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Asexuality (sometimes referred to as nonsexuality),^[1][2][3] in its broadest sense, is the lack of sexual attraction to others^[4][5][6] or the lack of interest in sex.^[6][7] It may also be considered a lack of a sexual orientation.^[8] One commonly cited study published in 2004 placed the prevalence of asexuality at 1%.^[8][9]

Asexuality is distinct from abstention from sexual activity and from celibacy, which are behavioral and generally motivated by factors such as an individual's personal or religious beliefs;^[10] sexual orientation, unlike sexual behavior, is believed to be "enduring".^[11] Some asexual people do engage in sexual activity despite lacking a desire for sex or sexual attraction, due to a variety of reasons, such as a desire to please romantic partners or a desire to have children.^[6]

Only recently has asexuality started to become accepted as a sexual orientation and a field of scientific research,^{[4][6][12][13]} and a growing body of research from both sociological and psychological perspectives has begun to coalesce.^[6] While some researchers assert that asexuality is a sexual orientation, others disagree,^[12] and various asexual communities have started to form since the advent of the Internet and social media. The most prolific and well-known of these communities has been the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), which was founded in 2001.

Definitions[link]

Romantic relationships and identity[link]

Asexuals, while lacking in sexual desire for any gender, may engage in purely emotional romantic relationships.^[14][15] Terms concerning this are:

• aromantic: lack of romantic attraction towards anyone
• biromantic: romantic attraction towards person(s) of two different genders – the romantic aspect of bisexuality
• heteroromantic: romantic attraction towards person(s) of a different gender – the romantic aspect of heterosexuality
• homoromantic: romantic attraction towards person(s) of the same gender – the romantic aspect of homosexuality
• panromantic (also omniromantic): romantic attraction towards person(s) of any gender or lack of gender, including persons of nonbinary gender – the romantic aspect of pansexuality
• transromantic: romantic attraction towards person(s) of variant or ambiguous gender – the romantic attraction to transgender or intersex individuals
• polyromantic: romantic attraction towards multiple, but not all, genders and gender identities – the romantic aspect of polysexuality

The Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) defines asexuality as "someone who does not experience sexual attraction" and stated, "[a]nother small minority will think of themselves as asexual for a brief period of time while exploring and questioning their own sexuality" and that "[t]here is no litmus test to determine if someone is asexual. Asexuality is like any other identity – at its core, it’s just a word that people use to help figure themselves out. If at any point someone finds the word asexual useful to describe themselves, we encourage them to use it for as long as it makes sense to do so".^[13]

Researchers have varied in their attempts to define asexuality, but the term is usually defined to mean the lack or absence of sexual attraction or sexual interest. This may be defined as having little sexual attraction or desire, no sexual attraction or desire, or a combination thereof with or without the characteristic of behavior,^[4][6][16] as researchers have used the term "to refer to individuals with low or absent sexual desire or attractions, low or absent sexual behaviors, exclusively romantic non-sexual partnerships, or a combination of both absent sexual desires and behaviors".^[6]

As an emerging identity with a broad definition, there is an enormous amount of variation among people who identify as asexual; for example, asexual-identified individuals who report that they feel sexual attraction but not the inclination to act on it because they have no true desire or need to engage in sexual or even non-sexual activity (cuddling, hand-holding, etc.).^[6][16] Some asexuals participate in sexual activity out of curiosity.^[6] Some may masturbate as a solitary form of release, while others do not feel a need to do so.^[5] The need or desire for masturbation is commonly referred to as a "sex drive" and is disassociated from sexual attraction and being sexual; asexuals who masturbate generally consider it to be a normal product of the human body and not a sign of latent sexuality, and may not even find it pleasurable.^[6] Some asexual men are completely unable to get an erection and sexual activity is completely impossible for them.^[17] Asexuals also differ in their feelings towards performing sex acts: some are indifferent and may even have sex for the benefit of a romantic partner, while others are more strongly averse to the idea even though they do not necessarily dislike other people for having sex as long as it does not involve them.^[6][18]

Sexual orientation and etiology[link]

Most traits in an average population can be described in terms of a bell curve. While the majority of people represent the average value for a given trait, a smaller number lie on either extreme. When describing the sex drive with such a curve, the majority of the population falls in the middle (as is true for any trait). Conversely, a small proportion will naturally represent either extreme. Some (on the far right) are hypersexual, while others (on the far left) are asexual.

There is significant debate over whether asexuality is a sexual orientation or not.^[12] It is most comparable to hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), in the sense that both imply a general lack of sexual attraction to anyone, but asexuality is generally not considered a disorder (such as anorgasmia, anhedonia, etc.) or a sexual dysfunction because asexuality does not necessarily define someone as having a medical problem or problems relating to others socially (such as celibacy or abstinence).^[16] It also does not imply that lacking sexual attraction causes anxiety; it is the lack or absence of sexual attraction as a life-enduring characteristic.^[4] Some scholars, however, opine that asexuality is not a meaningful category to add to the continuum of sexual orientations, and say that it is instead the lack of a sexual orientation or sexuality.^[12] Others state that it is the denial of one's natural sexuality, and that it is a disorder caused by shame of sexuality or anxiety, sometimes basing this belief on asexuals who masturbate or occasionally engage in sexual activity simply to please a romantic partner.^[12][17]

Various other scholars assert that asexuality is a sexual orientation, as some asexuals are unable to masturbate even though they reportedly have a "normal" sex drive, and that there are variations of sexual preferences, arguing that asexuality ought to be included as well.^[12][17] They stress that asexuals do not choose to have no sexual desire, and generally start to find out their "differences" in sexual behaviors around adolescence. Because of these facts coming to light, asexuality is much more than a behavioral choice, and is not something that can be "cured" like it is a disorder.^[17]

Etiology in this context is without implication of disease, disorder, or abnormality.^{[19][20][21][22]} Research on the etiology of sexual orientation when applied to asexuality has the definitional problem that sexual orientation is not consistently defined by all researchers as including asexuality.^[23] Asexuality may be considered a sexual orientation, which is defined as "enduring" and resistant to change, proving to be generally impervious to interventions intended to change it.^[11] However, while heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality are usually but not always determined during the early years of preadolescent life, it is not known when asexuality is determined. "It is unclear whether these characteristics [viz., "lacking interest in or desire for sex"] are thought to be lifelong, or if they may be acquired."^[6]

Non-measurement in some areas of sexual orientation is accepted by the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the National Association of Social Workers: "[S]imply to document that a phenomenon occurs, case studies and non-probability samples are often adequate. . . . Some groups are sufficiently few in number – relative to the entire population – that locating them with probability sampling is extremely expensive or practically impossible. In the latter cases, the use of non-probability samples is often appropriate."^[24] In determining etiologies, when asexuals are a small percentage of a large society, asexuals with a given etiology will compose an even smaller percentage, so that etiological information is available only from some individuals, generally not randomly selected.^[25][26]

Research[link]

Prevalence[link]

In the mid-twentieth century, Alfred Kinsey rated individuals from 0 to 6 according to their sexual orientation from heterosexual to homosexual, known as the Kinsey scale. He also included a category he called "X" for individuals with "no socio-sexual contacts or reactions". He labeled 1.5% of the adult male population as X.^[27][28] In Kinsey's second book, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, he reported this breakdown of individuals who are X: unmarried females = 14–19%, married females = 1–3%, previously married females = 5–8%, unmarried males = 3–4%, married males = 0%, and previously married males = 1–2%.^[28]

Further empirical data about an asexual demographic appeared in 1994, when a research team in the United Kingdom carried out a comprehensive survey of 18,876 British residents, spurred by the need for sexual information in the wake of the AIDS pandemic. The survey included a question on sexual attraction, to which 1.05% of the respondents replied that they had "never felt sexually attracted to anyone at all."^[29] This study of this phenomenon was continued by the Canadian sexuality researcher Dr. Anthony Bogaert in 2004, who explored the asexual demographic in a series of studies. Bogaert believed that the 1% figure was not an accurate reflection of the likely much larger percentage of the population that could be identified as asexual, noting that in the initial survey 30% of people contacted chose not to participate in the survey. Since less sexually experienced people are more likely to refuse to participate in studies about sexuality, and asexuals tend to be less sexually experienced than sexuals, it is likely that asexuals were over-represented in the 30% who did not participate, compared to the 70% who did. The same study found the number of homosexuals and bisexuals combined to be about 1.1% of the population, which is much smaller than other studies indicate.^[4][8] However, Bogaert's sexuality research has been scrutinized in the past, since he was involved in studies that linked race to sexual behaviors as if they had an evolutionary basis. This study was highly debated by the scientific community as potentially constituting a case of scientific racism.^[30]

Sexual activity and sexuality[link]

While some asexuals masturbate as a solitary form of release or have sex for the benefit of a romantic partner (see above), others do not.^[6] The Kinsey Institute sponsored another small survey on the topic in 2007, which found that self-identified asexuals "reported significantly less desire for sex with a partner, lower sexual arousability, and lower sexual excitation but did not differ consistently from non-asexuals in their sexual inhibition scores or their desire to masturbate".^[6]

A 1977 paper entitled Asexual and Autoerotic Women: Two Invisible Groups, by Myra T. Johnson, may be the first paper explicitly devoted to asexuality in humans. Johnson defines asexuals as those men and women "who, regardless of physical or emotional condition, actual sexual history, and marital status or ideological orientation, seem to prefer not to engage in sexual activity." She contrasts autoerotic women with asexual women: "The asexual woman [...] has no sexual desires at all [but] the autoerotic woman [...] recognizes such desires but prefers to satisfy them alone." Johnson's evidence is mostly letters to the editor found in women's magazines written by asexual/autoerotic women. She portrays them as invisible, "oppressed by a consensus that they are nonexistent," and left behind by both the sexual revolution and the feminist movement. Society either ignores or denies their existence or insists they must be ascetic for religious reasons, neurotic, or asexual for political reasons.^[31]

In a study published in 1979 in Advances in the Study of Affect, vol. 5, and in another article using the same data and published in 1980 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Michael D. Storms of the University of Kansas outlined his own reimagining of the Kinsey scale. Whereas Kinsey measured sexual orientation based on a combination of actual sexual behavior and fantasizing and eroticism, Storms only used fantasizing and eroticism. Storms, however, placed hetero-eroticism and homo-eroticism on separate axes rather than at two ends of a single scale; this allows for a distinction between bisexuality (exhibiting both hetero- and homo-eroticism in degrees comparable to hetero- or homosexuals, respectively) and asexuality (exhibiting a level of homo-eroticism comparable to a heterosexual and a level of hetero-eroticism comparable to a homosexual, namely, little to none). Storms conjectured that many researchers following Kinsey's model could be mis-categorizing asexual subjects as bisexual, because both were simply defined by a lack of preference for gender in sexual partners.^[32][33]

The first study that gave empirical data about asexuals was published in 1983 by Paula Nurius, concerning the relationship between sexual orientation and mental health. Unlike previous studies on the subject, she used the above-mentioned two-dimensional model for sexual orientation. Six hundred eighty-nine subjects—most of whom were students at various universities in the United States taking psychology or sociology classes—were given several surveys, including four clinical well-being scales and a survey asking how frequently they engaged in various sexual activities and how often they would like to engage in those activities. Based on the results, respondents were given a score ranging from 0 to 100 for hetero-eroticism and from 0 to 100 for homo-eroticism. Respondents who scored lower than 10 on both were labeled "asexual." This consisted of 5% of the males and 10% of the females. Results showed that asexuals were more likely to have low self-esteem and more likely to be depressed than members of other sexual orientations; 25.88% of heterosexuals, 26.54% bisexuals (called "ambisexuals"), 29.88% of homosexuals, and 33.57% of asexuals were reported to have problems with self-esteem. A similar trend existed for depression. Nurius did not believe that firm conclusions can be drawn from this for a variety of reasons. Asexuals also reported much lower frequency and desired frequency of a variety of sexual activities including having multiple partners, anal sexual activities, having sexual encounters in a variety of locations, and autoerotic activities.^[34]

Though comparisons with non-human sexuality are problematic, a series of studies done on ram mating preferences at the United States Sheep Experiment Station in Dubois, Idaho, starting in 2001 found that about 2–3% of the animals being studied had no apparent interest in mating with either sex; the researchers classified these animals as asexual, but found them to be otherwise healthy with no recorded differences in hormone levels.^[35][36]

A more recent paper written by Karli June Cerankowski and Megan Milks, entitled New Orientations: Asexuality and Its Implications for Theory and Practice, suggests that asexuality may be somewhat of a question in itself for these studies of gender and sexuality.^[37] Cerankowski and Milks have found that asexuality, by means of feminist and queer studies, raises many more questions than it resolves, such as how a person could abstain from having sex which is generally accepted by society to be the most basic of instincts. The article also states that society has either deemed "[LGBT and] female sexuality as empowered or repressed. The asexual movement challenges that assumption by challenging many of the basic tenants of pro-sex feminism already defined as repressive or anti-sex sexualities." Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) has formulated asexuality as a biologically determined orientation. This formula, if dissected scientifically and proven, would support researcher Simon LaVey's conclusive blind study of the hypothalamus in gay men, women, and straight men, which found that there is a biological difference between straight men and gay men.^[38]

Community[link]

A community of self-identified asexuals coalesced in the early 21st century, aided by the popularity of online communities.^[5] Dr. Elizabeth Abbot, author of A History of Celibacy, acknowledges a difference between asexuality and celibacy and posits that there has always been an asexual element in the population but that asexual people kept a low profile. While failure to consummate marriage was seen as "an insult to the sacrament of marriage" in medieval Europe, asexuality, unlike homosexuality, has never been illegal, and asexual people have been able to "fly under the radar". However, in the 21st century, the anonymity of online communication and general popularity of social networking online has facilitated the formation of a community built around a common asexual identity.^[39]

The AVEN triangle representing asexuality. The top line of the triangle represents the Kinsey Scale with the third point representing the other dimension of sexual attraction; the grey area depicting the gradient between sexual and asexual.^[40]

The Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) was founded in 2001 by David Jay with two primary goals: to create public acceptance and discussion of asexuality and to facilitate the growth of an asexual community.^[41] Since that time, it has grown to host the world’s largest online asexual community, serving as an informational resource and meeting place for people who are asexual and questioning, their friends and families, academic researchers, and the press. The network has additional satellite communities in ten languages. Members of AVEN have been involved in media coverage spanning television, print, and radio and participate in lectures, conferences, and Pride events around the world.^[42]

Asexual communities such as AVEN can be beneficial to those in search of answers to solve a crisis of identity. In many cases of asexuality, individuals go through a series of emotional processes that end with their identifying with the asexual community. They first realize that their sexual attractions differ from those of most of society. This difference leads to questioning whether the way they feel is acceptable, and possible reasons why they feel this way. Pathological beliefs tend to follow where, in some cases, they may seek medical help because they feel they have a disease. Self-understanding is usually reached when they find a definition that matches their feelings. Asexuality communities provide support and information that allows newly identified asexuals to move from self-clarification to identifying on a communal level, which can be empowering, because they now have something to associate with, which gives normality to this overall socially-isolating situation.^[43]

At this time, asexual organizations and other internet resources play a key role in informing people about asexuality. The lack of research makes it difficult for doctors to understand the causation. Most people who say they are asexual are self-identified. This can be a problem when asexuality is mistaken for an intimacy or relationship problem or for other symptoms that do not define asexuality. There is also a significant population that either does not understand or does not believe in asexuality, which adds to the importance of these organizations to inform the general population.^[44]

The Asexual Pride Flag

After a period of debate over having an asexual flag and how to set up a system to create one, and contacting as many asexual communities as possible, in August 2010 a flag was announced as the asexual pride flag by one of the team involved.^[45] The final flag had been a popular candidate and so had previously seen use in online forums outside of AVEN. The final vote was held on a survey system outside of AVEN where the main flag creation efforts were organized. The flag colors have been used in artwork and referenced in articles about the sexuality.^[46]

Legal protections[link]

Currently, the U.S. states of Vermont^[47] and New York^[48] have labeled asexuals as a protected class. Asexuality does not typically attract attention of the public or major scrutiny. Thus it has not been subject of legislation as other sexual orientations have.^[8]

Notable asexuals[link]

• Mao Sugiyama, a Japanese chef, had his genitals surgically removed and served them for dinner to paying guests.^[49][50]
• Edward Gorey, writer and illustrator. Gorey never married or had any known romantic relationships and responded to an interviewer's questioning of his sexual orientation with, "I'm neither one thing nor the other particularly ... I am apparently reasonably undersexed or something." He agreed with the interviewer's suggestion that the "sexlessness" of his books was "a product of his asexuality".^[51]
• Keri Hulme, author of The Bone People, winner of the 1985 Booker Prize, discussed asexuality and her involvement with AVEN in a 2007 interview.^[25]
• Bradford Cox, an American musician, leader of the bands Deerhunter and Atlas Sound.^[52]
• Emilie Autumn, an American singer-songwriter, poet, and violinist who is best known for her wide range of musical styles and her usage of theatrics.^[53]
• Tim Gunn, an American fashion consultant and television personality. He considers himself asexual and has not had a boyfriend since 1982.^[54]
• Janeane Garofalo, an American stand-up comedian, actress, political activist and writer. During her filmed stand-up show in Seattle, she brought up her ten-year asexual relationship with her boyfriend, describing herself as having no interest in sex whatsoever.^[55]
• J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan^[56]
• Kenji Miyazawa, Japanese poet and novelist^[57]
• Paula Poundstone, stand-up comedian.^[58]

Fictional characters and persons

• Rudy Waltz from Kurt Vonnegut novel Deadeye Dick^[59]
• A patient and her husband in a January 23, 2012 episode of the TV series House.^[60]

See also[link]

Sexuality portal

• Androgyny: the mixing of masculine and feminine characteristics, personality, fashion, or culture
• Antisexualism: the views of someone who is antagonistic towards sexuality
• Affectional orientation: alternative views on attraction not based on sexuality, but more on purely romantic relationships
• Erotophobia: psychological fear of sexual intercourse and sexual feelings in general
• Genophobia: the fear of sexual intercourse
• Hypersexuality: extremely frequent or suddenly increased sexual urges or sexual activity.
• Platonic love: a nonsexual affectionate relationship
• Sexless marriage: a marriage in which little or no sex is performed throughout the marriage
• Sexual anorexia: a term used to describe a loss of "appetite" for romantic-sexual interaction.

References[link]

External links[link]

• AVEN: Asexual Visibility and Education Network
• Apositive
• Asexual Explorations Promoting the Academic Study of Asexuality
• Asexual Explorations. Existing Research, an annotated bibliography, as accessed Feb. 23, 2010.
• Asexual site listing A fairly extensive listing of asexual sites on the web.
• "Can you imagine a life without sex?", Jamye Waxman The Stir, October 12, 2011
• "We're married, we just don't have sex", UK Guardian, September 8, 2008
• Asexuals leave the closet, find community – SFGate.com
• Asexuality: destroying all prejudices, An article uncovering a few things about Asexuality, written by an asexual.
• Among the asexuals, Rosie Swash, The Guardian, 26 February 2012
• The Asexuality Chronicles, A Web-based original series created by an asexual woman, intended to provide information on asexuality and provide a window into the life of a particular asexual person. Created November 2011 and still running.

David Jay (born April 24, 1982) is an American asexual activist. Jay is the founder and webmaster of the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN). While a student at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, Jay came out as asexual and launched AVEN's website.^[1] Since then, he has taken a leading role in the asexuality movement, appearing on multiple television shows, and being featured heavily in Arts Engine's 2011 documentary (A)sexual.^[2]

AVEN, which Salon.com referred to as the "unofficial online headquarters" of the asexuality movement,^[3] is widely recognised as the largest online asexual community.^[4] Its two main goals are to create public acceptance and discussion about asexuality and to facilitate the growth of a large online asexual community.^[5] AVEN currently has over 30,000 registered members.^[2]

References[link]

External links[link]

• AVENguy – David Jay's online profile
• Love from the Asexual Underground - David Jay's blog and podcast about asexuality
• AVEN – Asexual Visibility and Education Network.
• Interview with Jay

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2010)

Nicky Campbell
Nicky Campbell presenting the Radio 1 Roadshow from Helensburgh in July 1989
Born	(1961-04-10) 10 April 1961 (age 51) Edinburgh, Scotland

Nicholas Andrew Argyll "Nicky" Campbell (born 10 April 1961) is a Scottish radio and television presenter and journalist. He is known for his time presenting on programmes such as the consumer affairs programme Watchdog. He also presented the gameshow Wheel of Fortune from 1988 to 1996 and currently presents both the BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast programme and BBC One's flagship faith and ethics show The Big Questions.

Life and career[link]

Campbell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was adopted as a four-day old baby, and was educated at the independent school Edinburgh Academy. Its former pupils include Robert Louis Stevenson and Magnús Magnússon. His adoptive mother was a psychiatric social worker and his adoptive father a publisher of maps.

After graduating from the University of Aberdeen with a 2:1 in history, he toyed with ideas of becoming an actor and got involved in commercial production for radio in order to gain his Equity card. At university, his best friend had been the actor Iain Glen. He worked at Northsound Radio in Aberdeen from 1981 to 1985, first as a jingle writer, before going on to host the breakfast show.

He worked at London station Capital Radio from 1986–87 and joined BBC Radio 1 in 1987, presenting a Saturday night show from 10pm-midnight. In early 1988, he took over the weekend early morning show from 6-8am from Simon Mayo and in October 1988 he presented the Monday-Thursday late-evening music and interview show which he named Into the Night, which went out from 10pm-midnight. Guests included political figures, with Campbell interviewing John Major in 1991 after Conservative Party chairman Chris Patten recommended the show to the Prime Minister when Radio 1 sent an invitation to No.10. He was also regularly joined by Frankie Howerd in the last years of the comedian's life. In August 1993, he also took over a Sunday morning show from 10am-1pm, following the on-air resignation of Dave Lee Travis.

Campbell left the network briefly in October 1993 to care for his sick wife. In early 1994, he took over the weekday drivetime show from 4-7pm, and in 1995 he took over the afternoon show from 2-4pm. Campbell attracted a large audience, and when Radio 2 wanted a replacement for Jimmy Young, he revealed that he was the BBC's choice and detailed a series of meetings between himself and the controller of Radio 2. However, the BBC later claimed that Campbell had initiated the meetings himself, and his public revelations prompted the wrath of Greg Dyke.^[1]

Campbell presented the British version (produced by Scottish Television for the ITV network) of Wheel of Fortune from 1988 to 1996, and presented Top of the Pops regularly from 1988 to 1991 and again from 1994 to 1997. In the 1990s Campbell fronted the regional discussion series Central Weekend on Central Television in the English Midlands and Carlton Live in London with Richard Littlejohn and then Andrew Neil.

Campbell left BBC Radio 1 in October 1997 and joined BBC Radio 5 Live when offered the job by Roger Mosey the station's head, the news and sport network. He presented the mid-morning programme on 5 Live for over 5 years before replacing Julian Worricker in the breakfast slot in January 2003, co-presenting initially with Victoria Derbyshire. From 2004 to 2011 he co-presented the programme with Shelagh Fogarty. In May 2011, Shelagh Fogarty left the breakfast show and was replaced by Rachel Burden.^[2] Nicky joins the programme an hour later than Rachel and continues on his own for an hour at the end when the show becomes a phone-in. He also presented BBC consumer show Watchdog and an interactive programme called Now You're Talking. Campbell has won seven Sony Awards, including a Gold Award in 2007 for the 5 Live Breakfast programme as Best News and Current Affairs Programme [with Shelagh Fogarty]. In 2008 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.

In 2006, Campbell appeared in the celebrity duet singing show Just the Two of Us, with Beverley Knight. Currently he fronts For the Rest of Your Life for Endemol, a daytime game show on ITV1 which began in May 2007. Campbell featured in the BBC programme Who Do You Think You Are? aired 11 July 2007 where he is seen tracing his adoptive family's roots in Scotland and Australia. He is Patron of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF). He currently presents the Sunday morning programme The Big Questions on BBC One. He is also host of the BBC Two quiz show Battle of the Brains, replacing the previous host Paddy O'Connell.

In May 2009 it was revealed that Anne Robinson would replace Campbell and Julia Bradbury for the new series of Watchdog, which returned to the BBC on 10 September. Campbell is currently presenting Long Lost Family on ITV1 with Davina McCall.

Background[link]

Campbell met his first wife Linda Larnach, who was eight years older than he was, in Scotland. He later nursed her through a cancer scare and ME, and took time out from his career. He was then criticised when he broke up with her and she gave interviews in which she said his career break had been a publicity stunt.^[1][3]

Campbell married his second wife, journalist Tina (Christina) Ritchie who is the former head of Virgin Radio News,^[4] in December 1997 in Kensington, and the couple have four daughters (born December 1998, June 2000, January 2002 and June 2004). In 1989 during his first marriage, he had traced his birth mother and after having children of his own with Ritchie, Campbell decided to find his Irish biological father in 2002. Whereas his birth mother was from a Dublin Protestant family his biological father was a Northern Irish Catholic thirteen years younger than her. He also discovered that his grandfather had been in the IRA at the time of Michael Collins, and his biological father had spent time in the fifties in the IRA and still cleaved to his Republican beliefs. His cousin had also both been in the IRA. Anthony Hughes was killed by British troops in Armagh in 1973. In 2004 Campbell wrote Blue-Eyed Son [Story of an Adoption], his account of being adopted and tracing both his birth parents and his extended families in Ireland in which he also confesses to adultery against his first wife in a Holiday Inn in Birmingham. Both sides of his birth families helped with and contributed to the book. His birth mother Stella died in 2007. Campbell spoke at her Dublin funeral. As a result of his book and work in adoption, he was asked to become Patron of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering.

In popular culture[link]

Campbell has been impersonated and parodied by impressionist Alistair McGowan.^[5] In impersonating Campbell he exaggerated his Scottish accent and consistently came up with the lines "I'm Nicky Campbell, two l's. Don't mess with my name".

Music[link]

Nicky Campbell started out as a jingle writer and when he was on Radio One [1987-1997] he wrote a lot of music for the station. He has written and co-produced a critically praised jazz swing album for the singer and actor Mark Moraghan, 'Moonlight's Back in Style', which was released on Linn Records in September 2009. Campbell and Moraghan met on the BBC celebrity singing competition in 2006. A mini documentary about the project, 'Makin Moonlight' is available on YouTube.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Biography
• BBC's interview with Campbell
• His time at Radio One - including many audio clips
• Nicky Campbell at the Internet Movie Database
• Radio Rewind
• Linn Records
• BBC News - Anne Robinson returns to Watchdog