Kate Thornton is best known from presenting the first three series of The X Factor from 2004 until 2006.
Since then, The now 48-year-old star has hosted other shows before taking a huge career U-turn that saw her step away from television and head back to college.
Not only did she present Simon Cowell’s ITV primetime singing show but she also presented Pop Idol: Extra, as well as anchoring daytime TV show Loose Women.
She shot to fame when she became the editor of Smash Hits magazine at just 22 years of age before going on to have a successful journalism and TV career.
After getting axed from two primetime ITV programmes, Kate had to grow a thick skin and then decided to let TV presenting take a backseat for a while.
Stepping back into the limelight a little, Daily Star has taken a look into Kate’s life away from the cameras.
‘Humiliating’ X Factor sacking
(Image: Ken McKay / Rex Features)
After hosting The X Factor for three series, Kate Thornton was brutally axed from the show.
Speaking out in June 2020, Kate addressed the ‘humiliating’ sacking from the show when she spoke on the In The Pink podcast with Natalie Pinkham.
She said: “They didn’t renew my contract having said that they would — and by they, I mean Simon.
“It’s his show, it’s his gig.
“There’d been speculation in the press that I was going to get the push and I’d asked if that was the case and if it is, please can you just give me the dignity of resigning, don’t throw me out as a cheap headline, because hopefully our friendship and our history would qualify that I mean a little bit more than that. That didn’t happen.”
(Image: Getty Images)
She continued: “It hurt more that somebody that I considered to be a friend hadn’t been up front with me.
“It was very public. It was on the News at Ten. It was embarrassing, it was humiliating and it kind of burnt for a bit.
“Then you process it, and you go ‘I’m not letting this define me.'”
Kate then went on to say how she was grateful that it happened during a time when social media wasn’t as widely used as it is today.
She said: “It’s tough and you develop the skin of a bloody rhino and I’m only grateful it happened in a time pre-social media otherwise, I’m sure it would have hurt a lot more now. That would’ve really hurt.”
Loose Women stint
(Image: PA)
Kate presented a whopping 233 episodes of ITV’s Loose Women from 2009 until 2011 but was reportedly axed from the show when ratings slumped.
Kate left the popular panel show alongside perforrmer Zoe Tyler, when Carol Vorderman and Sally Lindsay were brought in.
Speaking to The Mirror about her stint and sacking from Loose Women, Kate said: “Telly is all about change and shaking things up. It’s how it works,” before adding: “Everyone is at peace with each other.”
Heartbreaking split
(Image: Getty Images Europe)
In February 2011, the then-Loose Women host revealed on the show that she is no longer with her fiancè.
Revealing on the show that she and DJ Darren Emerson were no longer together, Kate dropped a bombshell when she told the panel and viewers at home that: “We [she and Darren] split some time ago.”
The couple got engaged in 2007 and had a son, Ben, in May 2008, and it was on February 3, 2011 when she announced live on air that the pair had split.
It has been reported that she now lives with her son Ben in South West London, and has been in a relationship with construction worker Mat Vincent since 2013 – two years after splitting with Darren.
Career U-turn
(Image: Getty Images)
After being axed from The X Factor, Kate landed a gig with Loose Women, but was then axed from that shortly after.
Struggling to find work, Kate decided to go back to college and train to become a therapist.
“It makes you take a long, hard look at yourself so it’s been quite tough at times,” she said.
“I’ve hit the kerb a few times in my career but I think that helps when doing a course like this. Even if nothing comes of it professionally, it’s making me a better journalist, broadcaster and human being.”
Revealing why she decided on the new route, she explained that it was her young son, Ben who inspired her to take the career U-turn.
“I want him to see that when one door closes you just need to keep knocking on some new ones until the right one opens,” she said.
Health battle
(Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
In May 2020, Kate sat down with Laura Whitmore for her Castaway podcast, where she said she had suffered from bullying while at school.
Speaking to the Love Island host, Kate opened up about what it was like going through such a horrible experience so young.
She said: “When I was a teenager, I had quite a tough time in my teens with bullying at school and weight issues, and those two things combined.
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“I made a documentary many years later to finally understand that those two things were really big contributing factors to me developing eating disorders.
“And the way I got out of that as a teenager was through a brilliant GP who did talking therapy with me at a time when nobody had therapy – you’re talking about the 80s.”
She went on to develop anorexia, and then underwent psychodynamic therapy to overcome the disorder.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
