Paddy McGuinness is making headlines for his work raising over £7.5 million for Children in Need by taking part in a 300-mile bike ride. The comedian and presenter was in tears as he crossed the finish line for a five-day journey from Wrexham to Glasgow.
McGuinness, 51, was born in Lancashire and is a childhood friend of fellow Bolton-born comedian Peter Kay.
He is the former host of Top Gear, which he co-presented between 2019 and 2022, and was the host of dating show Take Me Out from 2010 to 2019.
Top Gear is currently on hiatus after one of the presenters, England cricket star Freddie Flintoff, was injured in a crash at the show’s Surrey test track, sustaining serious facial injuries and broken ribs. McGuinness has spoken on the panic attack he had after his own Top Gear crash in 2020, when he skidded into a wall at high speed while driving a £250,000 1990 Lamborghini Diablo.
McGuinness and his other Top Gear co-host Chris Harris have signed on to present Road Trippin, which will see the pair travel through Europe to explore the secrets of living a long life – and get to grips with their own midlife crises.
The comedian is currently undertaking his fourth stand-up comedy tour, called Nearly There, joking he had to return to touring because the “money had run out”.
He recently went on the BBC’s genealogy show, Who Do You Think You Are?, and discovered his family’s connection to Ireland. He found out his ancestors had been neighbours of US President Joe Biden’s forebears.
McGuinness, made his television debut in the 1990s as a contestant on God’s Gift, a dating show hosted by Davina McCall and Claudia Winkleman. Kay invited him to appear in his 2000 Channel 4 mockumentary, That Peter Kay Thing
He has presented shows on the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 and Channel 5 over his career. In 2008 McGuinness teamed up with fellow comedian Rory McGrath to create the television series Rory and Paddy’s Great British Adventure, where they road-tripped around the country trying out unusual local sports.
In 2011, McGuinness married Christine Martin, a model and television personality. The couple, who dated since Christine was 19-years-old, have three children together. In 2021 the family featured in BBC documentary Paddy and Christine McGuinness: Our Family and Autism, after Christine and the children were all diagnosed with autism.
They announced they were separating in 2021, and their divorce was finalised this year. However they still live together with their children at a £2.5 million home in Cheshire.
“We have separate bedrooms because we respect that we aren’t together anymore but, whether we work it through or we don’t, what we do have is a really, really lovely family unit at home,” McGuinness said in a TikTok video earlier this year.
McGuinness is believed to have filmed a pilot episode for a mockumentary where he played himself, as a comedian going through a divorce. Though reportedly the BBC has decided not to go through with production out of respect for his ex-wife.
Christine McGuiness has said that she does not see herself re-marrying, and is enjoying “time for myself for the first time”.
