Adele Claire Roberts (born 9 March 1979) is a British broadcaster and

reality TV Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

personality and DJ. Roberts worked for

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

and

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

. Her best known television appearances were in '' Big Brother'', '' I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!'' and ''

Celebrity Coach Trip ''Coach Trip'' is a British reality game show originally broadcast on Channel 4 from 7 March 2005 to 30 June 2006. The programme returned after a three-year break, from 25 May 2009 to 9 March 2012. In early 2013, the show went into hiatus agai ...

''.

Early life

Roberts was born in

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Irish ...

, Merseyside. She is the eldest of six siblings and is of mixed Barbadian and British descent. She was privately educated at

Merchant Taylors' Girls' School Merchant Taylors' Girls' School is a selective independent girls' school in Great Crosby, Merseyside, England. History Merchant Taylors' Girls' School was established in 1888, having inherited the buildings from the boys' school that had move ...

Crosby, Merseyside Crosby is a coastal town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England. Historically in Lancashire, it is north of Bootle, south of Southport and Formby, and west of Netherton. It abuts the areas of Blundellsands to the north and ...

. Roberts studied

pharmacology Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

, where she joined

Leeds Student Radio Leeds Student Radio (also known as ''LSR'' and formerly as LSRfm.com) is a student radio station broadcasting every day during term time from Leeds University Union at the University of Leeds. It is also the official student radio station for L ...

presenting a weekly mix show.

''Big Brother''

Roberts was a housemate in '' Big Brother 3''. She came in seventh place after being evicted on 5 July 2002, seen by 7.1 million viewers. Adele later returned to the series in 2007, and participated in a task for '' Big Brother 8'' alongside Alex Sibley.

Career

Radio

In 2002, she landed her first radio job at

Rock FM Rock Radio is a former British radio network. Rock Radio or Rock FM may also refer to: *Rock FM (Spanish radio station) *Rock FM (British radio station), based in Preston, Lancashire * Rock FM 91.9, a radio station based in Johannesburg, South Af ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, presenting the weekly "Smooth Grooves Show", a self-produced urban specialist show airing Friday 10pm-2am. Roberts also presented shows on

The Hits Radio Hits Radio is a network of 25 contemporary hit radio stations in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK. As of October 2022, the network has a combined reach of 6.6 million weekly listeners according to RAJAR. Overvie ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. In 2006 she joined

Galaxy A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

(now

Capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

). In 2012, she moved to

BBC Radio 1Xtra BBC Radio 1Xtra is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts black music and urban music, including hip hop and R&B and is a sister station to Radio 1. Launching at 18:00 on 16 August 2002, it had been cod ...

. Roberts has stated that presenting on BBC 1Xtra had been a long-term aspiration and that she had attended a development event for the station (then under the working title 'Network X') in 2002 but had been too nervous to approach anybody and left immediately. In 2015 it was announced that Roberts would be the new host of the

Early Breakfast show from 4:00-6:30am. Previous hosts of the same show include

Greg James Gregory James Alan Milward (born 17 December 1985) is an English radio and television presenter, comedian and author. He is the host of BBC Radio 1's breakfast show, co-presenter on the cricket podcast '' Tailenders'' alongside Felix White and ...

Scott Mills Scott Robert Mills (born 28 March 1973) is an English radio DJ, television presenter and occasional actor. He is best known for presenting the '' Scott Mills'' show on BBC Radio 1 from 2004 to 2022 and since then, on BBC Radio 2. Mills has also ...

Chris Moyles Christopher David Moyles (born 22 February 1974) is an English radio and television presenter, author and presenter of ''The Chris Moyles Show'' on Radio X. Previously he has presented ''The Chris Moyles Show'' on BBC Radio 1 from 2004 to 20 ...

and Dev. She is also regular cover for The live lounge show. In 2020, Roberts became the first black woman to host the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast show after the regular presenter

failed to make it on air after attending

The Brit Awards The BRIT Awards (often simply called the BRITs) are the British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain", or "Britannia" (in the early days the awards were sponsored ...

. It was later revealed that this was a planned stunt in which listeners had to locate the whereabouts of James with the help of on-air clues. In November 2020, it was announced by the BBC that she would be the new host of

Radio 1's Weekend Breakfast Show ''Radio 1's Weekend Breakfast Show'' is a radio show that is broadcast on BBC Radio 1 on weekends. It is currently hosted by Adele Roberts, who took over since January 2021. ''Weekend Breakfast'' was an extension of ''Radio 1 Breakfast'' whic ...

starting from January 2021 as part of a schedule shake up with current hosts of Weekend Breakfast moving to afternoons. In August 2021, she provided cover for

Trevor Nelson Trevor Ricardo Nelson, MBE (born 7 January 1964) is an English DJ and presenter. Early life Born in the London Borough of Hackney to a family of St Lucian heritage, Nelson attended Central Foundation Boys' Grammar School (now known as Centr ...

on ''The Rhythm Nation'' on

Television

Roberts is a regular presenter for

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

. In 2019 she joined the

London Marathon The London Marathon is an annual marathon held in London, United Kingdom, and is the 2nd largest annual road race in the UK, after the Great North Run in Newcastle. Founded by athletes Chris Brasher and John Disley in 1981, it is typically held ...

coverage and commentary team alongside Gaby Logan,

Steve Cram Stephen Cram, (born 14 October 1960) is a British retired track and field athlete. Along with fellow Britons Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett, he was one of the world's dominant middle distance runners during the 1980s. Nicknamed "The Jarrow Arr ...

Paula Radcliffe Paula Jane Radcliffe MBE (born 17 December 1973) is a former British long-distance runner. She is a three-time winner of the London Marathon (2002, 2003, 2005), three-time New York Marathon champion (2004, 2007, 2008), and 2002 Chicago Maratho ...

and

Andrew Cotter Andrew Douglas Millar Cotter (born 20 July 1973) is a Scottish sports presenter, sports broadcaster working primarily for the BBC, covering mainly golf and rugby union, but also tennis, Sport of athletics, athletics and The Boat Race. Personal ...

. In November 2019, it was announced that Roberts would be participating in the nineteenth series of '' I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!''. She was the first campmate to be voted off the show on 29 November. The show received complaints for the eviction as the voting app used to nominate camp mates had caused confusion due to ambiguous wording on the interface; because of this, no votes from the app were counted and only phone votes were used. In January 2020, Roberts won the sixth series of ''

'' on E4 alongside her girlfriend, Kate Holderness.

Personal life

Sport and fitness

Roberts is a keen runner and has completed two London Marathons, finishing both races with a qualifying time for the following year. In 2017 she finished with a time of 03:36:31 and in 2018 she finished with a time of 03:30:38. Roberts ran both marathons for the charity Heads Together. In 2017 she received a surprise visit from

Prince William William, Prince of Wales, (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982) is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and his first wife Diana, Princess of Wales. Born in London, William was educat ...

and

Kate Middleton Catherine, Princess of Wales, (born Catherine Elizabeth Middleton; 9 January 1982) is a member of the British royal family. She is married to William, Prince of Wales, heir apparent to the British throne, making Catherine the likely next ...

who head the charity to wish her luck in her race. She is an avid supporter of

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has p ...

Roberts took part in the

Sport Relief ''Sport Relief'' was a biennial charity event from Comic Relief, in association with BBC Sport, established in 2002. It was the idea of Kevin Cahill, CBE, who had joined Comic Relief in 1991 to establish a new department as Director of Educati ...

charity netball match in 2019. She played on the winning team captained by

Oti Mabuse Otlile "Oti" Mabuse (born 8 August 1990) is a South African talent show judge, presenter, dancer and Latin dance champion currently based in the United Kingdom. She is best known for being a professional dancer on the British television series ' ...

LGBTQ rights

Roberts is

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

and campaigns for

LGBTQ rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , 33 ...

. In 2013 she presented ''Coming Out'', a documentary for

Radio 1 Radio 1 or Radio One most commonly refers to: *BBC Radio 1, a music radio station from the BBC ** BBC Radio 1Xtra, a digital radio station broadcasting black music *CBC Radio One, a talk radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporatio ...

and 1Xtra, sharing her own and others' personal

coming out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

stories. She was nominated for 'Broadcaster of the Year' at the Diva Awards in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 and the LGBT Awards in 2018 and 2020. On 24 June 2022 Roberts was named as role model of the year at British LGBT Awards in recognition of her openness about her cancer condition and subsequent treatment.

Health

On 24 October 2021, Roberts announced that she was undergoing treatment for

bowel cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel m ...

, having been diagnosed earlier in the month. In January 2022, Roberts shared that a tumour had been removed, she had had chemotherapy treatment and a

Stoma In botany, a stoma (from Greek ''στόμα'', "mouth", plural "stomata"), also called a stomate (plural "stomates"), is a pore found in the epidermis of leaves, stems, and other organs, that controls the rate of gas exchange. The pore is bor ...

, adding "I believe they've managed to remove all of the tumour, which is great news." On 27 June 2022, Roberts announced that she had been given the all-clear and was now "cancer free".

References

External links

*
''Radio 1 Weekend Breakfast with Adele Roberts''
(BBC Radio 1)
''Radio 1 Anthems''
(BBC Radio 1) {{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Adele Living people 1979 births Alumni of the University of Leeds BBC Radio 2 presenters BBC Radio 1 presenters BBC Radio 1Xtra presenters BBC sports presenters and reporters Bisexual women British people of Jamaican descent Capital (radio network) I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (British TV series) participants LGBT Black British people LGBT broadcasters from the United Kingdom LGBT DJs LGBT people from England People educated at Merchant Taylors' Girls' School People from Southport 21st-century LGBT people