My shock at realising telly partner was better paid
THEY share the same sofa five days a week. Sadly, however, they don’t share the same pay cheque.
The One Show host Alex Jones earns about £50,000 a year less than her male co-presenter Matt Baker.
The BBC published the salaries of their top-earning staff earlier this year, revealing a shocking pay gap.
Alex knows she’s well paid, earning between £400,000 and £449,000, but Baker takes home £450,000 to £499,000.
That difference, for doing much the same job, was unexpected for Alex.
“Matt and I have never discussed wages,” she said. “But I assumed we got paid the same.”
It’s been several months since the top talent salaries were published.
But the wound is still fresh for many women at the corporation.
Alex said: “I was quite shocked. I guess everybody else was.”
Despite the pay blow, Alex has had other things to worry about this year.
She gave birth to baby Teddy in January and returned to work just four months later. She is even taking on new projects, writing a book and hosting a new TV show.
“It is amazing what you can manage when you become a parent,” she said.
“Before, I don’t know what I was doing. Sitting around wasting time.
“Now it’s more focused. I get a lot more out of life now we have Ted. He truly pulled us into line.”
Alex, 40, feared she would never fall pregnant naturally after discovering her own mother went through early menopause aged 43.
Last year, she filmed a documentary about fertility but announced she had fallen pregnant a few weeks before it aired.
Alex would like another baby with insurance broker husband Charlie Thomson, who she married in December 2015, but worries they won’t be lucky a second time.
She said: “It’s one of those things. There is no way of knowing.
“I have every sympathy for people having to go down the IVF route.
“It was easy the first time. Will it be as straightforward if we decide to have another baby? Who knows?”
Alex was 39 when she had her first child, nine years older than the average first-time mum. And she said that while it is only natural to worry about fertility after the age of 35, there is an element of “scaremongering”.
She added: “Everybody knows your fertility goes down with age.
“That is a biological fact. However, I do think there is an element of scaremongering. There are also a lot of cases, like myself, where there is a history of early menopause. Who knows if we try for a second baby whether it would be as straightforward again?”
Alex, who joined The One Show from Welsh language channel S4C in 2010, replacing Christine Bleakley, has enjoyed a successful career as a television presenter and warns that women should not be be judged for waiting to have a family.
She said: “I don’t think anyone puts off having children on purpose. It’s just circumstances.
“People meet a bit later. Anybody who does want a family and hasn’t should not be labelled as ‘career girls’, it’s because they haven’t met the right person.
“And why wouldn’t you have a very successful career while you’re waiting for that person and children to come into your life? You can have both.”
Alex does indeed have both and is busier than ever.
Her new TV show, The Secrets in My Family, starts next week on W. The programme brings families torn apart by rifts and circumstances back together.
With the help of experts and DNA tests, the show allows them to dig deeper into their family history to solve mysteries about their roots.
Alex said: “In each case, there is a secret in their family, as the title suggests.
“Which can be a really complex secret, a really dark secret in some cases, that is the reason why certain family members have been kept apart.
“It’s a bit like a detective story. Some of the mysteries were solved quite quickly, others took months.”
Alex believes we harbour a deep-seated desire to know where we come from.
She said: “Ancestry is the second most searched word on the internet.
“I think because we all come from families, all of us want to know what
piece of the jigsaw made us. Everybody has an interest in knowing who they are.” Alex herself was born in Ammanford, south west Wales, and is close to her mum Mary and dad Alun. This Christmas will be her first away from them as she spends the holidays with Charlie’s family in his native New Zealand. “It’s our first hot Christmas,” said Alex. “Or Charlie says it’s hot, but every time I’ve been to New Zealand it’s been cold.” Alex is also putting together a parenting book called Winging It! A Survival Guide for New Mums. It draws on her own experience and other stories from older parents. “It’s just a look on how society is changing slowly,” she said. “People are having children later.” Despite fearing she may have been too old to conceive, Alex believes that being an older mum has made her a better mum.
She said: “I strongly feel I wouldn’t have been the same mother 10 years ago because I was still building my career. Also, fundamentally, I hadn’t met Charlie.
“But I wouldn’t have had the patience with Teddy that I do now.
“I might be a bit more tired, because your energy levels dip, but then I was still scrabbling around working on my career, whereas now I feel like I am reaching the peak of my career.”
Alex admitted this comes with its own complications and it was “hard to take a step back” after falling pregnant because the industry is so fickle.
She added: “But for me, it was very clear because my main aim in life was to have a family at whatever cost.”
Teddy is almost a year old now and Alex is finding the balance easier the older he gets.
She said: “I’ve been back at work for four and a half months.
“It’It’s gettingtti easier.i Of course, bbecause I do The One Show, I have the morning at home.”
Alex started dating Charlie when she was 34 after they met at a party in 2011.
She said he has taken to fatherhood like a duck to water and finds it as “difficult as I do to leave in the morning”.
“Dads aren’t really given enough credit,” she added. “It’s all about the mums but I think they really play their part. When two people are working full-time, it has to be that way.
“He adores being a dad and it’s changed him for the better. It’s also changed our relationship for the better.
“You learn to become a team more than ever. When you look at a baby you’ve both created, you can’t prepare for that. It’s really cemented our relationship.”
The Secrets in My Family, November 6, 9pm on W.
Anybody whoh ddoes want a family and hasn’t should not be labeled as ‘career girls’ ALEX JONES