28 Facts About Anna Ford

Anna Ford was born on 2 October 1943 and is an English retired journalist, television presenter and newsreader.

Anna Ford first worked as a researcher, news reporter and later newsreader for Granada Television, ITN, and the BBC.

Anna Ford retired from broadcast news presenting in April 2006 and was a non-executive director of Sainsbury's until the end of 2012.

Anna Ford was born in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, to parents who were both West End actors.

Anna Ford received a BA degree in economics from the Victoria University of Manchester and was president of the university's students' union from 1966 to 1967.

Anna Ford worked as a teacher for four years, including teaching Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoners at Her Majesty's Prison Maze in Northern Ireland for two years.

Anna Ford was later an Open University social studies tutor in Belfast for two years.

Anna Ford was thirty by the time that she joined Granada Television as a researcher in 1974.

Anna Ford joined the BBC in January 1977, but only after several months as security clearance from MI5 was required because she was then living with a former communist.

In February 1978, Anna Ford moved to ITN, and briefly faced legal threats from the BBC for breaking her contract.

In 1979, Anna Ford appeared in a skit along with John Cleese and Terry Jones of the Monty Python troupe as part of "The Amnesty International Comedy Gala", a comedy programme performed at Her Majesty's Theatre, Haymarket, London.

The loss of viewers resulted in a relaunch which was perceived as "dumbing-down" of the station, and only three months after the station's launch, Anna Ford was dismissed from TV-am partly due to her on-air support for chairman Peter Jay and partly because she refused to stand down from Good Morning Britain when the ratings slumped.

Anna Ford was involved in an incident at a party in which she threw her wine over Jonathan Aitken to express her outrage over his involvement in her sacking from the channel.

Anna Ford re-joined the BBC in summer 1986, Firstly to cover for Wogan in June, and other minor roles.

Anna Ford, become part of the presentation team for both BBC One's Six O'Clock News from February 1989 and the BBC Radio 4 Today in 1993.

On 30 October 2005, Anna Ford announced she would retire from broadcasting in April 2006 to pursue other interests while she "still has the interest and energy".

Anna Ford presented her last One O'Clock News on 27 April 2006, signing off by introducing a compilation of clips of her career.

On 2 May 2006, J Sainsbury plc, the UK supermarket group, announced Anna Ford was joining the company as a non-executive director.

Anna Ford is the Chair of Sainsbury's board's Corporate Responsibility Committee.

On 17 December 2001, Anna Ford was installed as Chancellor of the Victoria University of Manchester.

Anna Ford completed her term and Tom Bloxham succeeded her as sole Chancellor on 1 August 2008.

On 22 April 2006, Anna Ford received an honorary doctorate from the University of St Andrews, nominated by Sir Menzies Campbell.

Anna Ford is one of many guest hosts to have taken the chair for the satirical news quiz Have I Got News for You.

Anna Ford had an early marriage to Alan Bittles, although this was dissolved before her television career began.

Anna Ford married the magazine editor and cartoonist Mark Boxer in 1981; with whom she had two daughters, before he died of a brain tumour in 1988 at their home in Brentford, Greater London.

Anna Ford was briefly engaged in 2000 to former astronaut David Scott, the seventh man to walk on the Moon.

Anna Ford became the subject of news stories in August 2001, when she lost a high-profile court case.

Anna Ford claimed unsuccessfully that photographs of her in a bikini with Scott, taken by a press photographer in Majorca with a powerful zoom lens and published in the British media, constituted an invasion of her privacy.