Alison Hammond found fame with her crazy antics on Big Brother in 2002 before becoming a much-loved regular on This Morning.
But while her gregarious on-screen personality has won her legions of fans, behind the scenes Alison, 46 - who recently took over the show's Friday slot - is much less extroverted, preferring to live a low-key life.
So much so that when she celebrated her birthday on This Morning on February 5, viewers were shocked to find she shares her birthday with someone else - her 16-year-old son Aiden.
It was on the ITV show that a pregnant Alison had a scan all those years ago and discovered she was expecting a boy with then-husband, Manchester cab driver Noureddine Boufaied.
Love celebrity and soap gossip? Sign up for a daily newsletter for all the juiciest news here
“It’s my son’s birthday today too… Sixteen years ago I had that boy and actually I remember being on this show having a scan and they told me I was having a boy," the presenter, who recently got promoted to a regular Friday slot, gushed.
"On this show! I got my belly out and we scanned and there’s Aidan… happy birthday my darling, I’ll be home soon don’t worry!”
Aiden arrived on the Brummie star's 30th birthday via C-section after she was induced - but she will never forget the joy of seeing him for the first time.
“They lifted him up, popped him over the top. He was hanging over all droopy, looking at me and I was like, ‘Oh my god, I love him,’” she previously told the Daily Star.
“I just fell in love with him instantly and then I heard him crying for the first time.”
It is not known when Alison and Noureddine Boufaied divorced, but in 2014 she got engaged to single dad and security guard Jamie Savage after meeting online.
Sadly, it wasn't to be and in 2017 she said the agony of their heartbreak had put her off finding love agin.
"We split up. It's the worst news ever. I don't think I want anyone else now," she said.
The former cinema worker was briefly involved with audio technician Ben Kusi who she met on Celebs Go Dating earlier in 2020, but is now single.
However, she previously told Woman's Own that she longs to fall in love and tie the knot once more.
"I would love to get married. I’d love to walk down the aisle in a big, white dress and have the fairy-tale wedding," she said.
"I love being in love; I am a different person when I am. My heart sings – it’s amazing."
Sadly, last year was a difficult one for brave Alison, who suffered not one but two tragic bereavments.
First she lost her mother to liver and lung cancer. Sharing the saddening news on Instagram, she wrote: "Yesterday my family and I celebrated her amazing life and laid her to rest in a beautiful ceremony she would have been proud of.
"Thank you mummy for giving me the strength to move forward in the knowledge that your ok and with God in Heaven now.
"I will always remember you and try and make you proud. I love you mum."
Then just four months later, Alison's biological father, Clifford Hammond, passed away in Jamaica and Alison was unable to attend his funeral due to the coronavirus pandemic and travel restrictions.
The pain of her losses were further magnified by the fact Alison and her son lived just around the corner from her late mum.
But despite Alison's glamorous job which has seen her interview some of Hollywood's biggest stars, she says she will never move away from her home city.
"I like doing dead ordinary things when I’m away from work – I just dropped my son off at the Snowdome and that’s more important and more fun than all the partying under the sun," she once told Birmingham Living.
“This is who I am. I am a private person in real life but very outward going when I have an audience.
"I love Birmingham. I love everything about it. I would never leave it."
What do you think about Alison and Dermot O'Leary replacing Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford on This Morning? Share your thoughts in the comments section below...
*This Morning airs today at 10:30am on ITV
