By Karen Price

Copyright walesonline

For more than 20 years Tess Daly has been the face of Strictly Come Dancing , having first hosted the series with the legendary Bruce Forsyth and now with fan favourite Claudia Winkleman . The job catapulted the former model from presenting TV shows like Find Me A Model and SMTV: Live straight into prime-time telly. Now two decades on, Tess has seen seen countless celebrities lift the glitterball trophy, judging panel shake ups, romances flourish and flounder and many scandals develop both on and off-screen. As Strictly returns for 2025 – here’s the full line-up – we take a look at mother-of-two Tess’ life away from the TV screen, including her real name, age and marriage to BBC Radio 2 presenter Vernon Kay. Tess Daly was born in Stockport in March 1969, which means she’s now 56 years old. Her real name is actually Helen Elizabeth Daly. When she began her modelling career there was already a model named Helen Daly so she was asked to reconsider her name. It’s been reported that her agent was infatuated with Nastassja Kinski from the film Tess and told her that she should change her name to Tess. She later recalled that she was “gullible and impressionable”. During her time as a model, she spent five years in New York and she appeared in two Duran Duran videos before making her move into TV presenting. Tess has been married to radio and TV star husband Vernon Kay for more than 20 years – but their relationship was once rocked by a ‘sexting’ scandal. They met while they were both budding presenters working on different shows – Vernon was then presenting T4 on Channel 4, while Tess was hosting SMTV on ITV every Saturday morning. After two years of dating, they got married in 2003 and share two children, Phoebe Elizabeth and Amber Isabella Kay. The couple hit a rough patch in 2010 when Vernon confessed to sending flirtatious text messages to glamour model Rhian Sugden. Tess was reportedly left ‘shattered’ after he admitted to exchanging explicit text messages with five women, reports Birmingham Live . Vernon stated at the time: “Tess is extremely upset about this and we’re working through it. But in some ways I’m glad this story has come out. It feels like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. “I knew it was getting silly. I’m never going to do it again and hopefully I can clear the slate clean and start again. I’m so sorry. I’ve been an idiot and I’ve let my family down.” Following this, Vernon made a public apology to his wife on BBC Radio One. He said he had made ‘foolish’ decisions, adding: “I’ve disappointed and let down a lot of people. To my family and everybody, I’m very sorry.” While Tess’ main role is presenting Strictly, she has a number of business interests away from TV. Tess and her best friend Gayle Lawton launched their own luxury beachwear business during the Covid pandemic called Naia Beach. “We want to empower women to feel their best selves in those vulnerable moments,” Tess told the Irish Independent in an interview about the brand, which now counts a number of celebrities among its fans. Last year Tess also launched her own jewellery collection to suit all budgets with reviewers hailing the pieces available on the QVC shopping channel as “beautiful”. Strictly Come Dancing launches on BBC One on Saturday, September 20