Dan Walker Wife: The Life Of A BBC breakfast Presenter
Dan Walker’s wife of nearly 20 years is Sarah Walker. Though he and BBC Breakfast co-host Louise Minchin get on quite well, don’t be fooled!
Today we look into several parts of the rise of the BBC Breakfast host. We’ll also glimpse briefly at Sarah’s life. And we’ll then share some of the best bits of Dan Walker’s career (including his Twitter rivalry with ITV counterpart Piers Morgan).
About Sarah Walker
BBC Breakfast presenter Dan Walker, 41, works alongside Louise Minchin, replacing Bill Turnbull as regular co-host in 2016. Known as a BBC Sports presenter on the Saturday programme Football Focus, Walker married his wife Sarah in 2001.
The couple has three children, who, like Sarah herself, remain mostly out of the spotlight.
Dan Walker’s early career and faith
Born in Crawley, Sussex, Walker is the son of a local church minister. His broadcasting career path started as work experience in radio at Sheffield‘s Hallam FM.
Walker’s career took flight with Key 103 Radio in 1999 in Manchester. He worked as a sports presenter and commentator, remaining with the station for four years.
As suggested by his father’s profession, Walker is a devout Christian. He remains committed to his faith in spite of a busy six-day workweek. So committed, in fact, that despite facing demanding BBC News and BBC Sport commitments, Walker does not work on Sundays.
Dan and Sarah’s view on his work schedule
Yet both he and Sarah did have some reservations along the way. Especially when it came to his early work hours as an early morning breakfast television presenter.
“She thought it was going to be a disaster: Me getting up that early, turning into a zombie. We’ve got a dog and three kids. So, if I slammed the door at 3.30 am saying, ‘Bye everyone,’ it wouldn’t work.”
However, Walker says the work schedule allows him to stay involved in family life, even to do the school runs.
Dan Walker’s wife enables a successful presenting career
Walker credits Sarah for enabling the career he now holds. He says that he originally wanted to be a teacher, but Dan’s career plans changed thanks to Sarah.
That’s because Sarah shared Commentator of the Year competition details she’d heard about earlier.
“She used to work in a bakery in Sheffield when Hallam FM launched a Commentator of the Year competition.
“She brought home a sandwich bag with the number of Hallam FM to ring. And that was my big break.”
Moving into telly
https://youtu.be/D43sydlaOtA
From Key 103, Walker debuted on TV at ITV Granada News in Manchester. Shortly thereafter, he was snapped up by BBC’s North West Tonight. Walker’s work netted him the Royal Television Society award for Regional Sports Presenter of The Year in 2006.
True to his work ethic, Walker could not accept the award in person. Instead, he was in Istanbul covering Liverpool’s Champions League Final victory.
Dan Walker and wife join the BBC
His star clearly on the rise, Walker subsequently moved to London in 2006 as he ramped up gigs with the BBC. By 2008, Walker’s reputation as a mainstay sports broadcaster at the BBC. Dan has shown deft touch in general assignment coverage, hosting BBC Radio Five Live’s Afternoon Edition programme up to 2016.
He can cover tennis, as shown by his coverage of Wimbledon. He’s worked in golf, covering The Open Championship; and the Olympics, covering the 2016 Rio Summer Games. Other sports he’s covered include horse racing, at both Aintree and Ascot; and Rugby Union, with involvement in 6 Nations coverage.
However, Walker is most well known by far with British sport fans for his football assignments. For over a decade, Walker has hosted the Saturday football magazine programme Football Focus. Walker replaced Manish Patel as the full-time host in 2009.
Additionally, Walker was part of the Beeb’s 2010 World Cup coverage.
We have been working on something a bit different for you this weekend.
Don’t miss #FootballFocus tomorrow from midday on @BBCOne ⚽️👏🏻⚽️@BBCMOTD @BBCSport @Calteck10 @SheffieldUnited @AlexScott pic.twitter.com/qI77jK234V— Dan Walker (@mrdanwalker) April 3, 2020
Memorable encounters with Matt Hancock
Health secretary Matt Hancock has been out front discussing the government’s efforts to fight Covid-19 recently. As a result, his encounters with Dan Walker on BBC Breakfast are prime celebrity news fodder. Additionally, the nature of how they interact often becomes a social media trending topic.
Walker challenges the 50,000 nurses increase
In the run-up to the 2019 elections, Hancock took issue with Walker on a staffing pledge. Hancock addressed the accuracy of the Tories’ goal to increase the number of NHS nurses by 50,000. In contrast to Walker’s implicit tone, the minister said the pledge was “totally crystal clear”, adding:
“It doesn’t matter to a patient, particularly, whether the nurse is new or somebody who might otherwise have left.”
“Is that the best you can do?”
This next part will feel like ages ago. By 5 February, Covid-19 became a health-based reality for governments worldwide. As health secretary, Hancock tried to calm a concerned public but struggled against Walker’s withering questions, including:
“What about all those people who are coming into the UK at the moment, what is being done to monitor them?”
“I understand this is an issue which lots of governments around the world are dealing with. What about the people who are carrying the virus but aren’t yet showing symptoms? Because there are still thousands of those who might be coming into the UK!”
“Are you convinced (that) what you are doing at the moment? Is that all that you can do to best stop the spread of the Coronavirus in the UK?”
Out of the barrage came revelations that Hancock allocated £14 million to the global vaccine effort.
Playing the feud with Piers Morgan
Good Morning Britain’s Morgan and Walker hold down competing time slots for programmes on ITV1 and BBC One, respectively. They carry that grudge over to Twitter as well.
It seemed to cool off as Covid-19 forced a stronger apart tonal change. But May 2020 has revealed both agreeable and “they’re at it again” antics from both sides.
Dan and Piers exchange positive sentiments
Walker extended well wishes to Morgan as he suffered from symptoms from Covid-19.
They came together to support footballer Ian Wright as he revealed racist trolling from an Instagram follower in his direct messages.
One sweet – lus one ‘embarrassing’ – tweet
Deep down though, feud lovers could see it coming. It started with a disagreement over chocolate bars – Morgan declared love for Bounty Dark, whilst Dan rocked the Crunchie bar. Along the way, though, Dan simply HAD to tell Piers “you’re so wrong.”
New habits die easy, it appears, whether its Dan Walker’s wife or Walker himself. Walker then seemed to take aim at GMB’s Morgan. The post alluded to “shouting, interrupting [and] telling everyone you’re brilliant at holding [politicians] to account.”
Yet Piers didn’t dig the shade.
“The reason they all go on your show, Dan is because you’re known as the softest touch in the world of political interviewing.
“Or as the Guardian called you recently ‘LaLa from the Teletubbies… most at home asking unthreatening lifestyle questions’.”
When Walker seemed to recognise he’d been off-base, he tried to recover. Yet once again, Morgan wouldn’t play ball, and the feud was back on.
Oh please, that was exactly your intention. Own your ludicrousness Mr Walker, this is embarrassing. 👇 https://t.co/yLO7DTLyu2
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) May 12, 2020
Additionally, Morgan took umbrage with a ban on government ministers appearing on GMB. Previously, both Morgan and co-host Susanna Reid had been widely praised for harder-hitting interviews with ministers regarding lockdown conditions.