TV presenter Claudia Winkleman has said she is “incredibly grateful” to have been made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the King’s Birthday Honours. The Traitors presenter was honoured on Friday alongside her Strictly Come Dancing co-host, Tess Daly, for services to broadcasting.
Winkleman, 53, said: “I am incredibly grateful to receive this honour. It’s a real privilege to work with extraordinarily talented people and I have only got this because of them. So this is for the BBC, the traitors and the faithful, for pianos and for the cha cha.
“I will buy a hat and am taking my mum. I am ridiculously lucky and will celebrate with Tess by doing a paso doble.” Born and raised in London, she studied history of art at Cambridge University and after graduating began her career as a TV and radio presenter, fronting a range of BBC TV shows including Comic Relief and The Great British Sewing Bee.
She also presented on BBC Radio 2 until 2024, hosting different programmes on the station including the comedy quiz series Hot Gossip, the Claudia Winkleman Arts Show and Claudia On Sunday. In 2004, she joined BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing, presenting its weekday companion show It Takes Two until she passed it to broadcaster Zoe Ball, with her taking on the Sunday night results show alongside Daly.
The presenter joined Daly for the main show every Saturday from 2014, after Sir Bruce Forsyth stepped down. The Bafta-winning presenter is also behind the hit BBC game show The Traitors and won best entertainment performance at the 2023 awards. She will be fronting its charity spin-off series, The Celebrity Traitors, in which 19 famous faces will enter the castle in the Highlands, including comedian Alan Carr, actor and broadcaster Sir Stephen Fry and retired diver Tom Daley.
Stephen Lambert, who is also recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours and is the founder and chief executive of Studio Lambert, said: “I’m thrilled that Claudia Winkleman is being honoured too; her brilliant hosting has played such a key role in the success of The Traitors.”
Studio Lambert is the production company behind The Traitors, Gogglebox, Race Across the World, and Squid Game: The Challenge. Winkleman hosts the Channel 4 general knowledge gameshow One Question, where she recently described wanting to cry after a father and daughter won £100,000, making history on the programme for winning the top prize without looking at all of the possible answers.
She also presents Channel 4’s The Piano, in which she is joined by singer-songwriter Mika and Grammy-winner Jon Batiste, as they hunt for Britain’s most talented undiscovered pianists.
She will host a concert for this year’s BBC Proms, including a matinee and evening Traitors-themed performance, which is expected to have a range of famous classical works, alongside new arrangements of some of the music from the popular psychological reality programme. Winkleman is a trustee of the The British Museum and a patron of Child Bereavement UK.
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