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Carol Vorderman MBE (born Carol Jean Vorderman on December 24, 1960 in Bedford, England), is a British television personality best known for being a long-standing co-presenter of Channel 4 quiz show Countdown.
Biography As a young child Carol Vorderman lived in a single parent family. Her mother remarried in 1969 to an Italian. Vorderman attended the Catholic comprehensive Blessed Edward Jones High School. At the age of 17 she was accepted by Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge to read Engineering. She graduated with a third class degree. After graduation, her mother's second marriage had broken down, and the family were back in financial difficulties. Vorderman found work as a graduate management trainee, but it was her mother who saw a newspaper advertisement asking for a woman with good mathematical skills to appear as co-host on a quiz show for the fledgling fourth terrestrial channel - Jean even wrote out the application for Carol.* Career In 1982 at the age of 21, Vorderman made her name on the Channel 4 game show Countdown first with Richard Whiteley from the show's inception in 1982 until Whiteley's death in June 2005, and currently with Des Lynam since production resumed in October 2005. Vorderman was a new kind of game show hostess, revealing her intellectual ability by carrying out fast and accurate mathematical calculations as part of the game. Her continued success on the show saw her become one of the highest-paid women in Britain, being paid 3 million pounds a year for her work. She went on to present numerous other television programmes including the BBC's Tomorrow's World until she left to pursue a commercial career *. She was offered a huge contract with ITV in 1999. She moved to ITV, and went on to present numerous other television programmes including On Your Marks with Quizmania's Greg Scott, "What Will They Think of Next", "Tested to Destruction", "How 2" on CITV, the popular "Better Homes" which began in 1999 and spawned a spin-off "Better Gardens". She was a newspaper reviewer on the last episode of Breakfast with Frost. In 2005, she beat off competition from other celebrities in ITV's Gameshow Marathon, winning the series. Carol has also had columns in newspapers The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mirror. She was awarded an MBE in June 2000. She appeared as a guest on Have I Got News For You on May 14, 2004 and hosted the show on May 26, 2006. Carol presented the Channel 4 entertainment show The Friday Night Project on August 11, 2006. She has written books on Detox diets. She is also a self-described sudoku addict since April 2005 when she wrestled a book of sudoku puzzles from her 12-year-old daughter Katie during a vacation in the Caribbean. Vorderman has written numerous books of sudoku puzzles with help on how to tackle these addictive puzzles. She has sold millions of Sudoku books worldwide in less than a year, with almost a million being sold in the UK alone. Controversy Carol Vorderman's career has not been without controversy and humour. In 2006 she received flak on comedy shows Dead Ringers and Have I Got News For You for appearing in many adverts and a 2006 a petition was signed by over 88,000 people to ask her to stop doing secured loan adverts *. Personal life She was first married at age 24 to Chris Mather, a naval officer and former rugby league international player, but the marriage only lasted eighteen months. Vorderman's second marriage was to management consultant Patrick King in 1990. There are two children from their marriage, Katie and Cameron. She separated from King in 2000 and has lived with Daily Mail columnist and PR consultant Des Kelly in London. The couple also have a house in Glandore, West Cork. Trivia Videos and writing | ||||||||
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