Fearne Cotton

Fearne Cotton is an English broadcaster and author who began her career in the late 1990s as a children's television presenter. She went on to host mainstream television and radio programs, including Top of the Pops, Love Island, The Xtra Factor, and Interior Design Masters. Cotton is also known for her long-standing work with charity telethons such as Children in Need and Comic Relief, as well as her work on BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2, book authoring, and podcasting.

Born on 3 September 1981 in Northwood, London Borough of Hillingdon, Cotton was raised in nearby Eastcote by her parents, Mick and Lyn Cotton, alongside her younger brother, Jamie. Her father worked as a signwriter for events, and her mother worked in alternative therapy. Cotton attended Haydon School and studied art at A-level. Through her paternal grandfather's cousin, BBC executive Bill Cotton, she is related to entertainer Billy Cotton.

Cotton began her broadcasting career in 1996 at age 15 after winning a talent competition to present GMTV's The Disney Club. She continued presenting children's television across GMTV, CITV, and CBBC, hosting or co-hosting shows such as Diggit, Draw Your Own Toons, Mouse, Eureka TV, Finger Tips alongside Stephen Mulhern, Smile, and The Saturday Show. In 2015, she voiced a Voice Trumpet in the rebooted Teletubbies series.

In 2003, Cotton transitioned to mainstream broadcasting on Top of the Pops: Saturday, later co-presenting the main Top of the Pops series until 2006 alongside Reggie Yates. Her television hosting roles expanded across major networks, including ITV's Love Island in 2006, The Xtra Factor in 2007, and Holly & Fearne Go Dating. From 2008 to 2018, she served as a team captain on the ITV2 comedy panel show Celebrity Juice. Her mainstream work also included hosting Sky One's Must Be The Music, NBC's Last Comic Standing, and BBC's Eurovision Song Contest coverage.

In radio, Cotton joined BBC Radio 1 in 2005. In 2007, she became the station's first regular female presenter of a BBC radio chart show when she co-hosted the Radio 1 Chart Show with Reggie Yates. She presented her own weekday mid-morning show from 2009 until 2015. After joining BBC Radio 2 in 2016, she served as a cover host for various presenters and launched the music show Sounds of the 90s in 2020.

Beyond broadcasting, Cotton launched the wellbeing podcast Happy Place in 2018. She has authored eight self-help books, two children's books, and four healthy eating books, including a vegan cookbook in 2019. Cotton has also engaged in charity efforts, including climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in 2009 for Comic Relief. She has two children with Jesse Wood, whom she married before announcing their separation in December 2024. That same month, she announced she had undergone surgery to remove two benign jaw tumours.