Kate Silverton
Born Kate Silverton
4 August 1970 (1970-08-04) (age 39)
Essex, England
Education University of Durham
Occupation Journalist, Television Presenter
Ethnicity English
Notable credit(s) BBC Breakfast
BBC News at One
BBC News (8pm summary)

Kate Silverton (born 4 August 1970) is an English journalist, currently employed by the BBC.


Early life and education

Silverton was born in Essex, England, the daughter of English parents; Terry Silverton, a black-cab driver turned registered hypnotherapist[2] and Patricia Silverton, who now heads her daughter's company. Silverton has two sisters, Claire and Amy. Silverton attended West Hatch High School in Chigwell, Essex, where she was a champion swimmer and started to compete in the triathlon.[3] She was a Girl Guide and gained the Queen's Guide Award.She spent a year studying Arabic and Middle Eastern politics before switching and has a BSc in Psychology from the University of Durham where she attended St. Cuthbert's Society.[4].
Career
Early career

Silverton worked for a London-based bank before becoming a journalist. She trained with the BBC working on Look North news before becoming a reporter and presenter at Tyne Tees Television.

Silverton was a panellist on Five's The Wright Stuff, The Heaven and Earth Show, Big Strong Boys and Weekend Breakfast on BBC Radio 5 Live, before joining BBC News.
BBC News

From 2005 until December 2007 she was the 8.30-11am presenter on BBC News 24 along with colleague Simon McCoy, although she was frequently absent as she was also a regular relief presenter for BBC Breakfast, presenting during some of Sian Williams's maternity leave.

In December 2007, Silverton was named as the presenter of the 8pm News summary - a 90-second round up of the news shown on BBC One, which she presented for two months. She presented the BBC News at One from February to August 2008, whilst main presenter Sophie Raworth was on maternity leave.[5] In January 2009, Silverton began to present the BBC Weekend News Late Bulletin as a regular presenter. From Monday 23 February 2009, Silverton presented BBC Breakfast with Bill Turnbull, again covering for Sian Williams's maternity leave which finished on 31 August 2009.

During September 2009 she presented and reported for BBC News from Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan. She is now the deputy presenter of the BBC News at One[6], presenting on Mondays and when main presenter Sophie Raworth can't. This role was previously held by Louise Minchin.
Other BBC work

On 1 April 2008, alongside the historian Dan Snow, she presented live coverage of the celebrations held at RAF Fairford for the 90th Birthday of the Royal Air Force. On 24 August 2008, Silverton presented live coverage of the celebrations of London becoming the 2012 Olympics host city, from The Mall. She presented New Year Live aboard HMS Belfast in London on 31 December 2008 on BBC1 with Nick Knowles.

In October 2008, she presented Big Cat Live for BBC One in October 2008.

Silverton has also appeared as a mentor in the BBC2 series The Speaker in April 2009 offering her advice on good story telling and public speaking.

In May 2009 Silverton presented a documentary called 10 Things You Need to Know About Sleep which looked at different ways to deal with insomnia.

Since January 2010 she has presented the Sunday morning show on BBC Radio 5 Live, running from 9.30am to 11am. The show's format was revamped as part of a general review of the schedules in January 2010. Previously she had stood in for Gabby Logan on the network.
[edit] Other opportunities

Media speculation has grown as to her future. In February 2008, Silverton revealed in an interview in The Independent that she had been offered the main presenter job for the upcoming Five News relaunch in 2007. She turned it down and the job eventually went to her then BBC colleague Natasha Kaplinsky.[7] She was also linked to replace Fiona Phillips at GMTV in 2008.
[edit] Philip Hayton incident

In September 2005, Silverton drew some media attention when her BBC News 24 co-anchor Philip Hayton, who had worked for the BBC for 37 years, resigned his position six months into a year's contract.[8] The Daily Telegraph, without substantiation and quoting an unnamed 'insider', reported that he turned to Silverton during a break and said "I don't like you".[9] The Daily Mirror quoted another BBC 'insider' as saying that Silverton is "...pushy beyond belief. Behind her big superficial smile she can be a really aggressive, manipulative monster who always gets what she wants."[3] Mr. Hayton merely cited "incompatibility" with Silverton as his reason and when his managers refused to move Silverton to another time slot he left. Silverton was in the peculiar position of having to go through the morning's paper review live on air the morning the story broke, avoiding any discussion of the story and chiding her new co-anchor when he looked to refer to it.[9] Hayton said that he left the BBC "without bitterness or rancour".[9]

However several figures spoke up for Silverton. Jon Sopel, a fellow BBC News 24 presenter, who was Silverton's co-anchor at News 24 for several months, commented on the incident saying "She's warm and friendly. With Kate, what you see is what you get - she's bright, lively, talented and vivacious. I like and trust her. Yes, she's ambitious... but aren't we all?"[3]

Rod Liddle, another of Silverton's former co-presenters and also former programme editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme said: "Kate is intelligent, attractive and has strong opinions. She is far cleverer than Hayton. There are plenty of very stupid women at the BBC but she isn’t one of them. Philip probably needs to work on an island where there are no women. She was absolutely lovely, good fun, professional, intelligent and devoid of the usual afflictions of TV presenters - narcissism and greed."[10] It was later revealed while the pair worked on a short-lived BBC TV politics programme in 2003 Silverton allegedly hit Liddle, who said: "I made a stupid comment about the disabled which Kate rightly took exception to. We took the fight out of the pilot. It's good to get these things out before we go on air. My admiration for Kate knows no bounds".[11]
[edit] Plastic surgery lawsuit

In January 2008, Silverton sued a clinic after an allegedly botched cosmetic surgery procedure to remove acne scars.[12]
Personal life

During a frank and wide-ranging newspaper interview in February 2009, Silverton said "...if this is my year for settling down, it would be nice....".[13] Less than a month later Silverton was spotted shopping for engagement rings.[14]

On 22 March 2009 it was announced that Silverton had become engaged to Mike Heron, a 41 year old security expert from Hartlepool.[15]. The pair met on a course for BBC journalists going to trouble zones, where Heron was an instructor,[14] and became engaged in Rome.[15]