Ruth Elizabeth Dodsworth OBE (born 21 May 1975) is a British broadcaster, journalist and weather presenter, best known for her work at

ITV Cymru Wales ITV Cymru Wales is the ITV franchise for Wales. The new separate licence began on 1 January 2014, replacing the long-serving dual franchise region ITV Wales & West serving Wales and the West of England, which had previously used the branding " ...

Career

Dodsworth began her career in radio, working as a researcher for

BBC Radio Wales BBC Radio Wales is a Wales, Welsh national radio station owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales, a division of the BBC. It began broadcasting on 13 November 1978, replacing the Welsh opt-out service of BBC Radio 4. As of August 2022, the stat ...

in the mid 1990s. She joined

(previously HTV Wales) in June 1996, training as a news reporter and presenter. She switched roles to become a weather presenter in 2000.Your Wales Weather Team

itv.com itv.com is the main website of ITV plc, the UK's largest commercial television broadcaster which operates 13 out of 15 regions on the ITV network under the ITV1 brand. The website offers the ITVX streaming service, with sections for ITV News, ...

, 26 June 2020 She has also presented a wide range of local programmes for ITV Cymru Wales, including '' The Ferret'', ''Grassroots'', coverage of the ''

Royal Welsh Show The Royal Welsh Show () is an agricultural show, organised by the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society (originally, the Welsh National Agricultural Society, formed 26 February 1904 by influential landowners, at Committee Room 12 at the House of Co ...

'' and the ''

Llangollen International Eisteddfod The Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod is a music festival which takes place every year during the second week of July in Llangollen, North Wales. It is one of several large annual Eisteddfodau in Wales. Singers and dancers from around ...

'', ''

Wales This Week ''Wales This Week'' is a long-running Welsh current affairs television programme produced by ITV Cymru Wales (formerly HTV Wales). The programme deals with a wide range of topics relating to the Welsh public, and is usually told through the eye ...

'', ''A Little Piece of Paradise'' and the BAFTA-nominated ''Coast and Country''. Dodsworth is also a relief weather presenter for ITV's English regions, including

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and Central, and for ITV National Weather. In September 2015, Dodsworth joined regional radio station

Nation Radio Nation Radio UK is a quasi-national radio station in the UK, broadcasting online and on DAB. It is owned and operated by Nation Broadcasting. The digital station was launched in June 2016 as Thames Radio with a line-up of former BBC and Capita ...

as co-presenter of the station's breakfast show, ''The Big Welsh Wake Up'', alongside Niall Foster. In November 2016, she began co-presenting a weekday breakfast show for Nation's five local radio stations in south and west Wales – Radio Pembrokeshire, Radio Carmarthenshire, Radio Ceredigion, Swansea Bay Radio and 106.3 Bridge FM. Dodsworth left Nation the following year. On 5 May 2022, Dodsworth presented the factual documentary ''Controlled By My Partner? The Hidden Abuse'' for ITV's peak-time current affairs programme ''

Tonight Tonight may refer to: Television * ''Tonight'' (1957 TV programme), a 1957–1965 British current events television programme hosted by Cliff Michelmore that was broadcast on BBC * ''Tonight'' (1975 TV programme), a 1975–1979 British current ...

''. On 1 December 2022, Dodsworth made her debut as a guest weather presenter for '' Good Morning Britain'' on

ITV Breakfast ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited (previously known as ''GMTV, GMTV Limited'') is the national ITV (TV network), ITV breakfast television licensee, broadcasting in the United Kingdom. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc in November ...

. On 24 September 2023, she made her debut as a relief presenter for ITV National Weather.In June 2025 she was awarded an OBE in the King's Honours for her work with domestic abuse awareness.

Personal life

Born in

Worthing Worthing ( ) is a seaside town and borough in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 113,094 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Br ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

, Dodsworth graduated from university with a degree in communications, before studying postgraduate journalism at

Cardiff University Cardiff University () is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893. It was renamed Unive ...

through an ITV-sponsored course. In August 2002, she married businessman Jonathan Wignall, who ran the Escape nightclub in

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

and an annual dance music festival in the city. They met at the 'Escape into the Park' festival during filming of Dodsworth's HTV Wales series, ''The Night Before the Morning After'', in 2001. Following a miscarriage, the couple had two children before moving from Swansea to

Cowbridge Cowbridge () is a market town in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, approximately west of the centre of Cardiff. The Cowbridge with Llanblethian community and civil parish elect a town council. A Cowbridge electoral ward exists for elections to ...

in the

Vale of Glamorgan The Vale of Glamorgan ( ), locally referred to as ''The Vale'', is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough in the South East Wales, south-east of Wales. It borders Bridgend County Borough to the west, Cardiff to the east, Rhondda Cynon Taf t ...

in 2010.TV presenter Ruth Dodsworth's 'bully' ex-husband jailed
bbc.co.uk, 15 April 2021 Dodsworth left Wignall in October 2019, after he called her over 150 times in a single day, and threatened to take his own life as well as controlling her daily life.Abusive ex-husband of ITV Wales presenter Ruth Dodsworth jailed
itv.com, 14 April 2021 The following day, he was arrested on suspicion of harassment. Following his arrest, it later emerged Wignall had planted a tracker device on Dodsworth's car, linked to an app and a laptop computer. In March 2021, Wignall admitted a charge of coercive and controlling behaviour and stalking against Dodsworth over a nine-year period. Cardiff Crown Court heard Dodsworth had been left "frightened and broken" by his "verbally abusive and physically violent" behaviour. On one occasion, she was pushed by Wignall in front of family members, causing a fractured rib. He was jailed for three years for coercive and controlling behaviour and 9 months to run concurrent for stalking and also given a lifetime restraining order against contacting Dodsworth or their children and banned from attending her place of work.

Charity work

Dodsworth is an ambassador for Cancer Research Wales and the Tŷ Hafan children's hospice in the

. She also took part in a charity trek across the

Sahara desert The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

in early 2016Designer Julien to take on Sahara Desert challenge
South Wales Echo, 6 November 2015 and a trek along the

Laugavegur Laugavegur () is a hiking trail in South Iceland. It is the most popular trail in Iceland, with an estimated 75,000-100,000 people hiking it every year. In 2012, National Geographic listed it as one of the twenty best trails in the world. Lau ...

trail in Iceland in September 2019.

References

External links

*
Your Wales Weather Team, ITV Cymru Wales
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dodsworth, Ruth Living people 1975 births English television presenters ITV Weather People from Worthing People from Cowbridge