I’m a Celebrity: Where is Victoria Derbyshire from and who is her husband?

Star decided to go on show after recovering from breast cancer

I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! returned on Sunday (15 November), with a whole new group of celebrity campmates entering the wild.

One of the stars in Wales for this year’s series is award-winning journalist Victoria Derbyshire.

The 52-year-old hosted her own self-titled current affairs programme on BBC Two from April 2015 to March 2020.  

When the show was cancelled as part of cost-cutting efforts earlier this year, she tweeted that she was “devastated” after she learned about it in a newspaper report.  

She has also appeared in the series Loose Women, Panorama, Pointless Celebrities and The Real Full Monty, and she is married to Mark Sandell, a television and radio producer, who currently produces podcasts for BBC Radio 5 Live.

While they have been a couple for nearly two decades, they chose to marry in 2018 after Derbyshire completed her cancer treatments.

Derbyshire was diagnosed with breast cancer in July 2015 and completed her final stage of chemotherapy the following March. It was the experience of the illness that motivated her to take part in the show.  

“Because of cancer, I know more than lots of people, life is short,” she said. “I am now saying ‘yes’ to stuff I wouldn’t have done previously. And if I don’t do my boys proud, I will never live it down!”

Read more: I’m A Celebrity full line-up 2020

Speaking ahead of going on the show, Derbyshire admitted she would find it strange not following current affairs.

“I will find it difficult not knowing what is going on in the news but there is nothing I can do about that,” she said. 

“But it will be absolutely surreal! I keep up with the news minute by minute every day and suddenly there will be a void but that is also quite thrilling because we will have to fill it by finding out about each other and working as a team. It will be a digital detox!”

I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! airs nightly at 9pm on ITV.