Melanie Sykes Biography – Melanie Sykes Wiki
Melanie Sykes born Melanie Ann Sykes is an English television and radio presenter, and model. She is best known for co-hosting Today with Des and Mel with Des O’Connor and Let’s Do Lunch with Gino D’Acampo. She also co-hosted Going Out with Alan Carr on BBC Radio 2 with Alan Carr from May 2010 until it ended in March 2012 and returned with him for Alan and Mel’s Summer Escape from 2017. 2021 saw her co-present Shop Well For Less on BBC One. In the mid-1990s Sykes first came to public attention as the face of the Boddingtons Bitter advertisements.
Her television presenting career began by hosting Sky One’s Real TV UK series in the mid-90s. After first reporting for The Big Breakfast, Sykes has continued her television career, including presenting stints on I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! and as presenter of EastEnders Revealed. In 1999, she hosted Melanie Sykes’ Southall Stories, a documentary for BBC Two on Asian culture in Great Britain. She has also presented a variety of awards ceremonies, including Miss World, the BAFTA Awards, and the Q Awards.
Sykes’ television career stopped for a period, although she made a successful comeback as host of Today with Des and Mel with Des O’Connor in 2002. On 12 May 2006, ITV announced that the show would be one of a number to be axed in a “painful, but utterly necessary” move. Her other work for ITV has included hosting shows The Vault, Celebrities Under Pressure, and The British Soap Awards (2003).
Sykes appeared as a guest panelist on Loose Women in October and November 2005 and later returned as a guest anchor in October 2008 and May 2009. From 2006 to 2009, she regularly filled in for Paul O’Grady as presenter of The Paul O’Grady Show when O’Grady was unable to appear. She presented the show on eleven occasions. She was the host of the daytime series Gene Detectives for BBC One. In 2008, Sykes was a judge on ‘The Sofa Factor’, an item for GMTV, where viewers sent in short clips and the winner got to present TV Pick of the Day and win a trip to Las Vegas. In 2010, she guest presented five episodes of The 5 O’Clock Show with Denise van Outen on Channel 4.
In August 2011, she went back to daytime television, co-hosting Let’s Do Lunch with Gino & Mel and Let’s Do Christmas with Gino & Mel with Gino D’Acampo on ITV. The show was canceled in 2014. On 13 September 2011, Sykes co-hosted the three-part series Missing Millions with Paul Heiney on ITV. In February 2014, BT Sport announced that Sykes would become part of their MotoGP team. Due to other work commitments, she left the channel in May 2014. In 2014, Sykes took part in the fourteenth series of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! where she finished in third place, behind runner-up Jake Quickenden and winner Carl Fogarty.
In 2015, Sykes co-presented Humble Pie, a cookery series for Watch, alongside Marco Pierre White. On 4 April 2017, Sykes was confirmed as the new voice of Blind Date, taking over the role most famously held by Graham Skidmore in the original series. The show is broadcast on Saturday nights on Channel 5. In 2017, Sykes appeared on a “celebrity” charity edition of the TV quiz show, The Chase. She departed early and did not make the final round. In March 2018, Sykes won Star Baker in Channel 4’s The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off.
In 2021 Sykes alongside Joanna Page were the new presenters of BBC One’s consumer series Shop Well for Less. In August 2021 it was announced that Sykes would be a competitor on BBC’s Celebrity MasterChef. She progressed to the semi-final where she won Star Chef on the fourth day.
She hosted The A-List, a national radio chart show based on total sales, produced by Unique the Production Company at the studios of London’s Heart 106.2. She left the show towards the end of 2006 and was replaced by Gail Porter. She was heard on BBC Radio 2 with Aled Jones sitting in for Steve Wright in the Afternoon on 22, 23, and 24 December 2008. In May 2010, she started co-hosting the BBC Radio 2 show Going Out with Alan Carr after Emma Forbes’ resignation. She continued on the show until its end in March 2012. She returned on Boxing Day 2015 with Alan Carr for a one-off show on BBC Radio 2. In January/February 2017 she and Carr again returned to Radio 2 to sit in for Paul O’Grady for 4 weeks.
Sykes and Carr presented their own Saturday morning show called Alan and Mel’s Summer Escape on BBC Radio 2 for 10 weeks during the summer of 2017. She presented a show with Carr on BBC Radio 2 on Christmas Eve and another on New Year’s Eve in 2017. Sykes and Carr returned for further specials for Easter, for the Royal Wedding, and for further runs of Alan and Mel’s Summer Escape in 2018, 2019, and 2020. For a time, Sykes presented her own radio show on Capital FM.
She has been the face of Head & Shoulders shampoo in Britain, appearing in print and television advertising and the high street chain Matalan. She has also appeared in advertisements for Morrisons, Wynsors World of Shoes, and Churchill Insurance. In 2006, the book Blooming Beautiful: My Plan for Looking Great, Being Healthy and Surviving Hormonal Havoc, Throughout Pregnancy and as a New Mum, co-written by Sykes with Hilary Boyd, was published by Michael Joseph. She posed naked for the December 2011 edition of men’s magazine Esquire.
Sykes has her own line of underwear and lingerie with high street chain and retailer Debenhams. In June 2016, Sykes launched a lifestyle website that features fitness, food, and lifestyle content as well as celebrity interviews and competitions. She attended Mossley Hollins High School and studied A-level Religious Studies at Ashton Sixth Form College. Sykes was a member of the Ashtonian Brass Band, along with her father, mother, and two sisters, playing the baritone horn.
Melanie Sykes Age
She was born on August 7, 1970, in Ashton-under-Lyne, United Kingdom.
Melanie Sykes Husband
She is divorced after having been married twice. She first married actor Daniel Caltagirone in January 2001. The couple has two sons, Roman and Valentino. In July 2008, it was reported that the couple had separated, with Sykes having “grown apart” from Caltagirone, who had moved out of their Hampstead, London home. They divorced in June 2009.
Her second marriage was to her boyfriend Jack Cockings on May 18, 2013, at Sherborne Castle in Dorset. In November 2013 Sykes was arrested and cautioned by police over an assault against Cockings. Soon after the common assault caution, after less than one year of marriage, she started the process of filing for divorce. She finally got the divorce in 2016.
Melanie Sykes Children
She has two children, both sons known as Roman Caltagirone born in 2002, and Valentino Luca Caltagirone born in 2004.
Melanie Sykes Family
Her parents are her mother, Wendy Sykes a Catholic Anglo-Indian, and her father Robert Sykes who is English. Her siblings are her sisters Samantha Sykes, and Stacy Sykes.
Melanie Sykes Autism diagnosis
In November 2021 she received an autism diagnosis, which she said gave her a “deeper understanding of myself, my life, and the things I have endured.” She announced she has been diagnosed as autistic at the age of 51. In an email to readers of her magazine the Frank, Sykes opened up about the “life-changing” diagnosis and her relief that things in her life had finally started to “make sense”.
“This week has been truly life-changing, or rather, life-affirming,” she wrote in the email, originally obtained by the Sun. “As many of you may or may not know, I was diagnosed with autism late Thursday afternoon. And then, finally, so many things made sense.”
She said her diagnosis had come as a huge relief and was one she would be celebrating. “I now have a deeper understanding of myself, my life, and the things I have endured…”
Melanie Sykes Height
She stands at a listed height of 5 feet 7 inches (1.75 meters) tall.
Melanie Sykes Instagram
She is on Instagram on her handle @msmelaniesykes.
