Jenny Bond

Jenny Bond

Jenny Bond is a much-loved broadcasting great.

She worked for fourteen years as the BBC's royal correspondent, and in that time she reported on all the major stories relating to the royal family. Her hardest and most challenging assignments were when she had to report on the death and funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997. Jenny Bond was educated at St. Francis' College, a girls' independent school in Letchworth, Hertfordshire and at the University of Warwick, from where she graduated with a degree in French and European Literature. Her career began in print, working for various local newspapers in London in journalism and sub-editing roles. Her first job in journalism was as a reporter for the Richmond Herald and then the Uxbridge Evening Mail. In 1977, she moved to BBC radio, producing and editing. She produced on Woman's Hour, Tuesday Call, International Assignment and for various television documentaries.

Career

In 1985 Bond became a radio news reporter and in 1988 she began to report for television, both for the BBC. She became a royal correspondent, which was to bring her to public attention, in 1989. During the 1990s she combined her reporting with several presentational roles - regularly fronting BBC Breakfast News, the BBC One O'Clock News and the BBC Six O'Clock News, including presenting the Six O'Clock News on the day of the death of her close friend and fellow news reader Jill Dando. Bond held the position as royal correspondent until the summer of 2003. During that time she reported on many dramatic and notable events to do with the British Royal Family, including the 1992 Windsor Castle fire, two royal weddings, the break-up of The Duke of York's marriage to Sarah Ferguson, the divorce of The Prince and Princess of Wales, the deaths of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and The Princess Margaret and has reported on The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh's celebrations of her Golden Jubilee.

Other Work

She wrote a book in 2001 called Reporting Royalty, which tells how she covered the Royal Family in the 1990s. Bond appeared on I'm a Celebrity to raise money for the Devon Air Ambulance Trust and raised £260,989.85 which the charity used to buy a state-of-the-art navigation system and to extend its helicopter flying time throughout the summer. She has also hosted Cash in the Attic and narrated the five series programme, Great British Menu.