With the Paris Olympics 2024 kicking off tonight, a top team of BBC presenters will be guiding viewers through what promises to be the biggest sporting event of the year. Clare Balding, Gabby Logan, Isa Guha, Jeanette Kwakye, JJ Chalmers and Mark Chapman will be leading the coverage, along with familiar face Hazel Irvine, who has covered both summer and winter Olympics for the past 17 years. But who is Hazel Irvine, how did she land the role and who is she married to?
A keen sportswoman, Hazel played netball, golf, and competed on the athletics team while studying History of Art at university. After graduating, she bagged her first Broadcast role at Radio Clyde in 1986, before joining Scottish Television in 1998. It was in this role that she got her first taste of the Olympics, co-presenting coverage for ITV.
She eventually joined BBC Scotland in 1990, and soon became the youngest ever presenter on the BBC’s main sports programme, Grandstand. Since then, Hazel has covered every summer Olympics since Barcelona in 1992, as well as winter Olympics and other tournaments, including the World Cup.
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Hazel Irvine was awarded an MBE in the 2024 New Years Honours list for her services to sport and charity. Now aged 59, this Scottish sports presenter still values her privacy and keeps her off-camera life under wraps.
Not much is known about her personal life as Hazel hasn’t publicly disclosed details about her spouse, maintaining a private life away from the limelight, reports Wales Online.
Back in 2008, she exchanged vows in a low-key ceremony in Scotland after enjoying many years together with her long-term partner. The Daily Express reported that Hazel said she was “very happy” during the private wedding, but beyond that, little details are known publicly.
Following their wedding, the couple welcomed their daughter in 2009 – an arrival Hazel amusingly referred to as her “own credit crunch looming” during a charity sports quiz in London. She revealed: “My clothes are already feeling the squeeze. My husband and I have a new arrival coming in the spring – which is going to be a drain on my own profits.”.
In a 2019 interview with The Daily Mail, she reminisced about her happy childhood, saying she “spent her pocket money on stickers for an Olympic sticker book”. She added: “I had a very happy childhood doing sport and outdoor stuff. My dad, Bill, made this half-size snooker table for my brother and me as kids, and Mum crocheted the pockets!”
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