Jeremy Clarkson gobsmacked by Steph McGovern's Millionaire revelation

Daily Mirror

15-06-2025

Presenter, Steph McGovern, was in the hot seat for ITV's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on Saturday and left host, Jeremy Clarkson, seriously impressed with her credentials
Jeremy Clarkson was left gobsmacked by Steph McGovern when she played Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on Saturday. The Geordie presenter, 43, was in the hot seat, raising money for charity, when she told the petrolhead she'd helped devise an important bit of kit for a heap of British gardeners.
Revealing she'd helped to develop the humble leaf blower, Steph smiled excitedly as Jeremy couldn't resist digging into her CV. He said: "I was looking at your notes, obviously, business and economics you're known for, but you're also a champion Irish dancer and a novelist, and a journalist, and most important of all, an engineer by trade. And you developed the leaf blower! Couldn't you have made it electric?"
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Steph explained that while she was working at Black+Decker more than 20 years ago, an electric version of the leaf blower wasn't possible.
However, she said while at the company's Leaf Hog as part of a Six Sigma team, she helped save the firm £150,000 by improving manufacturing techniques.
Jeremy joked: "There's nothing more annoying, am I right, than somebody else's leaf blower?"
Before her TV career with BBC and Channel 4 took off, Steph was an intrepid engineer and won the prestigious Arkwright Engineering Scholarship in 1998 and was crowned Young Engineer for Britain a year later.
Her Millionaire appearance, which was a repeat from earlier this year, was just another string to her bow as she raised an impressive £125,000 for charity.
Steph walked away with the cash for Rubies, a Middlesbrough-based organisation supporting young girls.
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"I am happily gonna take the money and am not gonna carry on, if that's okay", she told Jeremy, choosing to not risk her winnings on the £250,000 questions.
Rubies, which Steph has supported for over five years, helps create 'unforgettable' experiences for girls, including trips to TV studios with the plucky presenter.
On 14 July 2019, Steph revealed that she was pregnant and her girlfriend were expecting their first child. On 4 November later that year, she gave birth to a girl.
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This year, the mum-of-one was a finalist in Netflix's Celebrity Bear Hunt hosted by Bear Grylls and Holly Willoughby. Speaking to Prima about why she decided to do the gruelling show, which sees a host of unlikely British celebrities dropped into the Central American jungle as prey for survivalist Bear, she said: "I've previously said no to featuring in reality TV, but when BearHunt came along, I thought, 'This is the one.' Since hitting my 40s, I've been trying to take more risks and it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I learned a lot about myself.
"I had a kid in my 40s, so I was worried that I wouldn't be able to physically push myself. But after each challenge, I felt such a sense of accomplishment. I'm the type of person who wipes seats before I sit on them, but in the jungle, I really threw myself into it. I released an inner animal!"
* Soccer Aid is on ITV at 6pm on Sunday 15 June