Anne Josephine Robinson (born 26 September 1944)[1] is a journalist and television presenter, best known as the host of BBC game show The Weakest Link from 2000 to 2012, and again in 2017 for a one-off celebrity special for Children in Need.

Her mother, Anne Josephine (née Wilson),[6] was an agricultural businesswoman from Northern Ireland, where she was the manager of a market stall.

[5] She inherited the family market stall in Liverpool and transformed it into one of the largest wholesale poultry dealing businesses in the north of England.

[5] Robinson secured a permanent position as a result of scooping the details of the story of Brian Epstein's death from being a family friend of the Liverpool solicitor handling the legalities, offering him a ride to Euston railway station when he could not find an available taxi.

[7] Her work became more uncomfortable for her when she met and fell in love with the deputy news editor, Charles Wilson; the couple married in 1968, but he subsequently had to terminate her employment because of the marriage.

[citation needed] In discussing a raise with Mirror boss Robert Maxwell, she asked for a doubling of her salary and a brand-new Mercedes to be written in her contract.

[13] Robinson wrote obituaries to Maxwell following his death in 1991, saying: "He left me reeling from his charm, his amazing panache and the sheer speed at which his brain worked.

[15] In Memoirs of an Unfit Mother in 2001, Robinson criticised Maxwell's fraudulent misappropriation of the Mirror pension fund (which fully came to light after his death), in which she said: "we failed to monitor what was happening on our doorstep", adding: "cowards had made his behaviour possible.

As a result, Buckingham Palace Press Secretary Michael Shea rang then Mirror editor Mike Molloy, asking him to remove Robinson.

[7] Robinson has written weekly columns for a succession of other British newspapers, such as Today, The Sun, The Express,[17] The Times, and The Daily Telegraph.

From 1986, she began sitting in on television viewers' show Points of View for regular presenter Barry Took, taking over from Took permanently in 1988 and remaining for 11 years.

[23] In an interview with Radio Times in September 2000, Robinson was asked what her first act as world leader would be, replying: "I'd lock up all the hunt saboteurs because they are destructive.

"[24] In February 2002, she hosted a spin-off version of The Weakest Link in Cirencester to raise funds for the local White Horse Hunt.

A report published in 2006, which concluded that the BBC is "endemically homophobic", highlighted as one example of anti-gay bigotry in the network Robinson's treatment of a male contestant at The Weakest Link – Celebrity Chefs, to whom she made questions such as "What do you do in your restaurant – just mince around?

[29] The BBC received 16 complaints after Robinson asked wine connoisseur Olly Smith, who was competing on the celebrity version of The Weakest Link, to feel her breasts, after he described her as a "full-bodied, expensive red".

[30] Robinson caused controversy on The Weakest Link when she made former Blue Peter presenter John Noakes cry after asking "What was the end for Shep?"

[2] On 10 September 2015, it was announced that Robinson would step down from Watchdog once again, this time in order to film a new series of Britain's Spending Secrets for the channel.

At the end of October 2017 on BBC Radio's Today programme, Robinson responded to the accusations of sexual abuse made against multiple men which had followed Harvey Weinstein allegations published earlier in the month.

Referring to an allegation made against the trade minister Mark Garnier about him asking a female assistant to buy sex toys: "It shouldn't be happening but, on the other hand, why have women lost confidence".

In 1970 the couple had a daughter, Emma Wilson, who became a British radio disc jockey and has also hosted Scaredy Camp, a game show in the United States on the Nickelodeon network.

Charles Wilson was granted sole custody, care and control of Emma, who subsequently lived with her father until she left home at 16 for boarding school.