Fearne Cotton

Former BBC executive Sir Bill Cotton (1928–2008) was her paternal grandfather's cousin.

He was the son of the well-known entertainer and band leader Billy Cotton.

Fearne Wood ( Cotton; born 3 September 1981) is an English broadcaster and author. She began her career in the late 1990s presenting various children's television shows for GMTV, CITV and CBBC.

Cotton began her presenting career in 1996, at the age of 15, with early-morning GMTV children's programme The Disney Club, after winning a competition for young talent to present the show.

Cotton later continued with the show and with its replacement Diggit.

She left in 2000, to concentrate on her other projects with CITV, including Draw Your Own Toons and Mouse, aimed at encouraging children to use computers.

Cotton joined CBBC in 2001 to present children's science programme Eureka TV.

From 2001 until 2003, she presented Finger Tips, an arts and crafts programme for children, which she co-presented with Stephen Mulhern.

She later co-presented on CBBC's Sunday morning show, Smile and on The Saturday Show.

She has also made appearances in the CBBC show Only in America, alongside her good friend and fellow presenter Reggie Yates.

From 2002 to 2020, Cotton was a regular presenter on the BBC One music show Top of the Pops.

In 2003, Cotton moved over to mainstream broadcasting.

She along with Simon Grant (her co-presenter from The Saturday Show) presented the spin-off show Top of the Pops: Saturday (later renamed Top of the Pops: Reloaded) that year.

In 2006, she co-presented the reality show Love Island, and the following year, she presented The Xtra Factor, an ITV2 spin-off from the main show.

She has also co-presented some of the Red Nose Day and Children in Need telethons.

In 2006, Cotton presented the second series of ITV's Love Island with Patrick Kielty.

In 2007, Cotton became the first regular female presenter of the Radio 1 Chart Show, which she co-presented with Reggie Yates for two years.

In 2007, she took over from Ben Shephard as host of The X Factor spin-off programme The Xtra Factor on ITV2, presenting the programme for one series before resigning to work in America; she was replaced in the following series by Holly Willoughby.

Starting on 5 September 2007, Cotton co-hosted with Holly Willoughby the ITV2 dating programme Holly & Fearne Go Dating, which saw the pair try to find dates for lonely singletons.

From 2008 to 2018, Cotton was a team captain on the ITV2 comedy panel show Celebrity Juice.

Beginning in 2008, Cotton appeared as a team captain on the ITV2 comedy panel show Celebrity Juice alongside host Keith Lemon and fellow team captain Holly Willoughby.

She went on to present her own Radio 1 show, airing every weekday morning from 2009 to 2015.

Cotton has also presented the Isle of Wight Festival 2009 on ITV2 alongside Rufus Hound.

Since 2009, Cotton has hosted Fearne and... on ITV2.

In 2012, Cotton hosted The Nation's Favourite Number One Single, a three-part series, revealing Britain's Favourite No. 1 single.

Cotton took a short break from the programme in 2013 whilst on maternity leave, and Kelly Brook stood in for her during the ninth series.

Cotton returned to children's television in 2015 by voicing one of the Voice Trumpets in the reboot of the classic British children's television series Teletubbies.

She joined BBC Radio 2 in 2016.

Since 2016, Cotton has co-presented Fearne & Gok: Off The Rails, alongside Gok Wan for ITVBe.

In August 2017, Cotton's ancestry was explored in the BBC TV series Who Do You Think You Are?

Cotton studied art at A-level, a skill she used whilst presenting the series Draw Your Own Toons.

In March 2017, Cotton guest presented five episodes of ITV Breakfast's Lorraine programme.

In 2018, Cotton began presenting Happy Place, a podcast focusing on wellbeing and mental health, available to online streaming platforms.

She has also released eight self-help books, two children's books, and four books on healthy eating.

Cotton was born in Northwood, London Borough of Hillingdon, to Mick and Lyn Cotton; she has a younger brother, Jamie Cotton.

Her father was a signwriter for events such as Live Aid, and her mother worked in alternative therapy.

She grew up in nearby Eastcote, and was educated at Haydon School.

She is a pescetarian and an animal lover.

She has participated in several half marathons for charity.

She quit the series in 2018.