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25 Facts About Selina Scott

1.

Selina Mary Scott was born on 13 May 1951 and is an English television presenter.

2.

Selina Scott co-hosted the first dedicated breakfast television programme in the UK, before moving to the United States to join West 57th, a prime-time current-affairs show.

3.

Selina Scott read English and American studies at the University of East Anglia.

4.

Selina Scott made her television debut on North Tonight, the nightly news programme for the regional ITV station Grampian Television, in Aberdeen at the height of the North Sea oil boom.

5.

In 1982, at the outbreak of the Falklands War, Selina Scott became a forces' pin-up.

6.

Selina Scott was recruited by the BBC to launch Breakfast Time in January 1983.

7.

Selina Scott appeared on Britain's first satellite service, BSB, before moving to Rupert Murdoch's Sky when the two companies merged.

8.

Selina Scott has produced independent documentaries on European royalty including A Prince Among Islands, a profile of Prince Charles which achieved 14 million viewers, the first in-depth interview with King Juan Carlos of Spain, The Year of Spain and The Return of the King, returning to Greece with King Constantine and his family after 25 years of exile.

9.

In 2018 Selina Scott appeared in 4 episodes of the BBC's The Real Marigold Hotel, shot in Rajasthan, which she had always wanted to visit as her great-great-grandfather survived the Siege of Lucknow.

10.

For CBS, Selina Scott gained exclusive access and revealing interviews with, amongst others, George Harrison, Prince Charles, Bono of U2 and the world chess champion Garry Kasparov.

11.

Shortly after the interview with Trump, Scott signed a deal reportedly worth $200,000 to host her own talk show, The Selina Scott Show for NBC Super Channel.

12.

Selina Scott hosted the breakfast programme, later switching to the 5pm news.

13.

Selina Scott has established a natural fibres business, Naturally Selina Scott, sourcing sustainable cashmere from the Gobi Desert in Outer Mongolia.

14.

Selina Scott lived with the nomads in their gers and traced the entire process from the rearing of the cashmere goats to the making of the finished garment in Ulaanbaatar before launching to the public.

15.

Selina Scott is the eldest of five children: her brother Robin is editor of Britain's best-selling shooting magazine, Sporting Gun and her sisters are Angela, Vanessa, and Fiona, the last a fine-art portrait artist, who regularly exhibits at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Exhibition in London.

16.

At the time when Princess Diana was, like Selina Scott, having problems with the press, Michael Shea, press secretary to the Queen, asked Selina Scott if she would befriend the princess.

17.

Selina Scott thought that Scott might be able to advise her on dealing with the press; Scott commented "the trouble was I was going through just the same as she was".

18.

Selina Scott did befriend Diana, but they did not discuss the press.

19.

Selina Scott has another dog, Nip, a female Border collie cross.

20.

In March 2012, Selina Scott was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Journalism degree from the University of Hull.

21.

Selina Scott is an active campaigner for causes such as animal welfare and wildlife conservation, spearheading a campaign to ban the live transportation of animals in Europe after Brexit, which achieved over 100,000 signatures to initiate a debate in Parliament.

22.

Selina Scott claimed Five reneged on an agreement for her to return to News because she was "too old".

23.

Selina Scott hired Simon Smith of Schillings, and Five denied the claim.

24.

Selina Scott died on Christmas Eve and she wanted to be at his side and felt unable to continue the action as planned.

25.

In 2014 the Telegraph newspaper reported that Selina Scott was considering standing for election to Parliament as a Conservative MP; Selina Scott commented that this was nonsense, she was not even a Tory.