I t’s perhaps difficult to imagine Alex Jones as someone who was once “terribly shy”, but the popular TV presenter tells us that, as a young girl, she only discovered the inner confidence that has helped her through her career thanks to her drama teacher at secondary school.
“She was the one who pulled me out of my shell, and I don’t think I’d be where I am today if it wasn’t for her,” Alex says.
The star has a good reason to be reflecting on her past: she has been busy working on brand-new show Reunion Hotel, which features heartwarming stories of people reunited with someone pivotal in their lives. And Alex knows how important such opportunities can be, saying of her teacher: “I see her now and again, but I don’t think I’ve properly said how grateful I am to her.”
The Welsh star has long enjoyed a successful career on our screens: she has co-presented the BBC’s The One Show since 2010 and took to the dancefloor for Strictly Come Dancing in 2011. And after celebrating her 46th birthday earlier this month, she has been thinking about other big moments in her life to date, and whether she feels different in her 40s from how she did when starting out.
“In a way, I haven’t changed at all. I think life changes, and you adapt to that,” says Alex, who shares three children – Teddy, six, Kit, three, and Annie, one – with insurance broker husband Charlie Thomson.
“Meeting Charlie hugely changed me and becoming a mum massively changed me, but at heart, I’m still the same person I was when I started out at 22.”
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Those years of experience proved valuable as she filmed her new five-part BBC2 series, set in a stunning hotel in North Wales. Alex and a team of hotel staff and counsellors welcome guests, reuniting them with someone from their past – including a young woman meeting the stranger who saved her life after she fell on a train track, a 1960s girlband who reconnect with their favourite boyband half a century on, and even a group of guide dogs.
“I felt really privileged that people seemed to be comfortable in sharing their stories with me, trusting me not to sensationalise them and just being with them to hold their hands in different situations,” says the star, explaining that her time on The One Show has been a “huge help” with her new project. “This series really shows how amazing people from all walks of life can be.”
Sharing some of her favourite reunions, the mum of three recalls a story about a charity that helped make life-changing alterations to the home
