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Steph McGovern: Pregnant BBC Breakfast star shockingly stereotyped at start of BBC career


Steph McGovern, 37, who hails from Middlesbrough started her broadcasting career with work experience at the BBC. She later landed a role as a researcher in current affairs before going on to be a producer for the finance segments on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Since then, she has become a well-known face on the BBC’s news shows and is a regular on BBC Breakfast. Speaking at the Convention of the North earlier this month, Steph  opened up about how she was received as a northerner at the start of her career in London.

According to The Yorkshire Post, the presenter spoke about an instance when she was stereotyped due to her background.

“When I first started at the BBC and went to London, when I turned up my boss said to the team, ‘We’ve got this new girl starting and she’s really unusual – she’s northern – so I was thinking we could take her to the theatre because she won’t have been there before,’” she said.

Steph went on to speak about her time on BBC Radio 4.

“I turned up at Radio 4 and there was a map of Middlesbrough on the wall, my home town,” she explained.

When she asked who on the team was a fellow Smoggy, she was told the map was there because they were working on a programme about ASBOs.

“I said, ‘What’s the red line on the middle of the map?’ And they said, ‘That’s the no go zone for the camera crew,’” she continued.

“My mum and dad live in the middle of that!”

Steph insisted she would feel safer walking home in that area than she would in Shepherd’s Bush.

When asked for comment by Express.co.uk, a BBC spokesperson said: “Steph’s success shows it’s talent that counts at the BBC not your background – we want to attract talent from all parts of the country and all social backgrounds and we’ve set out steps to go even further to ensure we fully reflect and represent the whole of the UK.”

Elsewhere, Steph recently departed BBC Breakfast on maternity leave.

She is expecting her first baby with her partner, whose identity she keeps private, preferring to keep her personal life out of the public eye.

She is thought to be a TV executive.

The BBC Breakfast gang sent Steph off with a sweet montage of video messages from her co-stars earlier this month.

In the clip, Louise Minchin, 50, told her colleague: “Steph, my darling, loads and loads of luck.

“It will be absolutely the best thing you’ve ever done in your whole life and the most brilliant thing, from our point of view, is that I know that you will become a loyal BBC Breakfast viewer because, at 6am, it’s just us to talk to!” she quipped.

Naga Munchetty, 44, also gushed: “I’m going to miss you loads.

“I know you’re going to love every minute and be a brilliant mum.”

BBC Breakfast airs daily at 6am on BBC One.



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