Anthea Turner

Anthea Turner
Turner at a book signing in 2008
Born	Anthea Millicent Turner (1960-05-25) 25 May 1960 Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England
Occupation	Journalist, television presenter and media personality
Notable credit(s)	Presenting: Blue Peter (1992–94) Top of the Pops (1988–91) GMTV (1994–96) Perfect Housewife (2006–07) Dinner Party Wars
Spouse(s)	Peter Powell (1990–1998; divorced) Grant Bovey (2000–2013; separated)
Children	Three stepdaughters

Anthea Millicent Turner (born 25 May 1960)^[1] is an English television presenter and media personality.

Education

Turner was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire and educated there at the independent catholic St Dominic's High School for Girls, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire.

Career

Turner joined BBC Radio Stoke as a runner, eventually joining breakfast show presenter Bruno Brookes as part of his rap crew. The couple became romantically involved and employed Peter Powell as an agent through his management company.

Television

Turner moved into television through Sky Channel and Music Box presenting live music programmes from July 1986 to 1989. Her debut on national television was with the BBC on But First This, which led to her fronting two series for the BBC on the Saturday morning show UP2U.

During a motorbike stunt that went wrong on UP2U,^[2] Turner suffered burns and temporary hearing loss, which led to her successful lawsuit against the BBC.

She presented Top of the Pops from October 1988 to May 1991, and, for the final 18 months of this period, was the only non-Radio One DJ to regularly do so.

Turner presented the children's television show Blue Peter from 27 June 1992 to 29 June 1994, and around this time, was also associated with publicising 'The Y Plan', a system of exercise developed by the London YMCA. She moved on to presenting on Totally Live on pan-European music channel Music Box, followed by GMTV which she presented from July 1994 to 24 December 1996.

Turner was also a host on the first National Lottery draw on BBC One on 19 November 1994 with Noel Edmonds and Gordon Kennedy. She remained as sole host of the National Lottery Live until 20 April 1996, when she defected to ITV and the travel show Wish You Were Here...?, becoming the second highest paid female television presenter in the UK, after Cilla Black.

Turner released two work-out videos: Anthea Turner Body Basics (1996) and Anthea Turner: Tone, Lift and Condition: The Inch Buster (1999), both produced and distributed by Grant Bovey.

The relationship between Turner and her GMTV co-presenter Eamonn Holmes was frosty, with Holmes issuing an ultimatum to the GMTV management that he would leave if they did not sack his colleague; as a result of this Turner lost her job.^[3] After Bovey left his wife Della for Turner, the ensuing tabloid interest, and then the "Flakegate" scandal, Turner's career went into a decline.

Attempting to revive her career, Turner presented BBC One's short-lived Saturday evening programme Your Kids Are in Charge in 2000 with Wendy Turner Webster, her sister. The following year, she participated in Celebrity Big Brother, and was the third contestant to be evicted, after Chris Eubank and Vanessa Feltz. But nothing seemed to work to erase the fallout from the media reaction to Flakegate, and in 2003 she came 15th in a Channel 4 poll of 100 Worst Britons.

In February 2006, Turner made a television comeback on BBC Three in Anthea Turner: Perfect Housewife, where she taught disorganised house women and men how to clean and run their houses. This period was widely referred to in the television industry as the "Turner Renaissance". The series was accompanied by three related books. Later in 2006, she appeared as a guest on BBC Two's music-based panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

In April 2009, Turner appeared on the ITV reality show Hell's Kitchen with Marco Pierre White, alongside her then husband Grant Bovey. Turner also presented the show Help Me Anthea, I'm Infested for BBC Three, as she advises people whose homes have been overrun by pests.

Dancing on Ice

In 2013, Turner appeared as a contestant in the eighth series of Dancing on Ice, where she finished in ninth place out of twelve celebrity skaters. She participated in the show with her professional skating partner Andrew Buchanan. In the third week she performed to the Donny Osmond song "Puppy Love", and ended up in the skate-off against Keith Chegwin. They lost the skate-off and were the fourth couple to be eliminated in the series.

Week	Song	Judges' scores					Result
		Robin Cousins	Karen Barber	Ashley Roberts	Jason Gardiner	Total
2	"Skyfall"	4.5	4.5	4.5	4.5	18.0	Bottom two
3	"Broken Strings"	Anthea	Anthea	Anthea	Anthea	Anthea	Immune
4	"Puppy Love"	4.5	5.0	5.0	4.0	18.5	Eliminated

• Note: Week 3 was a duel, in which the judges did not give scores, instead the celebrities were paired up and the judges chose which performance they preferred, making them immune from the public vote.

The Jump

Anthea took part in the primetime Channel 4 game show The Jump, which saw twelve celebrities take part in winter sports. The show is set in a mountainside in Austria.

Events

Episode	Air date	Event	Time (seconds)	Leaderboard	Result
2	27 January 2014	Women's skeleton	45,413	4th	Safe
4	29 January 2014	Women's giant slalom	56.14	3rd	Bottom two
5	30 January 2014	Bobsleigh	1:00.24	6th	Safe
6	31 January 2014	Speed skating	N/A	6th	Bottom three
??	February 2014

Live ski jumps

Episode	Air date	Type	Distance (metres)	Jumping Against	Result
4	29 January 2014	K24	11.0	Sinitta	Safe
6	31 January 2014	K24	13.0	Ritchie Neville Kimberly Wyatt Sir Steve Redgrave	Safe

Personal life

Turner's private life has led the tabloids to take a continual interest in her.

After her long relationship with fellow Stoke resident and one-time DJ co-worker Bruno Brookes, she married her manager, former DJ Peter Powell in 1990; the couple divorced in 1998.

The year of her divorce from Powell, Turner moved in with the CEO of Imagine Homes, Grant Bovey. Bovey left his wife, Della, to move in with Turner; he reconciled with Della, before leaving her again to return to Turner. Turner and Bovey married on 23 August 2000. Turner was keen to start her own family with Bovey, who has three daughters (Lily, Amelia and Claudia) from his marriage to Della.^[4]

On 23 February 2009, the Daily Mail reported that their Surrey mansion had been put up for sale owing to catastrophic failures in Bovey's buy-to-let property business.^[5][6] The newspaper reported Turner was making television commercials for household detergents to alleviate financial difficulties.

Turner and Bovey briefly split up in 2012, due to Bovey's extramarital affair.^[7][8] In January 2013, Turner was quoted as saying: "Last year was awful, horrible, one of the worst. But at the end of the day Grant is my future, my soulmate."^[8] On 12 June 2013, Turner confirmed that she and Bovey had agreed to go their separate ways.

Within weeks, Turner started dating millionaire and former Dragons' Den star Richard Farleigh. Turner announced, on 24 August 2014, that she and Farleigh had split after 12 months and that she is now single.

Controversies

In 2000, Turner received negative publicity from tabloid newspapers when photographs of her wedding reception, published in the magazine OK! in an exclusive deal worth £450,000, showed the couple (apparently) using their wedding to publicise a new Cadbury chocolate bar, Snowflake. OK! issued the photo to the media with the caption "Anthea Turner and Grant Bovey: exclusive OK! wedding photograph, enjoying Cadbury's new Snowflake. For the complete wedding coverage and a free Cadburys Snowflake, buy OK! magazine this weekend. OK! First for celebrity news." The Sun described it as "the most sickening wedding photo ever", and the event is now referred to as "Flakegate".^[9] Turner, Bovey, Cadbury's and OK! all denied that the chocolate was part of a sponsorship deal.^[10]

The wedding was paid for by OK! magazine. Pictures of their wedding and their subsequent honeymoon were in the magazine for the next two weeks. Turner and Bovey insist that someone had stuck the chocolate bar in her hand and snapped a picture before she knew what was happening, though both are seen biting down on each of their own bars.^[7] Richard Desmond the proprietor of OK! and his wife were sitting next to the newly married Boveys at the time.

References

Preceded by Yvette Fielding	Blue Peter Presenter No. 20 1992–94	Succeeded by Stuart Miles

Blue Peter presenters Christopher Trace Leila Williams Anita West Valerie Singleton John Noakes Peter Purves Lesley Judd Simon Groom Christopher Wenner Tina Heath Sarah Greene Peter Duncan Janet Ellis Michael Sundin Mark Curry Caron Keating Yvette Fielding John Leslie Diane-Louise Jordan Anthea Turner Tim Vincent Stuart Miles Katy Hill Romana D'Annunzio Richard Bacon Konnie Huq Simon Thomas Matt Baker Liz Barker Zöe Salmon Gethin Jones Andy Akinwolere Helen Skelton Joel Defries Barney Harwood Lindsey Russell Radzi Chinyanganya

Celebrity Big Brother Housemates Series 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Series 1 Jack Dee Claire Sweeney Keith Duffy Anthea Turner Vanessa Feltz Chris Eubank

Dancing on Ice celebrity participants List of professional skaters Series 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Series 8 Beth Tweddle Matt Lapinskas Luke Campbell Gareth Thomas Samia Ghadie Keith Chegwin Joe Pasquale Shayne Ward Anthea Turner Oona King Lauren Goodger Pamela Anderson

The Jump Series 1 2 Presenters Current Davina McCall Cherry Healey (On the Piste) Former Alex Brooker Mentors Graham Bell Amy Williams Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards Jenny Jones Winners Joe McElderry Joey Essex Contestants Series 1 Donal MacIntyre Marcus Brigstocke Sir Steve Redgrave Ritchie Neville Anthea Turner Kimberly Wyatt Laura Hamilton Sinitta Melinda Messenger Darren Gough Henry Conway Amy Childs Nicky Clarke Series 2 Mike Tindall Louise Hazel Louise Thompson Chloe Madeley Jon-Allan Butterworth JB Gill Steve-O Lady Victoria Hervey Stacey Solomon Jodie Kidd Louie Spence Ashley Roberts Heather Mills Dominic Parker Phil Tufnell

Authority control VIAF: 85853957 ISNI: 0000 0001 1450 7898