Dieuwer Sarah Blok was born on 8 August 1957 in Nederhorst den Berg, North Holland, which is also where she was raised.

[4] However, Blok stated in an interview from 2001 that she "wasn't really a good child", describing herself as "catty and vain" with a tendency to become "very angry" and admitting to having had "a lot of fights" with her sisters.

[12][13] Although her father wanted her to attend a gymnasium, Blok disliked the school and started to fail at her studies there in her second year after she became involved with the local hippie movement, later admitting in interviews to drinking, taking drugs and stealing money.

[6] After her third year at the gymnasium, she dropped out and started studying a MAVO diploma at Frederik van Eedenschool Hilversum from 1972 to 1973,[14][13] where she felt she fit in better because of the less academic atmosphere of the school.

Blok's presenting career began in 1980, when she started working as an announcer for the Katholieke Radio Omroep (KRO).

[13][16][3]At only 23 years old, Blok's presence was unusual for the Dutch television industry at the time, which was then dominated by older, male presenters.

[1] Her youthful appearance and persona quickly made her popular with Dutch audiences; she became a teen idol and reportedly became the first presenter in the country with her own fan club.

[10] She later said in an interview from 2020 that she "wouldn't want to repeat" her life between the ages of 20 and 30, adding that she had felt uncertain about her identity and self-conscious about her appearance.

[21] However, in November of that year she announced her departure from the programme to focus on other projects, with Astrid Joosten chosen to replace her as presenter.

[25][26] In May 1990, it was announced that Blok would no longer co-present De 5 Uur Show, with Catherine Keyl [nl] presenting in her place.

[28] In April 1990, it was announced that Blok would present her own talk show for RTL-Véronique, originally planned to be broadcast each week on a Tuesday over the summer.

The contract stipulated that Blok be offered to present another programme comparable to her talk show by RTL-Véronique if it went off the air.

[32] On 10 October 1992, Hans Vrakking [nl], the deputy chief prosecutor of Amsterdam, ruled in favour of Blok, ordering RTL 4 to offer her a reasonable programme or pay her the ƒ381,000 in compensation by 6 November 1992.

[38] Her television career remained in hiatus until September 1994, when the KRO asked her to return to the organisation to present Ontbijt TV [nl].

[42][19] In an interview from 1996, Blok reflected on the changed attitudes of the KRO from the time she was sacked for being an atheist when she last worked there in 1985, stating that "you can now say out loud that you think differently about matters of faith.

[19] In 1996, Blok started presenting the revival of the KRO's monthly programme Er is Meer Tussen Hemel en Aarde, where she discussed faith, spirituality, religion and people's life philosophy with guests from different religious and non-religious backgrounds.

Boschhuizen wanted it to be presented by someone with a sense of irony who was seen as motherly and reliable, and believed that Blok met this criteria.

[2][59] She has two children, a daughter and a son, from a previous marriage with Paul de Bruin, a photographer from Amsterdam who she married in 1992.

She was presented the award by Mark Verheijen, the mayor of Wijdemeren (which includes her birthplace Nederhorst den Berg), at an event attended by her family and her castmates from Het Sinterklaasjournaal.