Kirsty Young is playing a major role in the coverage of King Charles III's coronation. She is presenting The Coronation of HM the King and Queen Camilla: The Preparation and The Coronation of HM King and Queen Camilla: The Coronation which is airing on BBC One and BBC Two from 7.30am to 1pm on Saturday, May 6.
Kirsty began her career as a continuity announcer for BBC Radio Scotland. Within three years she had her own chat show Kirsty and in 1997 she joined Channel 5. Here she fronted Channel 5 news until 2000 when she joined ITV.
In 2006 Kirsty landed one of her most well-known roles as the host of the popular BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs, where she replaced Sue Lawley. Later Kirsty also began presenting the BBC show Crimewatch, taking over from Fiona Bruce. Last September, BBC viewers were in tears at her 'outstanding' speech as she took on presenting duties for the Queen's funeral. Read more on that here.
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Kirsty stood down from Desert Island Discs in 2018 to receive treatment for a form of fibromyalgia, which is a medical condition of widespread chronic pain. Originally Kirsty was meant to step down from Desert Island Discs for a couple of months but in 2019 announced she would be stepping down for good.
She said: "Having been forced to take some months away from my favourite job because of health problems, I'm happy to say I'm now well on the way to feeling much better. But that enforced absence from the show has altered my perspective on what I should do next and so I've decided it's time to pursue new challenges". Lauren Laverne took over the Desert Island Discs and you can read more about her here.
Kirsty is married to businessman Nick Jones, the founder of Soho House club. She has two daughters with Nick and two stepchildren from Nick's first marriage. She also owns an island on Loch Lomond and faced controversy when she considered relocating the wild wallabies that live on the island so she could build holiday homes.
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