawley. She began presenting DID on October 1st and returned to Five News on September 28th.
[edit] Personal life
She married businessman Nick Jones (owner of Soho House) in September 1999. She gave birth to daughter, Freya in February 2001 and to daughter, Iona Jones in April 2006. She has also admitted to suffering from bulimia as a teenager on the first episode of her first TV show.
[edit] Trivia
- She is 5' 7" and was only the fourth woman to guest-present Have I Got News For You (and up to now, the only woman to have hosted the show more than once).
