Carol Vorderman
Carol Jean Vorderman MBE (born December 24, 1960), is a British television personality and author.
Vorderman is best known for her work on the Channel 4 game show Countdown with the late Richard Whiteley. Vorderman was a new kind of game show hostess, not only attractive but revealing her intellectual ability by carrying out fast and accurate mathematical calculations as part of the game (her IQ has been rated at 154). Her continued success on the show saw her become one of the highest-paid women in Britain, earning two million pounds a year for her work.
She grew up in Rhyl in North Wales and later graduated from Sidney Sussex College at the University of Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts degree (Third Class honours) after reading Engineering (Cambridge awards BAs in all subjects). Incidentally, third-class honours degrees are often referred to as "Vordermans" by students in the UK. She was also a member of the "Nines Club" at Cambridge, so-named because members achieve a third in each of their three years of study (3+3+3=9). She was awarded an MBE in June 2000. After making her name on Countdown, she went on to present numerous other television programmes, to the point where she was regarded as being overexposed. She has been criticised for not growing older gracefully, and was mocked for wearing a revealing dress at the BAFTAs in 2000. She presented Tomorrow's World until she was dropped due to appearing in an advertisement for washing powder. [1]
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. For her first TV appearances she used the name Carol Mather. 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 now lives with journalist Des Kelly in London.
She was briefly a backing singer in the Leeds-based pop group Dawn Chorus and the Blue Tits, fronted by radio DJ Liz Kershaw.
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 commentary.
In 2005, she beat off competition from other celebrities in ITV's Gameshow Marathon series, presented by Ant & Dec — to coincide with celebrations of ITV's 50th anniversary. With the help of her family, she beat Vernon Kay and his family in the final show, a recreation of Family Fortunes.
More recently, in 2006, Carol Vorderman has become the subject of an online petition asking her to relinquish her role as a face for secured loan advertisements.
Trivia
Vorderman also fronts TV adverts for First Plus (owned by Woolwich bank) a company which offers debt consolidation, and also for Remind4u.com.
Vorderman was once gunged on Noel's House Party.
Written works
Carol Vorderman's How To Do Sudoku, 2005
Carol Vorderman's Massive Book Of Sudoku, 2005.