Carol Thatcher

The Honourable Carol Thatcher
Carol Thatcher (far left) with her mother and US President Jimmy Carter, 1979
Born	15 August 1953 (1953-08-15) Dartford, Kent, England
Nationality	British
Alma mater	University College London
Occupation	Journalist
Style	The Honourable Carol Thatcher
Television	I'm a Celebrity The One Show
Parents	Sir Denis Thatcher, Bt (deceased) Margaret Thatcher
Relatives	Sir Mark Thatcher, Bt (brother) Alfred Roberts (grandfather, deceased)

Carol Thatcher (born August 15, 1953) is an English journalist, author and media personality. She is the daughter of Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, a former British Prime Minister, and Sir Denis Thatcher, Bt.

Thatcher has published biographies of both her parents. Additionally, she produced a documentary of her father which contained his only public interview. Thatcher won the fifth series of the reality show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. In early 2009, she was removed from her on-air position at BBC One after refusing to apologise for making an off-air comment backstage that was deemed a racial pejorative about tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Early life

Carol Thatcher and her twin brother, Sir Mark Thatcher, Bt, were born six weeks prematurely in 1953. According to Margaret Thatcher, Denis Thatcher responded to seeing his offspring for the first time: "My god, they look like rabbits. Put them back." Margaret Thatcher was selected for Finchley in 1958 and was elected as a member of Parliament in 1959. The following year, Thatcher was sent to be educated at Queenswood School, Hertfordshire. Thatcher studied law at University College London before moving to Australia in 1977 to begin a journalism career. While there, her mother was elected Prime Minister. Thatcher has said, "You need quite good shock absorbers and a sense of humour to be the Prime Minister's child."

Career

Thatcher began her journalism career in Australia, working on the Sydney Morning Herald from 1977 to 1979. She became a TV reporter at Channel Seven, also in Sydney, and later an interviewer on its morning show. On her return to Britain, she worked as a presenter for LBC, BBC Radio 4, TV-am and wrote travel articles for The Daily Telegraph. Due to her mother's high profile political position, many newspapers refused to publish work with her byline.

Thatcher published her first book, Diary of an election: with Margaret Thatcher on the campaign trail in 1983. Her second book, a collaboration with tennis player Chris Evert called Lloyd on Lloyd, was released three years later. It became Thatcher's first best-seller.

Later publications included a 1996 best-selling biography of her father, Below the Parapet. In 2003, Thatcher produced a Channel 4 documentary about him called Married to Maggie. Thatcher captured the only public interview Denis Thatcher gave in his lifetime; he died shortly after its release. Thatcher's freelance career has contributed articles to magazines and papers as well as television.

The One Show

From 2006 to 2009, Thatcher was a freelance contributor to the BBC One magazine programme The One Show, making regular filmed reports and joining the presenters and guests in the studio for discussions. On 3 February 2009, British media reported that during the 2009 Australian Open Thatcher had, in a conversation in the show's green room, referred to a black tennis player, reportedly Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, as a golliwog.

According to The Times, Thatcher called Tsonga "half-golliwog" and "the golliwog Frog". Presenter Adrian Chiles, comedian Jo Brand, journalists and several guests were with Thatcher when she made the remark. When others protested about her use of the word, Thatcher stated through her spokesperson that the comment was meant in jest.

The BBC stated that Thatcher would not work again on The One Show unless she made a more sincere apology. Thatcher refused, saying "I stand by what I said. I wasn't going to apologise. I never meant it in a racist way. It was shorthand. I described someone's appearance colloquially—someone I happen to greatly admire."

Reality Shows

I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!

Main article: I'm a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here! (UK series 5)

In November 2005 Thatcher was selected to appear with a number of fellow celebrities on the popular ITV television show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. The format of the show meant that she would be forced to spend at least a week in the Australian rainforest with a minimal supply of food in basic living conditions. One of her highlights in the show was for urinating on the ground. She did not own up and the camp accused Sid Owen.

She had to undergo one of the more infamous 'Bushtucker Trials' during her stay in the jungle—which saw her being forced to eat jungle bugs and kangaroo testicles to help sustain her fellow celebrities. Ultimately, she emerged as the fifth series winner and second 'Queen of the Jungle'.

100% English

DNA tests in association with a reality TV programme 100% English screened on Channel 4 on 13 November 2006 indicate that Thatcher may be descended from a Bedouin tribe, or that her origins may date to the desert farmers of ancient Mesopotamia or Assyria, which centuries ago covered all of Iraq and large portions of contemporary Turkey, Syria and Iran.

Most Haunted

Thatcher appeared on Living TV's Most Haunted on February 13, 2007 as a celebrity guest alongside presenter Yvette Fielding and Medium David Wells as well as Sheffield's Joanne Gregory to search for paranormal activity at Tatton Hall in Cheshire.

Mummy's War

In 2007, Carol Thatcher traveled to the Falkland Islands and Argentina for the documentary Mummy's War, in order to explore the legacy of the Falklands War. Whilst receiving a highly positive reception from the pro-British islanders (who regard her mother as a heroine), her reception in Argentina provoked protests and demonstrations (including the cry "your mother is a war criminal!"). During her stay in Argentina she met a group of mothers who lost their sons during the conflict and stated, "We were fighting a war; we won, you lost," and reminded them that it was their country that invaded the islands, thus initiating the conflict. The interview ended with one of the women claiming that "God will punish her [Margaret Thatcher]".

Bibliography

Thatcher has written several books, including: Below the Parapet: the Biography of Denis Thatcher (1996) and Diary of an Election: with Margaret Thatcher on the Campaign Trail (1983). On 4 September 2008 Headline Publishers released A Swim-on Part in the Goldfish Bowl: A Memoir, which recounts the decline of Margaret Thatcher's health and the onset of her dementia.

Personal life

Thatcher had a relationship with Jonathan Aitken which ended in 1979, just after the Conservatives won that year's general election. His severing of the liaison is alleged to have been the reason for Aitken being bypassed for a ministerial career; the Prime Minister reportedly told cabinet colleagues that she was damned if she was going to give a job to a man "who had made Carol cry".

Thatcher has been linked to Marco Grass, a Swiss ski instructor, since 1992. They share her homes in Klosters and London. Thatcher has never married; "I like being permanently single. It suits me perfectly."

External links

• Carol Thatcher at the Internet Movie Database
• Unreality TV – News of Carol Thatcher on I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!
• Carol Thatcher Explores Impoverished Cuba by Bike by The Daily Mail, 30 January 2010

Preceded by Joe Pasquale

I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! Winner 2005

Succeeded by Matt Willis