5 days Ago By Mike Ridley
BOOKMAKERS have decided that The Sun’s Jane Moore is the star least likely to win I’m A Celebrity, which hit our screens last night. In fact, the betting experts reckon she will be the first contestant voted off the ITV reality show, with her odds of taking the crown just 50/1. 17 Bookies have decided that The Sun’s Jane Moore is the star least likely to win I’m A Celebrity 17 Star signing Jane as The Sun’s first female Bizarre editor in 1987 Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd 17 Curl power Jane with her perm Credit: Collect But the veteran journalist’s many friends and colleagues have a warning for the bookies — write off Our Jane of the Jungle at your peril.
The Sun’s brilliant columnist may believe she is not as well known as WAG Coleen Rooney, former Strictly star Oti Mabusi , Coronation Street’s Alan Halsall or this year’s 9/4 favourite, Danny Jones , of pop group McFly. But the odds-makers have not done their homework on Loose Women panellist Jane, 62. They have ignored her amazing backstory and skills gained from a life as one of Britain’s top journalists that almost guarantee she will be a hit in the jungle.
Read More on TV OH HO HO NO Huge EastEnders character will battle illness & suicidal thoughts in Xmas plot DUN-DUN-DUN EastEnders boss slams rival Coronation Street over ‘bleak’ crime stories One of her best friends, author Steven Smith, says: “Jane is a great game player, she plays to win. “Bookies say she will be the first to leave, but I’d put £2,000 on this morning that she will not be walking across that bridge any time soon. “Unless it’s due to an accident or illness, Jane will stick it out, because she always sticks it out and does well.
” Jane, who has written her straight-talking weekly Sun column for nearly 27 years, is also a friend to some of Britain’s biggest celebrities, who are backing her, too. Most read in I’m A Celebrity 2024 sick scam I'm A Celeb star's horror as thieves target her by pretending to be her daughter my girl Coleen Rooney's husband Wayne breaks his silence before her I'm A Celeb debut DOWN UNDER & DIRTY I’m a Celeb’s sexiest moments ever..
. including Towie star’s model massage maur drama Maura Higgins will arrive in I'm A Celeb jungle 'imminently' after Vegas trip They include X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne, Loose Women colleagues Denise Welch and Ruth Langsford, and telly favourite Davina McCall. She was also close friends with EastEnders icon Barbara Windsor, broke the news of the Carry On star’s dementia and did the first interview with her widower, Scott Mitchell , after Babs’ death in December 2020.
Why The Sun’s Jane Moore will be a brilliant I’m A Celeb contestant as Loose Women star flies to Oz Scott says: “We met Jane in the Nineties through mutual friends. She interviewed Barbara for the paper, the two of them struck up a bond and we became friends. ‘Fond of the sensational’ “Jane is someone who’s not only an incredibly accomplished journalist, but also she’s compassionate and not afraid to speak her mind.
“She is not going to be polite and go along with it to be liked. Jane will be true to herself and won’t worry about being disliked for her difference of opinion. “Having an opinion is her job!” Jane Moore was born in Oxford in May 1962.
She is the daughter of Oxford University maths professor John and former teacher Pat. But Jane never saw her father again after he walked out when she was just eight. After the marriage collapsed, Pat took Jane to live in her godparents’ house on a council estate in Droitwich, Worcestershire.
Her godparents’ sons, who were both in the Army, often took Jane on military training camps in the summer — so she has no fear of the outdoors. And the woman who is now in the jungle camp in Murwillumbah, New South Wales, first visited Australia as a blonde-haired schoolgirl after being a runner up in a Miss Pears soap contest. Jane won £500 — a fortune back then — which she used to go on a world cruise with Pat to visit her grandfather in Australia.
Even as a child, it was obvious she was going to be a star journalist. She recalls: “In every story I wrote at infants’ school, the main characters all met a horrible, grisly end. If you read it in isolation, you’d think, ‘This child is either going to be a serial killer or a tabloid journalist’.
I was fond of the sensational, even then.” Despite being told at Worcester Grammar School For Girls that “journalism was for men”, she earned her spurs as a local newspaper reporter, covering courts and council, before joining The Sun at the age of 23 as our first ever female editor of the Bizarre showbiz column. Return to journalism She left after a year to became a sales negotiator at Townends estate agency before returning to journalism.
As royal correspondent for our former sister newspaper, Today, she followed Princess Diana around the world — including one assignment in the Virgin Islands when Di stayed on Richard Branson’s Necker Island . Sun royal photographer Arthur Edwards remembers: “It wasn’t the kind of job to help you train for the I’m A Celebrity jungle. “We stayed in five-star huts, all with satellite phones, which were high-end technology back then and very expensive.
It was £30 a call back then. ‘No-nonsense lady’ “We did one photocall of Diana on the beach with William, and then we just had a wonderful week doing nothing. We just swam, snorkelled and surfed.
Jane was always good fun.” In 1995, she returned to The Sun as Women’s Editor, where she met Steven Smith, who was then a celebrity hairdresser. 17 A young Jane in her garden 17 Jane with her biggest fan, proud mum Pat in 1976 Credit: Jane Moore 17 Best pals Jane with Dame Barbara Windsor in 2019 Steven says: “I recall my first meeting with her.
She had just come from meeting comedian and Madonna’s best friend, Sandra Bernhard. “The pair had clearly not hit it off. Bernhard accused Jane of ‘having an attitude’.
Jane suggested that Sandra ‘take a look in the mirror if she wanted to see attitude’ and then cut the interview short.” Jane interviewed a galaxy of other stars for The Sun, with many becoming her close pals. Steven says: “One of her talents is to befriend people.
You sit with her and you feel relaxed. “She has a natural affinity with celebrities because she’s easy to talk to, but Jane would be as happy chatting to the cleaning lady. “She went to interview Gillian Taylforth from EastEnders and they became great friends, as were Babs and [Supermarket Sweep host] Dale Winton, who are no longer with us.
17 Our Jane has an army of support 17 Jane with her then hubby Gary Farrow in 2006 Credit: Getty 17 Jane and her daughter Ellie Credit: Collect 17 Jane with Cilla Black and Loose Women co-hosts Credit: Rex “When Cilla Black’s husband, Bobby, died, Jane went to interview her. But she could see Cilla was not up to talking about it, so they had a glass of champagne instead and she went back a few weeks later. Cilla really appreciated Jane.
” Barbara Windsor’s husband Scott says: “Jane is an incredibly loyal lady if you’re her friend. “She was one of the very few people that I confided in when Barbara was diagnosed with dementia. “Jane knew a good couple of years before it became public.
I trusted her 100 per cent with that. “She saw us through Barbara’s illness, spent time with us, she was incredibly compassionate and caring. “That’s why there was no one else I would have chosen to break the story with because of how she is as a person.
One of her talents is to befriend people. You sit with her and you feel relaxed Steven Smith “But as sensitive and compassionate and wonderful as she is, Jane has always been a completely no-nonsense lady. “It will be interesting to see her in the jungle because I know she won’t back down from saying anything she doesn’t believe in or anything that someone says.
” A natural campaigner, Jane fights for causes such as axing VAT on sanitary products, ending domestic violence, Great Ormond Street Hospital and banning size zero models. She regularly got on her bike to raise funds for Help for Heroes and was a Jabs Army helper during Covid. ‘Never holds a grudge’ Jane — who celebrated her 60th birthday in 2022 by thanking her “wonderful” mum for assuring her she could do “anything I set my mind to” — wrote her first weekly column for The Sun in 1998.
“That’s where I found my niche,” she recalls. Jane is an incredibly loyal lady if you’re her friend Scott Mitchell In that very first column, Jane told Anthea Turner to “make love, not money” and branded the Isle of Man a “very boring place” when 30,000 people went to the opening of the island’s first ever McDonald’s. She also introduced the bloke joke, which took a weekly swipe at men.
Jane’s own bloke was PR guru to the stars Gary Farrow. They have three daughters, Ellie, Grace and Lauren. Guests at the couple’s star-studded wedding in 2002 included best man Elton John, Anthea Turner and her new husband Grant Bovey, DJ Dr Fox, Frank Skinner , Ross Kemp, Barbara Windsor and Scott, and Bobby Davro .
Steven Smith recalls: “It was one of the most beautiful weddings. Elton played. On my table there was Piers Morgan, Babs and the golfer, Nick Faldo.
” Jane’s marriage to Gary ended amicably two years ago and she announced the news first in her Sun column. In yesterday’s Sun on Sunday, Jane revealed she does not want to cook in the jungle but is “happy to stir the pot”. Steven says: “In the early days, you knew Jane was cooking because you could hear the fork going into the plastic, followed by the microwave.
“Later, she started enjoying cooking. Even though she said she won’t be doing any cooking in the jungle, she has the capability now — but it wasn’t one of her natural talents.” Steven has a warning for her campmates, though: “Jane doesn’t put up with fools gladly, but she’s forgiving of fools .
. . sometimes.
She never holds a grudge. Read more on the Scottish Sun FLURRY FORTNIGHT Scotland's weather maps show 16 DAYS of snow & -15C deep freeze WED THE HELL Heartbreaking moment bride makes wedding entrance in front of only FIVE guests “I’ve just had a message asking, ‘Oh God, how do you think she’s going to cope with Coleen?’.” He added: “As Jane always does, she’ll win Coleen over, along with everyone else in the camp and the people watching at home.
” MOORE BIG NAME FANS 17 Jane chatting with Culture Club's Boy George Credit: Jane Moore 17 Jane with Olivia Newton-John in 1998 Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd 17 Jane with singer Celine Dion Credit: Jane Moore 17 Jane with film icon Michael Caine Credit: Jane Moore 17 Jane and Davina McCall in 1998 Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd 17 Jane with pal Sharon Osbourne 17 Jane has a hug with Spice Girl Mel B Credit: Dan Charity - The Sun.
