British newsreader and TV personality, Fiona Bruce has worked for the BBC since the start of her journalism career in 1989. She has been highly successful at the media house and has many firsts to her name including being the first woman to read on the BBC News at Ten. Bruce is showing no signs of slowing as she continues to attain greater heights in her career. After David Dimbleby stepped down, Fiona Bruce became the host of BBC’s Question Time from January 2019.
Fiona Bruce Biography (Age)
Fiona Elizabeth Bruce was born on the 25th day of April 1964, in Singapore. Her mother is English while her father is a Scottish man who has worked for Unilever as a regional managing director having previously worked as a mere postboy. Bruce briefly schooled in Italy at the International School of Milan. In her teens, she attended Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham College.
For her university education, Fiona Bruce attended Hertford College, Oxford where she began singing as part of a punk rock band, and later she briefly attended the University of London Institute in Paris.
Fiona Bruce began her career working for a management consulting firm but quit after a year due to career frustration. She then began working for advertising agencies and got to meet with BBC’s Tim Gardam at a wedding. Gardam was at the time the editor of the investigative current affairs documentary program, Panorama. Bruce got to talk Gardam into giving her a spot on the program as one of the researchers, kicking off her career with the BBC.
After a short while, she progressed to an assistant producer for the program before earning a spot as one of the reporters for Breakfast News. Bruce made her way to BBC South East and has only progressed since.
Salary
Fiona Bruce is one of the most successful women to ever work for the BBC. Her many roles at the news organization mean that Bruce is one of the top earners. She has presented a number of BBC flagship programs including BBC News at Six, Antiques Roadshow, Fake, or Fortune? Crimewatch, and Real Story.
In July 2017, BBC for the first time ever published a list of her highest-earning journalists. The list of 96 had only a third as women and Fiona Bruce was among. Her figures were listed as being in the range of £350,000 – £399,999. Those figures are now higher especially after she replaced David Dimbleby as the host of Question Time. After landing the new role, Bruce revealed to The Times UK in early 2019 that she didn’t know how much she earned as she keeps no track of her earnings.
Her Family Life – Husband and Children
Fiona Bruce is married to Nigel Sharrocks, an advertising agency director. The couple first met each other when they both worked at Boase Massimi Pollitt, an advertising agency. Sharrocks worked at the agency as one of her directors. He is now a non-executive chairman of the cinema advertising company, Digital Cinema Media headquartered in London.
Fiona married her husband in July 1994 in Islington and has since been blessed with two children. Their first child, a boy named Sam was born in January 1998 while their daughter, Mia was born in November 2001. The family shuttle their time between their homes in Belsize Park in London and Sydenham, Oxfordshire.
As a working mother who barely gets to take time off, Fiona Bruce has come under fire for neglecting her family. She was heavily criticized for returning to work on Crimewatch just 16 days after she birthed her daughter Mia.
Bruce herself has spoken about the guilt she often feels being a working mother. In her interview with Radio Times, she revealed that she falls short in comparison to her own mother’s parenting skills. She revealed that her own family was a very traditional one and her mom never went back to work after she birthed her first child.
Bruce later revealed that she has been advised against leaving her job completely to focus on her family as it may be the perfect option for neither herself nor her children. The newsreader owed a lot of gratitude to her family’s carer who has been helping out with her kids from when they were born and still remains with them even as adolescents. Bruce told Daily Mail that the carer isn’t around just because she is needed but that she has become part of her family.
