Judith Cynthia Aline Keppel (born 18 August 1942) is a British quiz show contestant who was the first person to win one million pounds on the British

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

game show ''

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (often informally called ''Millionaire'') is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and l ...

''. She has appeared on the former

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

, now Channel 5, quiz show '' Eggheads'' since its inception in 2003, until she retired from the show in 2022.

Early life

Keppel was born at Wolverhampton, eldest of three children and only daughter of

the Hon. ''The Honourable'' (British English) or ''The Honorable'' (American English; see spelling differences) (abbreviation: ''Hon.'', ''Hon'ble'', or variations) is an honorific style that is used as a prefix before the names or titles of certain ...

Walter Arnold Crispian Keppel (1914–1996), DSC, and Aline Lucy (1918-2007), daughter of Brigadier-General John Harington, CB, CMG, of Chelmarsh Hall,

Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079. Histor ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

(son of Sir Richard Harington, 11th Baronet) and Lady Frances Aline, daughter of William Temple-Gore-Langton, 4th Earl Temple of Stowe. Walter Keppel was a

lieutenant commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding ran ...

in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

’s

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wi ...

. The family moved around, thanks to various naval postings, before settling in London when Keppel was seventeen. She sat A-Levels at

St Mary's School, Wantage St Mary's School was an independent day and boarding girls' school located in Wantage, Oxfordshire, England. In 2007 it merged with Heathfield School to become Heathfield St Mary's School (later reverted to Heathfield) and the Wantage site was ...

, and then completed a secretarial course. Keppel is a granddaughter of

Walter Keppel, 9th Earl of Albemarle Walter Egerton George Lucian Keppel, 9th Earl of Albemarle, (28 February 1882 – 14 July 1979) was a British nobleman and soldier, styled Viscount Bury from 1894 to 1942. Life Keppel was the eldest son of Arnold Keppel, 8th Earl of Albemarle, a ...

. Her great-grandfather, the 8th Earl, was the brother of George Keppel and the brother-in-law of Alice Keppel, a mistress of

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

and the great-great uncle of

Camilla, Queen consort of the United Kingdom Camilla (born Camilla Rosemary Shand, later Parker Bowles, 17 July 1947) is Queen Consort of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms as the wife of King Charles III. She became queen consort on 8 September 2022, upon the ac ...

, who is thus her third cousin. Through her grandfather, her ancestors include

Eleanor of Aquitaine Eleanor ( – 1 April 1204; french: Aliénor d'Aquitaine, ) was Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of Henry II of England, King Henry I ...

and

Henry II of England Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189), also known as Henry Curtmantle (french: link=no, Court-manteau), Henry FitzEmpress, or Henry Plantagenet, was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189, and as such, was the first Angevin kin ...

, who were the subjects of her one million-pound question on ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?''.

Marriages

In 1964, Keppel married her first husband, Desmond Leon Corcoran, an art dealer with whom she had three children, Sibylla, Alexander, and Rosie, but they divorced in 1980. In 1985, she married comedy scriptwriter

Neil Shand Neil Hodgson Shand (3 March 1934 – 14 April 2018) was a British television comedy writer. He was born in Luton to parents from Glasgow, the son of a Vauxhall employee and a dressmaker. Neil was the eldest of three boys. Raised in a "two up tw ...

. They were separated in 1987.

''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?''

Keppel appeared on the 20 November 2000 episode of the UK edition of ''

'', becoming the 12th winner in the world and the first in the UK to win one million pounds. At the time, she was a garden designer living in

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandswor ...

and was "struggling for money". Nonetheless, she had spent about £100 phoning the quiz show more than 50 times to secure a place. " BT rang me up and said, 'Do you realise your telephone bills are rising?'" There was speculation at the time that the win was leaked to the press so that ITV would draw ratings away from

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

which was showing the last episode of '' One Foot in the Grave'' in the same timeslot. However, the Independent Television Commission cleared

Celador CPL Productions (formerly Celador) is a British entertainment company originally formed in the United Kingdom in 1981 as an independent television production company. It created and produced a number of popular light entertainment shows and is ...

and ITV of the allegations. Keppel formerly appeared on the Channel 5 quiz show '' Eggheads'', where she and other quiz champions are pitted against four members of the public.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Keppel, Judith 1942 births Contestants on British game shows Living people People from Fulham Judith Keppel People educated at Heathfield School, Ascot People educated at St Mary’s School, Wantage