Star Facts
- Claudia has three childen; Jake Leonard, Matilda Martha and Arthur
- She is 5’ 5” tall
- Claudia’s half-sister is Peep Show star Sophie Winkleman
- She has a degree in History of Art from Cambridge University
Claudia Anne I. Winkleman Quotes
On Richard And Judy, I dressed up as an orange for Fruit Awareness Week
Biography:
The media can be a tough business to break into, but it’s a whole lot easier if your parents are both high-profile media moguls. But, it hasn’t all been plain sailing for Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two presenter Claudia Winkleman. The daughter of Daily Express editor Eve Pollard and Times Atlas of the World publisher Barry Winkleman has had something of a chequered career, starting off as a presenter on regional discussion show Central Weekend in 1991.
She graduated to national TV the following year as a reporter on the long-running BBC travel show Holiday, and subsequently made several appearances on This Morning, interviewing famous faces such as Harrison Ford and Alan Sugar. However, the late 90s weren’t too kind to Claudia, and for a while it seemed she was destined for cable TV oblivion, presenting such ground-breaking shows as Toilets for BBC Choice, in which she examined the “design, etiquette, psychology and hidden culture behind the humble loo”.
The wider availability of digital TV in the 2000s saw the media heiress stage a comeback, and in 2003 she landed a gig presenting a daily Fame Academy update show on BBC Three. This catapulted her back into the C-list, and she’s since climbed her way up to present Comic Relief, Hell’s Kitchen, Eurovision, Film 2011 and her own Radio 2 culture show.
She has been married to film producer Kris Thykier since 2000, and despite well-publicised marital problems, the couple remain very much an item.