Keeley Donovan: Biography, Age, Husband, Daughters and BBC Career

Keeley Donovan is the friendly face who guides much of the North through its weather each night — a Grimsby girl who first appeared on television at just 14 and has grown into one of the BBC’s best-loved regional presenters. Best known for BBC Look North, Inside Out and Countryfile Diaries, she comes from a famous footballing family, is married to fellow BBC presenter Johnny I’Anson, and in October 2026 she delighted fans by announcing the arrival of her second daughter. Here is her story.

Quick Facts

Full Name	Keeley Emma Donovan
Born	14 May 1983, Grimsby, Lincolnshire
Age	43
Grew Up	Tetney, Lincolnshire
Occupation	Weather presenter, meteorologist and journalist
Employer	BBC
Known For	BBC Look North, Inside Out, Countryfile Diaries, Break-in Britain
Education	De Montfort University; Grimsby Institute
Father	Terry Donovan, former professional footballer
Husband	Johnny I’Anson (married 2018)
Children	Two daughters, Scout and Remi
Home	Leeds, West Yorkshire

Early Life and Education

Keeley Emma Donovan was born on 14 May 1983 in Grimsby, in what was then Humberside and is now North East Lincolnshire. She grew up in Tetney, a quiet village a few miles down the coast which sits almost exactly on the Prime Meridian — a fitting home for a girl who would one day read the nation’s weather maps. She has never lost her pride in her roots: on social media she describes herself simply as a “Grimsby girl”, and local fans still see her as one of their own.

Sport runs in the family. Keeley’s father, Terry Donovan, was a prolific striker for Grimsby Town in the 1970s and also played for Rotherham United and Aston Villa, as well as representing the Republic of Ireland. Her grandfather, Don Donovan, was a professional too, turning out for Grimsby Town and Everton and winning caps for Ireland. When Don died, Grimsby Town supporters stood outside the church to pay their respects — a moment Keeley has said sums up the character of the town. Her mum is Diana, and she has a sister, Kirsty.

Keeley went to the Humberston School in Grimsby, and her broadcasting career began remarkably early. At just 14 she was presenting for a local cable television station in Immingham, the port town next door. She went on to take a media course at Franklin Sixth Form College, before heading to De Montfort University in Leicester, where she completed a BA in Media Studies.

Rather than stay away, she came home. Back in Grimsby she took a postgraduate NVQ Diploma in Broadcast Journalism at the Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education, run with East Coast Media. It was the training that turned a teenage hobby into a profession — and the BBC soon came calling.

Career

Keeley Donovan joined the BBC in 2005, starting as a video journalist in Hull on election night. She later worked as a broadcast journalist with BBC Leeds, writing and reporting across the region. Then a vacancy came up that changed everything: the weather team needed a new presenter.

By her own cheerful admission, she was not qualified for the job. The BBC said it would train the right candidate, and Keeley — who had always been good at science at school — applied and won the role. She trained in broadcast meteorology with the Met Office and the BBC Weather Centre, and went on to present forecasts for BBC regional television and local radio across Yorkshire and the North Midlands, East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and the North East and Cumbria.

For most viewers, she is simply the Look North weather presenter, fronting forecasts on both the Hull and Leeds editions of the BBC’s flagship regional news programme. But weather was never her only job. Keeley became a reporter on Inside Out, the BBC’s regional current affairs series, and in August 2017 she stepped up to present its Yorkshire and Lincolnshire edition. She has also been an occasional newsreader and reporter on the Leeds edition of Look North.

Inside Out gave her a very different kind of storytelling. As the face of the programme in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, she fronted films on the issues that matter to local viewers — jobs, health, remarkable community stories and the odd local mystery — work that took her a long way from the weather map and showed how natural a reporter she is.

Radio has played its part too. In September 2014 she joined BBC Radio Humberside to present a new Saturday morning show — a neat full circle, as she had done work experience at the very same station 15 years earlier as a teenager.

Her first networked series came in September 2015, when she co-presented Break-in Britain, the BBC One daytime show about burglary and home security, made by BBC Cymru Wales. A year later she was announced as a co-presenter of Countryfile Diaries, the daytime spin-off from Countryfile, which let her swap the studio for muddy fields — a trade she clearly loved. Her social media biog calls her a “weather enthusiast and crazy cat lady” who is “often found in a field wearing wellies”, and more than 80,000 people follow her updates on X.

During the Covid lockdowns, when she was pregnant and shielding, she broadcast weather bulletins from her lounge and spare room at home in Leeds. More recently, after a few months away from work while unwell, she returned to the screen and moved her regular Friday-night weather slot from Look North to BBC North West Tonight, taking her familiar smile to a whole new audience across the North West.

It all adds up to one of the longest BBC regional careers of her generation. She passed twenty years with the corporation in 2025, having gone from a teenager on local cable television to a presenter viewers across the North trust with their forecast every night.

Personal Life

Keeley Donovan’s husband is Johnny I’Anson, a fellow BBC presenter known for his evening show on BBC Local Radio. The pair were together for around five years before they married, working in the same building and sharing the same world of studios, shifts and early starts.

Johnny proposed during a romantic walk at Grasmere in the Lake District, up on Lough Rig. The couple are keen walkers who love the Dales and the Lakes, and he had set up a camera on a timer to take a picture of them together — then, just as Keeley asked why they needed another photo, he got down on one knee. Keeley announced the engagement live on air on Look North in July 2017, to the delight of viewers.

The wedding, in June 2018, was pure Keeley: a relaxed, two-day, festival-themed celebration the couple nicknamed “Wedfest”, held at Castle Farm near Knaresborough. Her Look North colleague, the much-loved Harry Gration, conducted the ceremony. Her dad Terry gave her away, her sister Kirsty was a bridesmaid, and Look North friends including Paul Hudson and Peter Levy were among the guests. There was a brass band, a set from Leeds band Hope & Social, and plenty of DIY touches crafted by the bride herself.

The couple live in Leeds. Their first daughter, Scout, was born in July 2020, after a lockdown pregnancy during which Keeley had joked on air with colleagues Paul Hudson and Harry Gration about the baby’s arrival. Family life has not all been smooth: in January 2023, Keeley bravely told her followers that she had suffered a miscarriage, a post that prompted an outpouring of support and helped raise awareness of baby loss.

Then, in October 2026, came the happiest of updates. After what she called “radio silence” over the summer, she announced the safe arrival of the couple’s second daughter, Remi. “It hasn’t been an easy journey but she really is our little miracle,” she wrote, as the family settled into life as four. Fans flooded the post with congratulations — proof of just how warmly this particular weather presenter is held by the people who watch her every night.

More presenter biographies on FameFigures: Laura Tobin and Louise Lear.

FAQs

How old is Keeley Donovan?

Keeley Donovan was born on 14 May 1983, which makes her 43 years old. She will celebrate her 44th birthday on 14 May 2027.

Is Keeley Donovan married?

Yes. She married fellow BBC presenter Johnny I’Anson in June 2018, in a festival-themed wedding at Castle Farm near Knaresborough.

Who is Keeley Donovan’s husband?

Her husband is Johnny I’Anson, a BBC radio presenter. The couple announced their engagement live on Look North in 2017, after he proposed during a walk at Grasmere in the Lake District.

How many children does Keeley Donovan have?

She has two daughters: Scout, born in July 2020, and Remi, whose arrival she announced in October 2026.

Where is Keeley Donovan from?

She was born in Grimsby and grew up in the nearby village of Tetney in Lincolnshire. She now lives in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

What programmes has Keeley Donovan presented?

She is best known as a BBC weather presenter on Look North. She has also presented Inside Out in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, co-presented Countryfile Diaries and Break-in Britain, and presented a Saturday show on BBC Radio Humberside.