Channel 4 news presenter Jon Snow, 73, announces he and wife, 46, have welcomed their first child via surrogate after ‘numerous miscarriages’
- Jon Snow, 73, from Sussex, welcomed baby boy with wife Dr Precious Lunga, 46,
- Snow and Lunga are ‘delighted’ to announce their child arrived safely on March 2
- Couple had baby with surrogate after ‘medical setbacks and miscarriages’
Channel 4 news presenter Jon Snow has announced he has welcomed a baby boy with his wife Dr Precious Lunga.
The TV journalist, 73, from Sussex, said he and his wife, 46, had a baby boy with a surrogate last Tuesday after ‘numerous medical setbacks and miscarriages’.
The presenter said he and Precious are ‘delighted’ to announced their child arrived safely on March 2.
In a statement, Jon, who has two older daughters from his first marriage to former partner Madeleine Colvin, 64, said: ‘In our desire to seal our now 11 years of marriage with a baby, my wife suffered numerous medical setbacks and miscarriages.
Channel 4 news presenter Jon Snow, 73, and his wife Dr Precious Lunga had a baby boy with a surrogate last Tuesday after ‘numerous medical setbacks and miscarriages’ (pictured in 2018)
‘Consequently, we will always be deeply grateful to our surrogate, who carried our embryo to term.
‘Amid these challenging times, we feel doubly blessed to be able to celebrate our good fortune.’
Snow has had an eventful romantic life. He was once briefly engaged to fellow ITN journalist Anna Ford, 70.
And proving that age is no barrier to love, he married Zimbabwean-born academic Precious in March 2010.
Jon and Precious, 46, said they are ‘delighted’ to announced their child arrived safely on March 2, after they married 11 years ago in 2010 (pictured together in 2015)
Snow said her ‘mental age’ was far higher than his, saying: ‘She’s somewhere in her forties. She’s very, very mature. I mean, she’s a serious boffin.’
Snow, the son of a former Bishop of Whitby, walked Precious down a beach rather than the aisle.
The pair married on the Caribbean island of Mustique, the exclusive hangout of rich and famous.
It was conducted at the £800-a-night Firefly Hotel, where past guests have included rocker Mick Jagger, royal Zara Phillips and actors Liz Hurley and Hugh Grant.
At the time, Snow himself said: ‘Yes, I have got married, but I have absolutely no interest in discussing my private life. It was actually some time ago.’
Unlike Snow, who failed to complete his Liverpool University degree, Precious is a serious scholar.
She is an epidemiologist with the Medical Research Council, specialising in HIV prevention in Africa, and a Yale World Fellow.
She also captained the Cambridge University women’s karate team while doing a PhD in neuroscience there a decade ago.
He is best known for being the longest-running presenter on Channel 4 News, which he has fronted since 1989.