JK Rowling’s favourite BBC newsreader has won global praise after she rejected woke gender-neutral language live on air – but it is not the first time she has stuck her neck out for women on screen.
Martine Croxall, 56, has won a legion of new fans after she dismissed an autocue line instructing her to say ‘pregnant people’, replacing it with ‘women’ instead.
Ms Croxall has said thanks to JK Rowling and her other supporters following the extraordinary TV moment during a live BBC News broadcast, which has now made headlines around the world.
‘A huge thank you to everyone who has chosen to follow me today for whatever reason. It’s been quite a ride’, the married mother-of-two tweeted last night.
Martine has supported women on TV before – and behind the scenes also stood up with female colleagues in their fight for equal pay at the corporation.
Famously she also got tough with a transgender wannabe politician who said she felt attacked when Ms Croxall questioned her claim that the Supreme Court’s April ruling that trans women are legally male and trans men are legally female might need further ‘clarification’.
There have also been lighter moments, including when she winked and joked that she was a ‘beautiful creature’ and also the times she was wasn’t in her seat as cameras began rolling.
She also appeared tearful when she announced the death of Prince Philip in 2021.
In April the broadcaster was praised when she challenged a transgender activist who claimed the Supreme Court’s ruling that the definition of a woman is based on biological sex may still need ‘clarification’.
The BBC veteran firmly told ex-Labour MSP candidate Heather Herbert that the landmark ruling made it clear ‘sex is binary and immutable’.
Leicestershire-born Ms Croxall repeatedly challenged Herbert after she called for further ‘clarification’ on single sex spaces, at one point reminding her: ‘The ruling is that woman means biological sex.’
She spearheaded a legal case against the BBC over pay, with the corporation settling the case in March.
Martine, Karin Giannone, Kasia Madera and Annita McVeigh launched an employment tribunal against the BBC in a bombshell case, which included the claim they had not been paid equally compared with their male counterparts.
All four claimed they lost their roles on the BBC News Channel following a ‘rigged’ recruitment exercise when it was merged with BBC World. The case was settled by the BBC in the spring of this year.
The row meant the women were all off for 12 months, which Martine chronicled on social media. Instead of being in the studio she enjoyed trips to Mexico, Bulgaria and Thailand.
During her time off, she went swimming with whale sharks and sea lions in the Gulf of California, zipwired over a canyon in Mexico and fed elephants at a sanctuary in Phuket.
That’s on top of taking a hot balloon over the pyramids in Mexico and venturing on two ski trips, including one where she was seen relaxing in a massive hot tub after spending a day on the slopes.
Croxall joined the corporation in 1991 following work experience with her local station, BBC Radio Leicester.
She grew up in the countryside, attending an independent school before graduating from the University of Leeds.
In 2022, she was briefly taken off air after breaking the corporation’s impartiality rules.
The blunder happened on October 23 after Boris Johnson ran out of the leadership contest that Rishi Sunak went on to win.
During the Sunday night edition of The Papers, where press members discuss the main stories of the day, she said in the wake of Johnson’s departure: ‘Well this is all very exciting, isn’t it? Am I allowed to be this gleeful? Well I am.’
Later in the show she also admitted that she was ‘probably breaking’ some of the BBC’s impartiality rules when she laughed at Tony Grew’s mocking of Johnson.
The corporation later ruled that Croxall had made ‘several remarks and reactions’ that caused ‘significant risk’ that the audience could believe ‘opinions were being expressed’ on the Conservative leadership race. She returned to air after 11 days off.
Following the death of Prince Philip, Ms Croxall was close to tears as she interrupted the broadcast to break the news to the country.
Now she is in the headlines again after standing up for women.
The clip from a recent BBC News episode saw Ms Croxall introduce new research on the number of heat-related deaths expected amid Britain’s current heatwave.
But as the autocue prompted her to warn ‘pregnant people’ to take care in the heat, she first read the term out before overriding it, with a smirk and eyebrow raise.
She said: ‘Malcolm Mistry, who was involved in the research, said the aged, pregnant people – women! – and those with pre-existing health conditions need to take precautions.’
Ms Rowling reposted the clip on X, captioning it: ‘I have a new favourite BBC presenter.’
It is understood the phrase ‘pregnant people’ was the term used in the research the presenter was reporting on, rather than the BBC having written it.
Ms Croxall herself soon responded to a commenter who had praised her move as ‘brilliant’ by saying: ‘I hope you don’t get hauled before the BBC News beak.’
The broadcaster simply replied: ‘Braced x.’
The original clip was first reposted to X by campaign group SEEN In Journalism, which says it ‘seeks to restore accuracy and impartiality to media coverage of sex and gender’.
They captioned their post, ‘Good to see accuracy on BBC News’, followed by an emoji of a pregnant woman.
