Who is Carole Malone?
Carole Anne Malone was born on 14th October 1954 in Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear. She is a widely recognised media personality involved in print and digital journalism as well as television. She is also the co-author of a weight-loss book, Turn Back Time, with Dr. Aamer Khan.
Career
While Malone is perhaps more widely recognised as a television personality, the media mogul's career actually finds its roots in print journalism. Popular tabloids the journalist has written for include the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and The News of the World, for whom she was a writer from 2007 until its closure in 2011.
Malone's television experience is eclectic, branching over 20 years and featuring various roles. Her first big break was as a host on Sky One court show Guilty!, which aired from 1997 to 1999. Three years later in 2002 she appeared as a panellist on ITV's Loose Women, where she would continue to return as a guest until 2005. In 2007 she was invited to return as guest anchor while presenter Jackie Brambles was away on maternity leave.
In 2007, Malone was the seventh celebrity housemate to enter Celebrity Big Brother but was the second person evicted five days later.
From September 2007 to April 2011, she appeared as a regular discussion contributor on The Alan Titchmarsh Show and, since 2009, has regularly reviewed the newspapers on This Morning.
Malone was also a panellist on a handful of other shows throughout the 2000s and 2010s. These range from Matthew Wright's The Wright Stuff between 2006 and 2010, then again from 2013 to 2018; The Alan Titchmarsh Show from 2007 to 2011 and The Jeremy Vine Show since 2018. Since 2017 she has appeared on Sky News' The Pledge, a panel show renowned for its controversial discussions and heated debates.
Criticism
Where the Geordie journalist drew the most attention, however, was during her two stints on reality TV. Malone came under fire in 2006 for engaging in a memorable battle of words with TV Presenter Anne Diamond on Celebrity Fit Club. Malone, a team captain, infamously branded Diamond a "cheat" after she revealed she had a stomach operation to lose weight a year before the slimming show began.
The following year Malone entered the Big Brother house for 2007's Celebrity Big Brother, alongside housemates including Jade Goody, Shilpa Shetty, Jermaine Jackson and Ian "H" Watkins. The season of the show came under scrutiny following allegations of racist behaviour by a handful of contestants towards Indian housemate Shetty Shilpa. Communications regulator Ofcom received over 44,000 complaints around the allegations, which Malone denied as racist, but rather "pack mentality". \
"I don't think it is racism, but I think it is bullying on a grand scale," Malone told ITV's This Morning at the time.
Malone has also been caught at the centre of a number of controversies during her writing career. In 2009 she was called out for a statement she made in The News of the World, claiming that illegal immigrants receive "free cars". The newspaper was prompted to clarify and apologise in the wake of the complaints.
She was also called out for malicious comments made against Paul McCartney's ex-wife Heather Mills, who separated from McCartney in 2006 and became divorced in 2008. In a 2007 Sunday Mirror piece, Malone claimed Mills faked crying during an interview on GMTV to sway the public's opinion of her during the divorce proceedings.
Perhaps most shocking of all was an implication made by Malone on ITV's This Morning in May 2012 following the tragic deaths of six children who died in a house fire in Derby. Malone claimed the arson attack was "an accident waiting to happen", alleging that because the family received significant benefits aid, this drew resentment from the local community.
ITV apologised for Malone's comments, stating: "The views expressed in the This Morning newspaper review on Monday were those of Carol Malone and not shared by ITV or This Morning. Our thoughts are with the family and all those affected by this tragedy at this difficult time."
Personal life
Carole Malone married a Bosnian called Emir Mulabegovic in 1991. Little is known about her family life, which she keeps private.
