The One Show’s Alex Jones: ‘I always wanted to be a mother. To have a child is a complete gift’

Alex Jones was born in March 1977 in Ammanford, Camarthenshire. Following early presenting jobs on BBC Choice, S4C and Channel 4, she started hosting BBC One’s The One Show in 2010. She has since hosted Close Calls: On Camera, has competed in Strictly Come Dancing and co-presented the Invictus Games.

In her Letter to My Younger Self, Jones reflects on a mischievous streak as a youth, her secret ambition to become a TV presenter and growing up on screen.

We’ve got a really close-knit family. My relationship with my parents has always been really good. Now I hold up my parents as models of how to raise my own children. My children are really young at the minute, but the fundamentals of family life are exactly the same, even though we live a very different life to what I did as a kid. Mum and dad are really hard-working people with a really good moral compass. I still ask them for advice all the time.

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If you met 16-year-old Alex you would probably think she was shy and quiet and quite studious. I think it was only really friends and family who knew that I had a more mischievous side. I had typical older child thinking. I felt that I had to do everything right. It wasn’t until I was 17 or 18 that I really sort of developed. I didn’t have periods until I was about 15, I think I was quite a late developer.

I think my younger self would be most surprised about the job I do now. I think she’d think, ‘Wow, it actually came off in the end’ – because I’d always secretly wanted to do that as a job. I’d always wanted to be a television presenter, but that wasn’t something you really said out loud in south Wales. And because I was quite quiet and quite shy, it just sounded like a pipe dream. So the younger me would be absolutely thrilled to know that in years to come, this is where she would end up. 

When I was a child I was very worried about doing the right thing and getting the right grades and working really hard. I would still hope that my children would do that, because I think it’s important, it sets you up well for what’s to come. But I’d tell my younger self to worry less, and that everything will fall into place. And those girls that were the cool girls in school, they won’t necessarily be the cool girls going forward. I mean, there was a particular gang in our schools, and we were all terrified of them. They were talking about sex and things when they were in year eight, and, like the rest of us, they had no
idea what they were talking about.

I went to university and studied theatre, film and television, much to mum and dad’s absolute horror.
They were pushing for law. And I was like, no, this is what I’m going to do and it’s going to be fine. And now, actually, I’m so glad it was fine in the end, because for so long, they were
like, please don’t do that. It doesn’t sound like a sensible subject. 

Looking back, there were no student fees when I was in uni, but still putting the child through, paying for the halls of residence, all of that is so expensive. And I think about that a lot, I can now see why they thought, what is she doing? But it was a really good course and I had a really good uni experience. Kissed a lot of boys. Had good friends. Still have those friends. And now I do work in telly, so I think mum and dad are satisfied that actually it wasn’t all a disaster.

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Probably my real breakthrough was when I was working as a runner researcher for an independent television company. I quietly harbored this desire to be in front of the camera, but I still didn’t really want to say it out loud. And they asked me to do a screen test then said, we’ve got this new programme that we’d love you to present. 

It was a dating game show set on the beach in Majorca called La Bamba. There were 50 or 60 young contestants between the ages of 18 and 24, all holed up in this hotel in Magaluf and then they were doing various games on the beach. And it was really good fun. 

Getting the One Show job in 2010 was a huge move forward. It came completely as a surprise. I was really busy working on lots of different television programmes. And then this phone call came out of the blue asking me to go and meet the producers of The One Show. 

I thought it was a joke at the beginning. And then I thought, well, they’re probably looking for a reporter. So I went down to London to meet them. And they said, ‘Look, we’d like you to audition for the main presenter.’ I just couldn’t take it in for a little while. But the minute I sat down with those two editors, I sort of knew, OK, this is real. This feels like this could really happen. And that was really exciting. I still had to go through weeks of different auditions and a lot of secrecy. And then I finally was given the job in July.

I love that I’ve grown up on The One Show. I started on it when I was about 32 and the audience have seen me mature and grow up as a young woman. They’ve seen me when I met my husband and we got engaged, and then got married, and then went on to have children, and they’ve been so supportive. You learn as you go on.

Jason [Manford, who resigned from The One Show after online “flirting” with women was revealed
to have “gone too far”] and I are still really good pals. I very much take people on face value. But with JJ [Jermaine Jenas, who was dismissed from the show after allegations of inappropriate behaviour] I didn’t know what was going on. I had no idea. I thought he was taking extended leave. The BBC didn’t share with me what was going on until they actually dealt with it. And, you know, they did what they thought was right. If that was my daughter and she felt uncomfortable with someone’s behaviour, I hope that whatever company she was working for would deal with it swiftly as well.

I always had a very strong sense of family. And I always wanted to be a mother. It was always in the plan. I didn’t realise how lucky you are when you become a mother. I was a little bit naive as a younger girl, and just thought, oh, you know, when I decide to have a baby, I’ll be able to have a baby. But of course, we know a lot more now, and that’s actually not the way it works. 

To have a child is a complete gift. I always wanted three children, but never thought I’d be lucky enough. And I’m just delighted that we managed it. Our house is complete chaos. It’s so busy and mad and messy and brilliant all at the same time, and I just really enjoy the chaos of it.

If I could have one last conversation with anyone it would be my grandparents, because we lost them both – my grandmother more recently. They were the funniest people I’ve ever met. I mean, my grandfather used to say about my grandmother, she’s the only woman I know with a sunburned tongue, because she talks so much. They just had a great relationship. They would argue like cat and dog, but there was a real strong sense of love between them.

I’m not shy now. I grew out of that. I love being recognised now. I love having a chat with people who watched the show. And I never get negative comments. I always get, ‘Hi Alex, it’s really nice to see you. How have you been? How are the children?’ It’s people who feel like they know me, and I think that is brilliant, that they feel relaxed, that they can approach and have a chat. I just think it’s a real privilege. It’s lovely.

If I could relive any moment, I would go back to all of my children’s births. Especially the first one, because that was at the beginning of all of it. It’s such a special thing. That’s the most visceral day that I can remember, the day that Teddy was born. 

It just feels like, when you have your first child, like you cross over into this different kind of realm. You’re in this different world suddenly, and you’re responsible for this little human and it was just the beginning of growing our family. And that’s the thing I treasure above all else.

Alex Jones celebrates 15 years of presenting The One Show in August.

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