Vanessa Feltz

Vanessa Jane Feltz (born 21 February 1962) is an English television personality, broadcaster, and journalist.

[2] Vanessa Feltz was born in Islington, London, and grew up in Pine Grove, Totteridge.

During her broadcasting career, she frequently refers to Totteridge as "the Beverly Hills of North London" and her middle class Jewish background as like "growing up in Fiddler on the Roof".

[5] Feltz replaced Paula Yates on Channel 4's morning TV show The Big Breakfast, presenting a regular item where she interviewed celebrities whilst lying on a bed.

[9] In 2001, Feltz joined the local radio station BBC London 94.9 to present a mid-afternoon phone-in show and it continued to run since then at various times, from 2005 to 2015 at 09.00 to noon.

[1] Feltz's other game show appearances include an episode of Russian Roulette, hosted by Rhona Cameron.

She took over the BBC Radio 2 Early Breakfast Show on 17 January 2011 broadcasting from 05:00 until 06:30 each weekday in the slot formerly occupied by Sarah Kennedy.

Feltz announced on 28 July 2022 that she would leave the show the following day, and Radio 2 after 2 weeks of covering for Jeremy Vine on 26 August.

The move allowed Feltz to appear in live editions of her TV show after her morning radio commitments.

[18] In January 2024, it was reported that over 2,000 complaints had been made to Ofcom regarding Feltz's comments on coeliac disease during an episode of This Morning.

[19] After a caller said their mother-in-law did not allow them to serve anything but gluten-free food at Christmas dinner, Feltz responded "So she's treating coeliac disease as if it's a potentially fatal peanut allergy and they can't have anything with gluten in the house, which is completely unreasonable.

[27] Her elder daughter is Allegra Benitah, a former tax lawyer who is now a television baker and chef.