Richard Madeley
Date of Birth: 13/05/1956
Occupation: Presenter
Biography: A British television presenter and columnist. With his wife Judy Finnigan, Madeley has presented This Morning and later the weekday chat show Richard & Judy. Solo projects of Madeley's include the ITV show Fortune - Million Pound Giveaway and standing in on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2.

Madeley was born in Romford, Essex; his mother is Canadian. His sister, Liz Lawrence, is a teacher. He attended the Coopers' Company School in Bow, London, now relocated to Upminster, Essex.

Madeley began his media career in local newspapers, before moving to BBC Radio Carlisle at the age of 19 as a news producer and presenter. He soon moved to nearby Border Television as a reporter on the Lookaround local news slot, before fronting its equivalent Calendar with Richard Whiteley on bigger Yorkshire TV, and then on to Granada Reports in the early 1980s. Here he met Judy Finnigan who was assigned to assiste him on his first day.

Richard Madeley and his wife Judy Finnigan presented This Morning from its inception in October 1988 until 2001. The series, a mix of celebrity interviews, household tips, cookery and phone-ins, lasted approximately two hours each weekday morning on ITV, broadcast from the Albert Dock in Liverpool. Production moved to London in 1996. The couple were so closely associated with the show, that many people referred to the programme as Richard and Judy, rather than This Morning. Since leaving the show, Madeley has been featured as a guest, publicising his autobiography. The couple joined the show's subsequent presenters, Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, in October 2009, to celebrate its twenty-first birthday.

The couple quit This Morning in 2001, having been approached by Channel 4 to host a similar show, called Richard & Judy, shown for an hour in the early evenings. The show was produced by Cactus TV, run by Jonathan Ross's brother Simon and his wife Amanda. The show ran for 7 years and ended in August 2008.

The couple transferred to new primetime show on UKTV's new channel, Watch. Their new show still contained popular features such as the "Book Club" and "Summer Read". From 7 October 2008, "Richard and Judy’s New Position" showed weeknights from 8pm. The show attracted very low viewing figures, with only 200,000 people for the first episode, and 53,000 for the second. Viewing figures since had consistently fallen, reaching new lows of just 11,000 viewers; their Channel 4 programme would see figures as high as 2.5 million. Consequentially, on 8 May 2009 it was announced that the show would end in July, the presenters claiming in a statement that viewers "simply couldn't find us".

In 2002, the couple co-wrote their autobiography, Richard and Judy: The Autobiography, published by Hodder & Stoughton. In 2008, Madeley wrote the book Fathers and Sons, which charts his family history; it was published by Simon and Schuster.

Madeley's first marriage, at aged 21, lasted five years before the couple divorced. Madeley has stated that he believes the marriage was a mistake, and he had ten affairs. Ten days after Madeley's marriage began, his father died aged 49.

Madeley met Judy Finnigan in 1982 when they worked on separate programmes for Granada TV. At the time each was in their first marriage. The pair married in 1986 in Manchester. They have two children , both born in Manchester: Jack Christopher and Chloe Susannah.