Dan Wootton facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Dan Wootton
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Wootton in 2017
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| Born |
Daniel John William Wootton
2 March 1983 (age 38) Lower Hutt, New Zealand
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| Occupation | Journalist and broadcaster |
| Television | GB News (2021–) Daybreak (2011–2012) Lorraine (2011–2019) Big Brother's Bit on the Side (2015–2018) |
Daniel John William Wootton (born 2 March 1983) is a New Zealand-born journalist and broadcaster. He was executive editor of The Sun newspaper. In 2007, he joined the News of the World. In 2013, he joined The Sun on Sunday and became editor of the Bizarre column the following year. In February 2016, he became associate editor of The Sun and in March 2018 was promoted to executive editor. In 2021 Wootton left News UK to join MailOnline as a columnist and present a show on GB News.
Wootton has made appearances as a show business presenter on the ITV Breakfast shows Lorraine and Daybreak. From 2015 to 2018, he was also a regular contributor and panellist on Big Brother's Bit on the Side.
Biography
Wootton grew up in Lower Hutt, a city in the Wellington region of New Zealand and attended Naenae College and Victoria University of Wellington, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in media studies and political science. In 2013, he announced on his Twitter account that he is gay.
Career
He started his career as a journalist in his native New Zealand, writing an entertainment column for the Wellington-based broadsheet newspaper The Dominion Post and was also a reporter for the daily television show Good Morning. He came to the United Kingdom when he was 21, and after a period working for trade magazines, he found a job with Broadcast magazine.
Wootton joined the News of the World TV team in February 2007, becoming TV editor in November 2007, and show-business editor in November 2008 until its closure in July 2011, when he then became a columnist and feature writer for the Daily Mail and editor-at-large for Now magazine. He later testified to the Leveson Inquiry in 2012 about the News International phone hacking scandal, where he denied illegally publishing stories collected through phone hacking while editor at the News of the World.
In 2013, Wootton joined The Sun newspaper launching a new column on Sundays. He became editor of the newspaper's Bizarre column in 2014, and was promoted to associate editor (showbiz and TV) in 2016. He was named 'Showbiz reporter of the year' at the 2010, 2013 and 2018 British Press Awards. Wootton also made appearances as a showbiz reporter on ITV's morning show Lorraine between 2011 and 2019, and has been a guest on BBC Radio 5 Live.
In 2015, Wootton and The Sun received widespread criticism for an article he penned for the tabloid titled "Hollywood HIV Panic". Writing in The Independent, Tom Hayes referred to the piece as an "insidious piece of stigma-reinforcing" journalism, HIV policy advisor Lisa Power, who was quoted in the article, called it "vile" and noted her "disappointment" that Wootton had "lent his name to such a shameful piece". Further criticism came from the Terrence Higgins Trust who called it "irresponsible", the British Medical Journal and The Guardian's Owen Jones.
Wootton has hosted a weekly talkRADIO show called "Dan's Dilemmas" since March 2018 and, in February 2020, he took over as host of the station's drivetime show, replacing Eamonn Holmes.
In July 2020, libel proceedings, brought by Johnny Depp against Wootton and News Group Newspapers, began in the High Court of Justice in the case of Depp v News Group Newspapers Ltd. The action related to an article published in 2018 in The Sun describing Depp as a "wife beater". On 2 November 2020, the court ruled in favour of News Group. Mr Justice Nicol found that assaults were proven to the civil standard in 12 of the 14 incidents reported by Amber Heard, and he concluded that The Sun's article was substantially accurate on the balance of probabilities.
In January 2021, Wootton announced that he would leave The Sun and talkRADIO to become a columnist for MailOnline and present a daily show, five days a week, on GB News.
