Helen Fospero (née Morton; born 30 August 1966) is an English television presenter and journalist, best known for her presenting roles on shows such as GMTV, Daybreak, and Lorraine.

She is currently working as a reporter for Watchdog and The One Show on the BBC.

Early life

Born Helen Jane Morton in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, she grew up in nearby Grimsby, and attended Hereford School (now Ormiston Maritime Academy), Grimsby.^[1][2] Her grandfather George Barker, was one of the Grimsby Chums.^[3]

She left school just before her 18th birthday and started her career at the local weekly newspaper. A short time later she joined a national news agency, writing for tabloids and broadsheets in Fleet Street.

Career

Fospero's television career began when she was one of the first journalists to be recruited by Sky Television in 1989. She was a home news editor when the channel launched in 1989, and took on many roles in her nine years there, including reporter and presenter on Sunrise and Live at Five. In September 1997, she was poached by Breakfast television station GMTV, where she met John Stapleton, who acts as a mentor to her.^[4] Fospero was initially the Showbiz correspondent, then later became the United States correspondent, based in New York City.

In November 2002 when the BBC launched the new Yorkshire & Lincolnshire area, Fospero was appointed by Greg Dyke^[5] to front the new version of regional news magazine programme Look North along with Peter Levy.

After her daughter was born, Fospero left Look North to find a position based in London to be closer to her family,^[6] and after standing in on BBC London News, she joined Channel 5 News and Sky News. Fospero gave birth to her second child in mid-2009, after which she became a freelance presenter.

In September 2009, Fospero made her return to GMTV as a newsreader for the first hour of GMTV (News Hour), as well as a relief presenter alongside John Stapleton. In 2010, Fospero shared presenting and newsreading duties with Penny Smith until her departure on 4 June 2010. This is when she became the main newsreader on GMTV and GMTV with Lorraine, as well as the main relief presenter, until the demise of GMTV on 3 September 2010.

Since then she has gone on to present other breakfast programmes for ITV. On 18 June 2011, she guest presented ITV Breakfast programme Lorraine for the first time in place of Fiona Phillips,^[7] and has since made regular appearances as the show's stand-in host on Friday mornings and school holidays.

Whilst presenting Lorraine, ITV Breakfast also gave Fospero the opportunity to present its sister show Daybreak as a stand-in presenter. One of Fospero's best roles for Daybreak was in 2012 when she interviewed Elton John at his home in Nice, France, this was Fospero's one and only outside interview that she has done for Daybreak, this interview was broadcast on 20 July 2012.

She appeared in an episode of ITV's Ten Mile Menu which was aired on 20 July 2011 and was recorded in the town of Knaresborough.

In September 2012, Fospero began working as a stand-in newsreader, presenting news bulletins and Daybreak's newshour from 6–7 am. She occasionally presented the main show from 7–8.30 am and when this happened she also presented the following Lorraine programme. Daybreak was axed by ITV on 3 March 2014 and she made her last appearance on the show on 23 April 2014, just five days before it was replaced by Good Morning Britain.

In 2013, she was a guest presenter for This Morning, presenting the interactive 'Hub' segment of the show.

In November 2014, Fospero joined the BBC One consumer affairs programme Watchdog as a regular reporter. Since 2015, she has been a reporter for the BBC magazine show The One Show.

Fospero played Lucinda Towne in "The National Anthem", an episode of the anthology series Black Mirror. She played herself in two episodes of Southcliffe and one episode of the BBC Two documentary series How TV Ruined Your Life.

Radio

Fospero is an occasional newsreader on BBC Radio 5 Live, and also acts as a stand-in presenter on the station's weekend breakfast programme. She also sits in for regular presenters on BBC London 94.9. In 2015, she sat in for Anne Diamond on BBC Radio Berkshire.

Personal life

She married American television producer Carl Fospero in May 2003 in Oxfordshire. The couple live in London with their daughter Francesca (born February 2004) and their son Jack (born early 2009).

Fospero is a patron of the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation, where she has been involved in raising £5 million to speed up research for a breakthrough cure for paralysis.

Filmography

Television