Gethin Jones has become a famous face in living rooms up and down the country thanks to his job hosting BBC's Morning Live every weekday morning.
The Cardiff-born presenter is a former bank clerk who cut his teeth as a presenter on S4C with children's shows like Popty and Uned 5 before he went on to national fame as a Blue Peter presenter enjoying such challenges as flying with the Red Arrows, learning to race like a jockey and surviving the Bolivian jungle. He's no doubt drawing on his experiences as he takes part in a 24-hour skating challenge for Comic Relief with his Morning Live co-star Helen Skelton.
In 2007 Gethin, now 47, joined the Strictly Come Dancing line up and made it through the the semi-finals with professional dancer Camilla Dallerup. Over the years he's hosted everything from This Morning to The One Show and even appeared as a Cyberman in an episode of Doctor Who.
For the last five years he's been a co-presenter on BBC's Morning Live where his co-hosts include Helen and Michelle Ackerley. But here we take a look at his life away from the cameras which includes his high-profile split with his famous fiancee, a near-death experience and his love life confessions including being accused of catfishing.
Split with Katherine Jenkins
Gethin was in a high-profile relationship with another famous Welsh star - Katherine Jenkins. The pair started dating when they met on the set of Strictly when Gethin was competing and the Neath-born mezzo soprano was a guest singer.
They got engaged in February 2011 but announced they were no longer together on December 30 with simultaneous statements on Twitter saying they were heartbroken. Months later, Katherine went on tour and told on stage how she was a "total mess" and "in pieces".
In 2023, Gethin spoke candidly about what he calls his “bad bout of depression” following the break-down of their relationship with Tom Bryant on The Mirror's Outdoors in Mind podcast - and how he felt surrounding their shock split.
He detailed that he felt like he was in a rut and everything looked perfect on the outside when in reality it was not. He said: "I was engaged and then breaking up, afterwards, or even during that period, it was just awful.
“I remember doing BBC Radio 5Live and going into the toilet at 5.30am going, ‘All right. Come on. Just focus for the next three hours, and then you can go back to being sad again.’ I definitely had a bad bout of depression during that time.”
Katherine has since gone on to marry American film-maker Andrew Levitas and they have two children.
Near-death experiences
Gethin revealed that he 'nearly died' while shooting some heart-stopping scenes for Blue Peter.
In a chat with The Times he shared details of some of his most dangerous mishaps while working on the BBC series - including getting into extreme difficulties on a mountain and being attacked by a crocodile.
He said: "Some of the most memorable trips during my time on the show were when I got to ride bareback with cowboys in El Paso, Texas, and when I nearly died while scaling the Spitzkoppe peaks in Namibia."
After a successful first attempt, the broadcaster soon ran into trouble as he tried to make his way down the treacherous terrain of the Spitzkoppe peaks for a second time: "The first attempt went fine, but the producer asked me to do it again so they could film a wide shot and I lost my bearings and got into difficulties because of how windy it was."
He continued: "I also have a scar on my ankle from when an alligator attacked me in a Louisiana swamp. Apparently, the alligator wasn’t hungry, otherwise I wouldn’t have survived."
Catfishing accusations
Gethin, who is currently single, shared an amusing update on his love life when he recently revealed to fans that he was mistakenly booted from a dating app.
He opened up about the mishap during an interview with Line of Duty actor Martin Compston and journalist Gordon Smart on their podcast Restless Natives, explaining that he was removed from Hinge after several women reported him for catfishing.
He said: "I had been kicked off Hinge twice in eight hours for violating the code of conduct. And what I think it was, was 300 women had reported me for catfishing, which - when you are on Morning Live, I should have known better, to not verify my account."
He humorously described his experience contacting the dating service saying: "But the moment I had to write to Hinge: 'Dear Hinge', Thursday night at home, writing to an online dating app: 'Hi, it's Gethin here. I'm 46. Just wondering if I could get my money back, it's not really working'. I got some food and then I came back and I thought to myself, what am I doing with my life?"
Morning Live is on BBC One weekdays at 9.30am and on BBC iPlayer
