Mystery as Derbyshire’s fiance lasts only days on Holmes’ show
WHEN BBC star Victoria Derbyshire’s fiancé, Mark Sandell, was accused of bullying, sexual harassment and expenses fraud, he was sacked by the Corporation.
Although the senior BBC editor returned to work in 2015 after successfully appealing against his dismissal, he left at the end of last year after being headhunted by the commercial station Talkradio.
Now, however, I can reveal that Sandell, 56, has left his new job as Eamonn Holmes’s producer on Talkradio amid great mystery, just a few days after taking up the post.
‘It’s the talk of the building,’ a broadcasting source tells me.
‘Eamonn Holmes said he wanted a heavyweight producer for his new drive-time show, so Mark was drafted in. But something happened and Mark left straight away.’
A Talkradio spokesman declined to comment on Sandell’s sudden departure, but a close friend of his confirmed yesterday that he had left the station.
His departure from the BBC was one of its most notorious disciplinary cases. The Corporation decided to sack him after an employee raised a formal grievance.
However, he was cleared of the allegations by an internal appeal and instead given a final written warning for inappropriate management conduct.
His supporters believed he was made a scapegoat and should not have lost his job.
Derbyshire, 49, proposed to Sandell, her boyfriend of 17 years, after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015.
Victoria, who has since been given the all-clear after undergoing a mastectomy followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy, told him: ‘I don’t want you to marry me because you feel sorry for me.’
She said last autumn that they’d agreed: ‘One day, we will get married … I’m not telling you when.’
Sandell was married to broadcaster Fi Glover, 47, when he fell for Derbyshire, who was her fellow BBC Radio 5 Live presenter.
Sandell could not be reached for comment yesterday, but his friend insists: ‘He was helping Talkradio with their launch and has moved on to other work.’