Melanie Sykes

Melanie Ann Sykes (born 7 August 1970) is an English television presenter and model, best known for co-hosting Today with Des and Mel alongside Des O'Connor and Let's Do Lunch alongside Gino D'Acampo.^[1]

Early life

Sykes was born to an Anglo-Burmese father and an Anglo-Indian mother. She attended Mossley Hollins High School and studied A-level Religious Studies at Ashton Sixth Form College. Melanie was a member of Ashtonian Brass Band along with her father, mother and two sisters, playing the baritone horn. She first came to public attention as the bikini-clad girl in the Boddingtons beer advertisements with the broad "Northern" accent in the mid-1990s. Amongst other work during the decade, she also modelled for Berlei lingerie.^[2]

Career

Television

After first reporting for The Big Breakfast, she has continued her television career, including stints on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! and as presenter of Eastenders Revealed.^{[citation needed]} 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.

Her 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.^[3]

Her other work for the ITV network has included hosting the primetime shows The Vault, Celebrities Under Pressure, National Television Awards Party of the Year, and the British Soap Awards.

She appeared as a guest panellist on the ITV daytime chat show Loose Women in October and November 2005 and later returned as a guest anchor in October 2008 and May 2009.

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.^{[citation needed]}

In November 2006, Sykes filled in for Paul O'Grady when he took leave from The Paul O'Grady Show. On 8 May 2007 and 5 November 2007 she again presented the show when O'Grady took leave from the series, and yet again while O'Grady was ill from 15 April to 18 April and 22 April and later on 2 November 2008 with Des O'Connor. Sykes filled in for O'Grady once again on 8 April 2009.

Melanie was the presenter of the daytime series Gene Detectives for BBC One.^{[citation needed] [citation needed]}

In 2008 she became a judge on The Sofa Factor for GMTV, where viewers send in short clips and the winner gets to present TV Pick of the Day plus win a trip to Las Vegas.

In August 2011, she returned to daytime television presenting, co-hosting Let's Do Lunch with Gino & Mel, a lunchtime cookery chat show which she has hosted alongside Gino D'Acampo on ITV. The Christmas version of the show Let's Do Christmas with Gino & Mel also airs on the ITV network.

She co-hosted the three-part documentary series Missing Millions, which began airing on 13 September 2011, alongside Paul Heiney on ITV.^[4]

Melanie was due to co-present a new entertainment series with Mark Wright named My Man Can. After filming the entire first series ITV made the decision not to air the show on the network.

Radio

She 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 the resignation of Emma Forbes.^[5] She continued on the show until it finished in March 2012.

For a time she presented her own radio show on Capital FM.^{[citation needed]}

Other work

She has been the face of Head & Shoulders shampoo in the UK, appearing in print and television advertising and the high street chain Matalan.^{[citation needed]} She has also appeared in advertisements for Morrisons, Wynsors World of Shoes and Churchill Insurance.^{[citation needed]}

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.

She posed naked for the December 2011 edition of men's magazine Esquire.^[6]

On 24 December 2013, during an episode of Let's Do Christmas with Gino & Mel, Sykes, along with her co-host 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, setting the new record.

Personal life

Sykes dated singer Matt Goss for five years and also went out with Max Beesley. She married Italian actor Daniel Caltagirone (b. 18 June 1972) in January 2001, and the couple had two children: Roman (born 2002) and Valentino Luca (born 21 July 2004). 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.^[7] They divorced in June 2009.^[8] She married her boyfriend Jack Cockings on 18 May, 2013 at Sherborne Castle in Dorset.^[9] In November 2013, Sykes was arrested and cautioned by police over an assault against Cockings.^[10][11]

References

External links

• Melanie Sykes at the Internet Movie Database
• The A List – The Definitive Artist Chart
• GM.TV – The Sofa Factor