Clare Balding

At 53 years old, Clare Balding has this physical status:

Clare Victoria Balding (born 29 January 1971) is a broadcaster, journalist, and author.

She currently appears on BBC Sport, Channel 4, BT Sport, and formerly hosted the religious program Good Morning Sunday on BBC Radio 2.

Early life and family

Clare Balding was privately educated at the independent Downe House academy in Berkshire, where she was Head Girl and a contemporary of comedian Miranda Hart (Hart and Balding were allegedly tenth-cousins, sharing a nine-time great-grandfather in Sir William Leveson-Gower, the 4th Baronet).

Balding attempted to read at Christ's College in Cambridge, but she failed her interview and discovered that the statute was not what she wanted to do. She then applied to Newnham College, Cambridge, and learned English. She was President of the Cambridge Union Society in Easter 1992 and graduated in 1993 with a 2:1 honours degree.

Balding was a leading amateur flat jockey and champion Lady Rider from 1988 to 1993. In 2012, My Animals and Other Families, which chronicles her life as a child in a racing yard, received the National Book Award for "Autobiography of the Year."

Balding has a close family connection to horse racing: her father, Ian Balding, raced Mill Reef, King George VI and King Elizabeth Stakes, and her younger brother, Andrew Balding, was trained by Casual Look, the 2003 Epsom Oaks champion. The former victory culminated in a tense post-race interview with her brother. In the Grand National, Cheltenham Gold Cup, and Champion Hurdle, her uncle Toby Balding was a competitor. In addition, her maternal grandfather, Peter Hastings-Bass, and her maternal uncle William Hastings-Bass, 17th Earl of Huntingdon, were both tutors to King Elizabeth II. Priscilla Hastings, her maternal grandmother, descended from the Earls of Derby and was one of the first women to vote for Jockey Club membership.

Balding's well-documented aristocratic lineage on her mother's side can be seen in records that TheGenealogist has found in research. Balding's maternal line reveals that she is the great-granddaughter of Sir Malcolm Bullock, a Member of Parliament whose sexuality had to be kept private because homosexuality was unlawful in the United Kingdom. In her episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?" she was investigated. In July 2017, the program was first broadcast in July 2017. Gerald Barnard Balding Sr., Balding's paternal grandfather, immigrated to America to play polo in the 1920s when he was in his 20s. Balding's grandfather was the subject of a genealogy website, and it was at this time that Gerald Balding Sr met and later married Eleanor Hoagland, an American heiress. Balding discovered her great-great-grandfather, Joseph Hoagland, who founded the Royal Baking Powder Company in 1866 with his brother Cornelius. They helped establish one of the country's top bake powder manufacturers by pioneering the use of mass advertising campaigns.

Personal life

Balding is a lesbian. Balding formalized her relationship with Alice Arnold, then a BBC Radio 4 continuity announcer and newsreader, in September 2006, when she entered a civil partnership. Archie, the couple's Tibetan terrier, lived with them. She and Arnold married in private in April 2015.

Balding announced on May 29, 2009, that she had thyroid cancer. By the following Saturday, she said she would be back on television reporting the Epsom Derby. She reported on August 21, 2009, that the radioactive iodine had been working well, with no evidence of the disease spreading.

Balding lodged a complaint against the Press Complaints Commission in July 2010 over an article by writer A. Balding. A. Gill of The Sunday Times wrote that she felt she had mocked her sexuality and appearance, despite the newspaper's refusal to apologise. The PCC ruled in her favour, finding that Gill had "refer[red] to the complainant's sexuality in a demeaning and gratuitous manner. She was voted in the top ten on the World Pride Power list in 2014 and ranked in the top ten.

Balding interviewed Liam Treadwell, ridiculing his apparent bad teeth after his Grand National triumph on April 4, 2009. Balding later explained on BBC's Have I Got News For You that she thinks Treadwell, who suffered from microdontia and hypodontia, was "kicked out" by a horse, a common injury among jockeys, apologizing for her mistake. However, Treadwell expressed delight in his remark, as a dentist promised to clean his teeth at no expense. "It was the best thing Clare ever said," Treadwell said.

Balding endorsed Hacked Off and its movement toward self-regulation in the United Kingdom by "safeguarding the press from political interference while also providing vital protection to the homeless."

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Broadcasting career

Balding joined BBC National Radio in 1994, appearing on 5 Live, Radio 1 (presenting the sport on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show), Radio 2 and Radio 4. She made her television debut as a television presenter in June 1995, premiering highlights of Royal Ascot. She began broadcasting live in 1997 and became the BBC's top horse racing presenter after Julian Wilson's retirement in December 1997. Liam Treadwell, the 2009 Grand National champion, has been chastised.

Balding has covered seven Olympic Games for BBC Radio in Atlanta and ABC Television in Sydney, Athens, Beijing, Rio de Janeiro, and Tokyo. She has worked on four Paralympic Games, the Winter Olympics from Salt Lake City, Turin, Vancouver, Sochi Pyeongchang and Beijing, as well as the Commonwealth Games from Melbourne, Delhi, Glasgow, and Beijing. She was the face of the BBC's rugby league coverage, having hosted Grandstand from a Rugby League Challenge Cup semi-final, and being so impressed by the sport's vibrancy and physical challenges, she wanted to cover more rugby league matches. She was the last person to attend the Grandstand on Sunday.

She also appears on the Lord Mayor's Show as well as other live events for the BBC, such as Trooping the Colour and New Year's Eve. Balding has provided coverage of Crufts for the BBC from 2004 to 2009, as well as Channel 4 since 2013.

She also stars on BBC Radio 4's Ramblings, where she walks and talks with one or two devotees of a particular route, location, or sport, and, in some cases, she walked portions of the Lyke Wake Walk and Dales Way. Clare was a reporter on 5 Live's Wimbledon coverage from 1995 to 2014. Balding has been on BBC2's Wimbledon Highlights show from 2015 to date. Due to her inexperience and enthusiasm, she has been chastised in this role. She has also appeared on television news about The Boat Race since 2010, including the first live coverage of the women's Boat Race on the Tideway in 2015.

Balding's BBC TV show Britain By Bike, which retraced some of Harold Briercliffe's British cycle tours, was released in 2010.

Balding joined BBC Countryfile in August 2011 temporarily replacing Julia Bradbury while Bradbury was on maternity leave, co-hosting the show with Matt Baker. Bradbury returned in February 2012.

Sport and the British, a thirty-part series on BBC Radio 4, a British television series exploring the effects of sports on British life, from February to March 2012.

Balding, the lead presenter on Channel 4's Paralympics TV coverage, was a lead presenter. Balding would be presenting Channel 4's racing coverage in August 2012, while still holding the option to work for the BBC on non-racing sports such as rugby league.

Katherine Grainger, Hope Powell, and Tanni Grey-Thompson appeared before an All Party Parliamentary Group on women's sport in October 2012. "Women who are allowed to play sports directly contributes to women's political liberation," Balding said. Balding's documentary About Davison, which was commemorated in Emily Wilding Davison's 1913 Derby debut, was released in 2013. The Queen – A Passion for Horses – was also broadcast on BBC in 2013. Other factual documentaries for the BBC include Britain By Bike, Operation Wild, and Britain's Hidden Heritage.

She has appeared on BBC Sports Personality of the Year as one of the year's top presenters. Balding, the presenter of Good Morning Sunday on BBC Radio 2, from January 2013 to November 2017, but she resigned due to time constraints that would not allow her to continue to host the show and do other duties. Balding also hosted a Saturday night quiz show called Britain's Brightest, which began in January 2013. She appeared on Channel 4 Racing from 2013 to 2016, mainly fronting coverage of major festivals such as Cheltenham and Royal Ascot.

Balding's The Clare Balding Show, which airs on BT Sport and BBC Two, is currently host of her own sports chat show The Clare Balding Show. Guests so far have included Lewis Hamilton, Tom Daley, Mike Tyson, Martina Navratilova, Frankie Dettori, Judy Murray, and Ronnie O'Sullivan.

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