Alex Jones details career ‘backlash’ over her Welsh accent

Alex Jones has opened up on her career ‘backlash’ after viewers complained they couldn’t understand her because of her Welsh accent.

The presenter, 45, has fronted The One Show since 2010, but recalled the difficulties she faced at the beginning of her stint.

Speaking to The Times, she questioned the nature of the complaints, saying: ‘What is that if not racist?’

She told the publication: ‘There was a bit of a backlash. 

‘My boss at the time, and he was a lovely man, he would roll his eyes and say “Oh Jones, can’t you just say fruit rather than frewt [because] I get emails complaining. Can’t you just do it this way?”.’

Backlash: Alex Jones has opened up on her career ‘backlash’ after viewers complained they couldn’t understand her because of her Welsh accent

‘I was really surprised because we talk so much about people being racist. What is that if not racist? 

‘It is just a different sound to your voice, the way you form words is slightly different,’ she said. 

‘Regional accents then were relatively new, so this was the first time apart from Huw Edwards that they had heard a Welsh accent.’ 

Alex currently lives in London with her New Zealand-born husband Charlie Thomson and their three children – Ted, 5, Kit, 3, and Annie, 1.

As a fluent Welsh speaker, she passionately supports the Welsh government’s efforts to preserve the language, one of the oldest in Europe.

This week she is set to present a programme for the Welsh language TV channel S4C that explores the government’s aim of reaching a target of one million Welsh speakers by 2050, nearly double the current number. 

Despite complaints about her own accent from ‘a minority of viewers’, she says she refuses to dilute it.

Speaking about interviewees who would question her pronunciation, she added ‘it did affect my confidence’, but said at the time ‘no, they will either get used to it or they wont… and of course they did’, she said. 

Challenges: The presenter, 45, has fronted The One Show since 2010, but recalled the difficulties she faced at the beginning of her stint

Some Welsh friends, including actors and presenters, softened their accents, Jones said. ‘But I did not feel that was necessary, no more than Ronan [Keating] who sits next to me will soften his Irish accent.’

Speaking about teaching the language to her family at home, she said: ‘Children are like sponges. 

‘They have grown up completely bilingual so all the information is there. They do not speak to their friends in Welsh; but it is there when needed. And for me, that is good enough.’

It comes after the presenter recently opened up on her ‘obsession’ with having a second baby after suffering a miscarriage put a strain on her relationship. 

In 2017 the presenter – now a mother-of-three – underwent a missed miscarriage operation just nine weeks into her second pregnancy after the baby foetus stopped developing and her body struggled to expel pregnancy tissue. 

Struggle: Alex admitted her ‘obsession’ with having a second baby after suffering a miscarriage put a strain on her relationship with husband Charlie Thomson 

Jones eventually welcomed a second child, son Kit, at London’s Queen Charlotte Hospital in May 2019, and her own struggles contributed to a new role in BBC series Alex Jones: Making Babies.

The One Show presenter worked as a fertility assistant during the fly-on-the-wall reality show, filmed exclusively at King’s Fertility clinic, and admits to understanding the desperation prospective parents feel while attempting to fall pregnant. 

She told The Times: ‘When people decide to have children — I know it happened for me — you kind of go from that thing, “Oh, I can’t get pregnant,” to it becoming all you want. You become this person with blinkers on.’ 

Jones admits she had little time to process the loss of what should have been her second child, with the presenter immediately travelling from the hospital to BBC studios in London’s White City, where she presents The One Show live, five nights a week. 

To further complicate matters, the presenter needed a second operation after the first failed to clear away all of the dead tissue – with the delay putting a tight strain on her marriage.

‘It turns out that they didn’t take everything,’ she explained. ‘Of course all you can think is, “Oh my God, time is ticking,” and you become obsessed with trying to rush things through. It’s not great for your relationship. It’s hard, the whole thing takes its toll.’ 

She added: ‘At one point I didn’t think we’d have more than one child. I didn’t enjoy that pregnancy as much because I was constantly thinking, “Is baby still there? Can I feel the baby kicking?”

‘Once you’ve experienced something like that you never enjoy pregnancy in quite the same way.’ 

Sons Teddy and Kit were introduced to their baby sister in August 2021 when Jones welcomed daughter Annie, her third child with Thomson.

Tragic: The One Show presenter tragically lost her unborn child in 2017, with the baby having ‘stopped developing’ at nine weeks (pictured with husband Charlie Thompson)

Family: Jones with sons Teddy (left) and Kit (right) in 2020, three years after suffering a miscarriage while carrying a second child 

Speaking to The Sun, the Welsh star admitted the road to conception is not always smooth.

She said: ‘For all of us who’ve wanted a child, you’re brought up through your twenties to, ‘don’t get pregnant, don’t get pregnant, don’t get pregnant. And then suddenly one day you sort of decide that I now want to have a baby, and it completely flips 360 degrees.

‘Then you become obsessed by it. It’s difficult when it happens naturally, and it can take a while. But this is a whole new and different level of wanting — the disappointment and what it does to you as a couple.

‘But I was really naive. I hadn’t thought about it. I thought, “well, there you are. We’ll try to have a baby and that’ll be lovely, and then a baby will arrive”. And, of course… how naive. You don’t have any control over it.’  

Alex Jones details career ‘backlash’ over her Welsh accent
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