Simon McCoy (born 7 October 1961) is a British journalist and former newsreader on

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...

and

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the he ...

and presenter at

GB News GB News is a British free-to-air television and radio news channel. The channel is available on Freeview, Freesat, Sky, YouView, Virgin Media and via the internet. Since 4 January 2022, an audio simulcast of the station is available on DAB+ ...

Early life

McCoy was born on 7 October 1961 in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London ...

. He was educated at the

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

Sherborne School (God and My Right) , established = 705 by Aldhelm, re-founded by King Edward VI 1550 , closed = , type = Public school Independent, boarding school , religion = Church of England , president = , chair_label = Chairman of the governor ...

in the town of

Sherborne Sherborne is a market town and civil parish in north west Dorset, in South West England. It is sited on the River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The parish includes the hamlets of Nether Coombe and Lower Clatcombe. ...

in north-west

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

, England.

Career

McCoy started his journalism career at the

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was n ...

News Agency in LondonSimon McCoy joins the BBC
BBC Press Office. 18 November 2003. before joining

Thames TV Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...

as a researcher for ''

Thames News ''Thames News'' was the flagship regional news programme of Thames Television, serving the Thames ITV region and broadcast on weekdays from 12 September 1977 to 31 December 1992. The news service was produced and broadcast from Thames TV's headq ...

'' in 1983. After time as a scriptwriter at Thames TV, in 1986 he joined the breakfast TV station

TV-am TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchis ...

as a news editor. In 1988, McCoy left to go to new satellite channel Sky – initially as a producer on the

breakfast programme ''

Sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon and its accompanying atmospheric effects. Terminology A ...

''. After a year as a general reporter for the station, he was appointed

Royal Correspondent Royal correspondent is the designation often assigned to a journalist who specialises in reporting on the goings on of royalty. Examples from the United Kingdom include Jennie Bond and Nicholas Witchell, both of the BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i goin ...

, and between 1991 and 1996 McCoy covered major stories which affected the

Royal Family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term pa ...

. After a job which involved travel around the world throughout the years, McCoy took a desk job, presenting ''Sunrise'' on Sky News. He also presented the ''Tonight'' programme – a topical chat show involving interviews with people from the worlds of showbiz, politics and sport. In 2003, McCoy co-anchored Sky's coverage of the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

on location in

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Ku ...

and

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is han ...

. He was on air for five hours every day of the conflict. In January 2004, McCoy joined the BBC, and could be seen on ''

BBC Breakfast ''BBC Breakfast'' is the BBC television breakfast news programme. Produced by BBC News, the programme is broadcast on BBC One and the BBC News channel. The simulcast is presented live, originally from the BBC Television Centre, London before ...

'' and

BBC News 24 BBC News (also known as the BBC News Channel) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television news channel for BBC News. It was launched as BBC News 24 on 9 November 1997 at 5:30 pm as part of the BBC's foray into digital domestic tele ...

, initially as a cover presenter for both. In September 2005, he took over the morning slot on BBC News alongside

Kate Silverton Kate Silverton (born 4 August 1970) is an English journalist. She formerly worked as a broadcaster and newsreader for the BBC. Silverton was a regular presenter of '' BBC News at One'' and ''BBC Weekend News'', as well as making occasional app ...

following

Phillip Hayton Philip Hayton (born 2 November 1947) is an English television news presenter, reporter and former international correspondent for BBC News. He worked for the BBC from 1968 until 2005. Early life Hayton was born on 2 November 1947, in the town ...

's sudden departure after Hayton fell out with Silverton. When reviewing the papers the following day, McCoy tried to point out the story, but was prevented by Silverton. In December 2007, Silverton left the shift to host the '' 8pm Update''. In 2006, McCoy stopped regular appearances on BBC Breakfast upon

Charlie Stayt Charles Jeffaries "Charlie" Stayt (born 19 June 1962) is a British newsreader and broadcaster. He is a journalist with the BBC as a presenter for ''BBC Breakfast''.BBC Weekend News ''BBC Weekend News'' is the BBC's national news programme on BBC One at the weekend and bank holidays, although it is often referred to on guides simply as ''BBC News''. It is called ''BBC Weekend News'' on all bulletins, apart from the late bu ...

''. Since 2008, McCoy made a number of appearances as a stand-in presenter on ''Breakfast''. On 9 March 2012, McCoy was apparently caught asleep face-down at the newsdesk as ''

'' handed over to the

BBC News channel BBC News (also known as the BBC News Channel) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television news channel for BBC News. It was launched as BBC News 24 on 9 November 1997 at 5:30 pm as part of the BBC's foray into digital domestic telev ...

at 8:30 am. McCoy joked that he had "just been told the Queen wanted me to cover her ''next'' visit". Shortly before 1pm GMT on 18 March 2013, McCoy and co-presenter

Sophie Long Sophie Rebecca Long (born 7 December 1976) is an English journalist who works for BBC News, mainly appearing as a presenter on the BBC News Channel. On 18 March 2013, Long and co-presenter Simon McCoy read the final BBC News bulletin from BBC ...

read the final BBC News bulletin from

BBC Television Centre Television Centre (TVC) is a building complex in White City, West London, that was the headquarters of BBC Television between 1960 and 2013. After a refurbishment, the complex reopened in 2017 with three studios in use for TV production, opera ...

, with BBC News moving to

Broadcasting House Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. The ma ...

in the

West End of London The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is a district of Central London, west of the City of London and north of the River Thames, in which many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government build ...

for the ''

BBC News at One The ''BBC News at One'' is the afternoon/lunchtime news bulletin from the BBC. Produced by BBC News, the programme is broadcast on BBC One and the BBC News channel (via British Sign Language) from Monday to Sunday at 1:00pm for 30 minutes, alth ...

''. On 7 June 2013, McCoy presented coverage of the Queen's visit to

to officially open the new part of the BBC's Headquarters which features the largest live newsroom in Europe. The new Broadcasting House sees the BBC's Television, News and Radio departments in one complex. The BBC's Children's and Radio 5 Live moved to Salford's MediaCity in 2012. The Queen opened the new complex with a live public broadcast on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

's ''Today'' programme. On 22 July, McCoy was on the roster for coverage of the birth of the first child of the

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are r ...

and

Duchess of Cambridge Duke of Cambridge, one of several current royal dukedoms in the United Kingdom , is a hereditary title of specific rank of nobility in the British royal family. The title (named after the city of Cambridge in England) is heritable by male de ...

, who a few days later was named

Prince George of Cambridge Prince George of Wales (George Alexander Louis; born 22 July 2013) is a member of the British royal family. He is the eldest child of William, Prince of Wales, and Catherine, Princess of Wales. George is the eldest grandchild of King Charle ...

. Stationed outside the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital with often little or no news to share, McCoy's comments concerning the value of the news coverage made for (often sympathetic) headlines. He said: "The news is there is no news". In September 2013, a live broadcast by McCoy went viral after he inadvertently picked up a refill pack of A4 printer paper instead of his

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, ...

while presenting to camera. A BBC spokeswoman said: "This morning as Simon McCoy was preparing to introduce this story, instead of picking up his tablet to hold as he went to air, he mistakenly picked up a ream of paper that was sitting next to it. In the rush of live news, he didn't have an opportunity to swap the items, so simply went with it." McCoy presented the weekday 2–5 pm slot, now titled ''

Afternoon Live ''Afternoon Live'' is a programme broadcast on the BBC News Channel between 2:00pm and 5:00 pm. It first aired on 2 October 2017. Due to reduced output by BBC News as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the programme is currently off air. Prese ...

'', on

. McCoy made his debut on the ''

BBC News at Ten '' BBC News at Ten'' formerly known as the ''BBC Ten O'Clock News'' or the ''Ten O'Clock News'' is the flagship evening news programme for the BBC News channel and British television channel BBC One on weekdays and Sundays at 10:00pm. Huw Ed ...

'' on 27 August 2019. In March 2020, McCoy took up the role of main presenter of the ''

''. On 25 March 2021, McCoy announced it was his last day working for the BBC. It was later announced he was moving to

to present an afternoon show alongside Alex Phillips titled ''McCoy & Phillips''. On his reason for leaving the BBC and joining GB News, he said he wanted a new challenge. He also said he was "not a leftie BBC journalist" and voted 'Leave' in the

2016 EU referendum The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country shoul ...

. In July 2021, he moved to present the breakfast show, ''The Great British Breakfast'', alongside

Kirsty Gallacher Kirsty Jane Gallacher (born 20 January 1976) is a Scottish television presenter and model. She began her career at Sky Sports News in 1998 and hosted '' Kirsty's Home Videos'', '' RI:SE'' and '' Simply the Best'' before returning to Sky Sports ...

. In December 2021, McCoy left GB News.

Personal life

McCoy has a son, Max from his first marriage. On 28 September 2007, he married Victoria Graham of

BBC South West BBC South West is the BBC English Regions, BBC English Region serving Cornwall, Devon, Isles of Scilly, West Somerset, West Dorset and Channel Islands. Services Television ''BBC South Wests television service (broadcast on BBC One South West) con ...

. They announced their divorce in January 2019. In 2020 McCoy was reported as being in a relationship with the actress Emma Samms. They married on 9 October 2021 and live in the

Cotswolds The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of J ...

References

External links

*
Biography page
BBC News {{DEFAULTSORT:McCoy, Simon 1961 births BBC newsreaders and journalists GB News newsreaders and journalists Living people People educated at Sherborne School People from Hammersmith 21st-century British journalists