Vogue Williams

Summary

Vogue Williams (born 2 October 1985[1][2]) is an Irish model and media personality, known for participating in Dancing with the Stars and Stepping Out and for winning the 2015 series of Bear Grylls: Mission Survive.[3]

Vogue Williams
Williams in May 2014
Born (1985-10-02) 2 October 1985 (age 38)
Occupations
  • Model
  • media personality
Years active2010–present
Television
Spouses
(m. 2012; div. 2017)
(m. 2018)
Children3
Relatives

Early life and education edit

Williams was born on 2 October 1985 in Portmarnock, a suburb of Dublin. Her parents, Sandra and former car salesman Freddie,[4] separated when she was seven, and her father died in 2010. She is the youngest of three siblings, after brother Frederick and sister Amber; she also has two half-siblings.[5][6]

Williams attended the all-girls Santa Sabina Dominican College in Sutton. After securing her Leaving Certificate, at the insistence of her property-developer stepfather Neil Wilson (who is best-known for establishing the IT company Datalex), she enrolled for and subsequently completed a degree in construction design and management at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. As part of her degree programme, Williams worked on building sites in London for six months. She returned to Dublin to undertake further studies in quantity surveying at the Dublin Institute of Technology.[7]

Career edit

Williams' public career began on 11 November 2010, in an Irish reality TV series Fade Street, which followed the lives of four Irish women in Dublin. The episodes included Vogue's work at Stellar Magazine, her acting studies and her interest in disk jockeying. On 15 April 2012, Williams began her stint in the twelfth series of Dancing with the Stars in Australia, partnered with Christopher Page; they were the third couple to be eliminated from the competition on 6 May 2012. In 2013, Williams and Brian McFadden took part in the ITV celebrity dancing competition Stepping Out,[8] finishing in second place.

On 4 February 2015, Williams was confirmed to be participating in the ITV reality series Bear Grylls: Mission Survive which started airing on 20 February 2015. She won the show on 3 April 2015, beating Kelly Holmes and Mike Tindall.[9][10][11][12] In December 2015, Williams appeared alongside Brian McFadden in a celebrity episode of Catchphrase. On 21 June 2016, she was a guest panellist on an episode of Loose Women. On 30–31 October 2016 she was a guest on Celebrity Haunted Hotel on W.[13]

Williams presented her own four-part series called Vogue Williams – On the Edge, in which she investigated issues affecting the lives of fellow "millennials", for example drugs, social anxiety, gender dysmorphia and obsessiveness around 'the body beautiful'.[14] She was to take part in the fourth series of The Jump on Channel 4 in February 2017, but pulled out due to injury sustained whilst training. She was replaced by Amy Willerton.[15]

On 4 June 2017, in the wake of terrorist attacks in Manchester and London, Williams wrote an opinion piece for the Sunday World entitled "Internment camps are grim necessity", which called for the establishment of internment camps for the detention without trial of "3,000 [Muslim] extremists living in the UK".[16][17] She acknowledged that internment in Northern Ireland didn't work but that terrorists today could not be negotiated with.[16][17] Donald Clarke of the Irish Times criticised her views as "illogical, totalitarian and profoundly sinister" and compared them to Breitbart and UKIP.[17] He pointed out that internment in Northern Ireland drove Irish Republicans away from negotiation.[17] He also criticised some response to her column as "predictably patronising, borderline sexist".[17] Williams later said she had made a mistake and apologised for her stance, saying she had written it when she was frightened and angry and that her advocacy of internment was misguided.[16] She also said she had received death threats.[16]

On Sunday 29 March 2020, Williams became the new host of Sunday Breakfast on Heart FM.[18] In September 2021, she became the presenter on the Virgin Media One talent show The Big Deal.[19] In November 2021, she was announced as the host of a new virtual reality show called Send Nudes : Body SOS, about peoples' decisions relating to planned plastic surgery,[20] which ran on E4 in 2022.[21]

Williams presents the Spooked Ireland series, which premiered on UK television on 29 September 2023, following its earlier Irish launch.[22][23]

Personal life edit

In May 2011, she began dating former Westlife singer Brian McFadden. Their engagement was announced on 12 January 2012 and they were married on 2 September 2012 in Florence, Italy. In June 2015, Williams purchased an apartment in Howth, near Dublin.[24] On 7 July 2015, Williams and McFadden announced that they were separating after three years of marriage.[25][26][27][28] The couple divorced in 2017.[29]

 
Glen Affric, the Matthews family's estate where Williams married Spencer.

Williams became engaged to reality TV star Spencer Matthews in January 2018;[30] Williams and Matthews married on 9 June 2018.[31] The couple have a son born in 2018,[32] a daughter born in 2020[33] and a son born in 2022.[34]

Filmography edit

Television edit

Year Title Role Notes
2010–2011 Fade Street Season 1 and first half of season 2
2011 Blow Up The Liffey Bridges![35] Molly Carroll A play performed in the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin
2012 Dancing With the Stars Contestant Partnered with Christopher Page; third to be eliminated
2013 Stepping Out Contestant Finished second place with Brian McFadden
2013 Reality Bites: Vogue Does Home and Away Presenter RTÉ2 series special about the 25th Anniversary of Home and Away
2014 Vogue Does the Afterlife Presenter Aired on 18 December 2014 on RTÉ2
2015 Bear Grylls: Mission Survive Contestant Series 1 winner
2015 Vogue Does Straight A's Presenter RTÉ2 documentary about revisiting the Leaving Cert examination
2015 Vogue Williams – Wild Girls Presenter 3-part RTÉ2 series looking at women in prison, female fighters and sex "swinging"
2016 Vogue Williams – On the Edge Presenter 4-part RTÉ2 series looking at transgender issues, bodybuilding, catfishing and drugs
2016 Loose Women Guest panellist 1 episode
2016 Celebrity Haunted Hotel: Live Participant
2017–present Getaways Co-presenter BBC Northern Ireland series
2017 The Jump Contestant Withdrew in episode 1 due to injury
2017 Partners in Rhyme Guest 1 episode
2018 Celebrity Mastermind Contestant 1 episode
2019 Your Face or Mine? Contestant with husband Spencer Matthews Series 6 Episode 1
2020 Tipping Point: Lucky Stars Contestant 1 episode
2021 The Big Deal Presenter Aired on Virgin Media One
2022 Send Nudes : Body SOS Presenter E4 series[36]
2023 Joanne & Vogue’s Sex Drive Co-presenter; alongside Joanne McNally E4 series[37]
2023 Spooked Ireland Presenter Paranormal investigation; season 1 [23]

References edit

  1. ^ "Vogue Williams". Maxim Australia. 18 April 2012.
  2. ^ "Vogue Williams: 'Everyone thinks I made up or changed my name and I'm actually called Vogue!' - Independent.ie". 4 April 2015.
  3. ^ "Vogue wins Bear Grylls: Mission Survive". Digital Spy. 3 April 2015.
  4. ^ "'This is a posh Irish accent' - Vogue Williams explains how she and husband Spencer Matthews had similar upbringings". Independent.ie. 17 February 2019.
  5. ^ "Spencer Matthews talks son Theodore's relationship with Pippa Middleton and James' son Arthur". 19 November 2018. Retrieved 22 November 2018. Theodore recently got a second brand new baby cousin to play with after Vogue's brother welcomed a son only a few weeks ago
  6. ^ Fitzpatrick, Gillian (4 April 2015). "Vogue Williams: 'Everyone thinks I made up or changed my name and I'm actually called Joanne!'". Irish Independent. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
  7. ^ Williams, Vogue (28 September 2017). Everything: Beauty. Style. Fitness. Life. Hachette UK. pp. 2–11. ISBN 9781473649330. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  8. ^ "Stepping Out line up revealed".
  9. ^ "Jamelia for Bear Grylls' Mission Survive". Digital Spy. 2 February 2015.
  10. ^ "Bear Grylls stars in Mission Survive on ITV".
  11. ^ "Getting wild: Vogue Williams drinks her own pee on Bear Grylls". evoke.ie. 9 March 2015.
  12. ^ "You'd hardly blame Vogue Williams for breaking down on TV with this celebrity survival challenge". evoke.ie. 7 February 2015.
  13. ^ "Jamelia among guests at the Celebrity Haunted Hotel this Halloween".
  14. ^ "Vogue Willams-On The Edge".
  15. ^ "Vogue Williams pulls out of The Jump as she becomes first casualty of 2017 show". The Irish News. 3 February 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  16. ^ a b c d Kelly, Aoife (11 June 2017). "'I made a mistake and I'm sorry but the reaction I got - death threats - doesn't promote debate' - Vogue Williams on internment comments". Sunday Independent. Retrieved 22 September 2018.
  17. ^ a b c d e Clarke, Donald (6 June 2017). "Vogue Williams is not an idiot, she's a sinister totalitarian". The Irish Times. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
  18. ^ "Heart weekend radio changes as Vogue Williams joins". Radio Today. 26 March 2020. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  19. ^ "First look at Virgin Media's new show hosted by Vogue Williams". Independent.ie. 14 June 2021. Archived from the original on 16 August 2021. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  20. ^ Freeth, Becky (18 November 2021). "Vogue Williams will present a show about people deciding to have cosmetic surgery". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  21. ^ Golby, Joel (27 August 2022). "Send Nudes: Body SOS – the jaw-droppingly odd show where people turn their naked bodies into CGI". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 June 2023. Vogue Williams-fronted E4 show ... there is no more proof that I am in an imagined world of my own mania than "Send Nudes: Body SOS"
  22. ^ "Instagram". www.instagram.com. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
  23. ^ a b Miller, Adam (29 September 2023). "Vogue Williams: 'I signed up for something that left me crippled with fear'". Retrieved 1 November 2023.
  24. ^ "It's a big day': Vogue Williams and Brian McFadden buy Dublin house". evoke.ie. 23 June 2015.
  25. ^ "Shock as Vogue Williams and Brian McFadden announce split". evoke.ie. 7 July 2015.
  26. ^ "Black day at the races for recently separated Vogue Williams". evoke.ie. 13 July 2015.
  27. ^ "'I haven't had the best year' Vogue Williams admits she's struggling since split". evoke.ie. 9 November 2015.
  28. ^ "Vogue Williams gets winter ready and shows off enviable bod after strict retreat". evoke.ie. 18 November 2015.
  29. ^ "Williams' anxiety at its worst after McFadden divorce". RTÉ News. 26 May 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  30. ^ Vogue Williams and Spencer Matthews announce engagement featuring bizarre The Lion King musical proposal Irishmirror.ie 1 Feb 2018
  31. ^ "See the incredible Scottish estate where Spencer Matthews and Vogue Williams said 'I do'". Hello Magazine. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  32. ^ "Spencer Matthews and Vogue Williams welcome birth of their son". 5 September 2018.
  33. ^ "Vogue Williams and Spencer Matthews have welcomed a baby girl". Cosmopolitan. 23 July 2020.
  34. ^ "Vogue Williams and Spencer Matthews welcome arrival of third baby – see photo and exclusive quote". HELLO!. 20 April 2022.
  35. ^ "Ticketmaster.ie - Blow Up The Liffey Bridges!".
  36. ^ "E4 to use state of the art virtual reality to explore body image". channel4.com/press. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
  37. ^ "Vogue Williams and Joanne McNally hit Ibiza to explore their sexual boundaries in new E4 show". channel4.com/press. Retrieved 20 September 2023.

External links edit

  • Vogue Williams at IMDb
  • Official website
  • My Therapist Ghosted Me official website