Charlene White: who is Loose Women host, is she married to partner Andy Woodfield, and do they have children?

ITV news presenter and Loose Women panelist Charlene White will show a different side to herself in new documentary, Charlene White: Empire’s Child.

White will embark on a journey to find out more about her family heritage, researching her family tree as far back as the 18th century.

White becomes emotional as she learns of two very different links to the British Empire, while understanding how Britain came to be a melting pot of ethnicity, race and culture.

So, who is Charlene White - and what does she find out on the ITV show? This is what you need to know.

Who is Charlene White?

42-year-old White was raised in Greenwich, London, as the child of West Indian parents.

She attended Blackheath High School in south-east London before going on to graduate from the London College of Printing, which specialises in media-related subjects.

From 2002, she began working at the BBC as a reporter on BBC Radio 1 and sister channel, Radio 1XTra.

Throughout the early 2000, she went on to become a senior reporter for the BBC. She was employed on BBC Look East, Radio 5 Live Morning Reports, BBC Three 60 Seconds and BBC News.

In 2008, she moved to rival company ITN who provide journalists for ITV. There, she became the face of ITV News at 5.30 and ITV News London’s 6.30pm bulletins.

In April 2014, White became the first black female news presenter on ITV News at 10 and in 2009 she was announced as the lead presenter of ITV News London’s main 6pm programme.

In 2021, she became a panellist on daytime talk show, Loose Women.

Who is she married to?

White’s longtime partner is Andy Woodfield, partner of PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC)

He began working at PwC in 1998 as a Cyber Security consultant, before moving on to work in the Department for International Development.

In 2016, he became a partner of the company and now leads PwC’s relationship with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), he was also the founder of LGBRQ representative group ‘Glee’ at PwC.

The pair share two children, four-year-old Alfie and Florence, age two. The family live together in South London.

What does she find out about her family on ‘Empire’s Child’?

White first attempts to learn more about her great-great-great-grandfather, William Stanbury.

She traces her roots back to Jamaica, where she learns more about the Stanbury family tree in the 18th century.

She finds out that her relation, John Stanbury, was a slave owner who had illegitimate children with his black slaves.

In the documentary, Charlene says: “He was a slave owner, he owned people who looked like me.

“And that is within my bloodline, which is a weird thing to get my head around and he is responsible for my families’ lighter skin.

“Is it a nice history? No, but I feel it is something I needed to know.”

White is accompanied on some of the trip by genealogist Dianne Golding-Frankson, who informs her that many of the children on her five-generations back grandfather’s plantation.

He also had a brother and father, both named James, and so the third generation James who was born mixed-race is likely the son of John.

Dianne says: “The placement of John Stanbury in St Catherine and residency of James Stanbury is a strong suggestion James Stanbury is the illegitimate child of John.”

Charlene then places all the facts together and reaches an unsettling conclusion:“You know the red in my hair when it’s not dyed? Gosh, it’s because of this man. This man could have been responsible for a lot of pain.

“And chose to put his children in a stock take of the slaves he owned.”

Her grandparents were part of the Windrush generation, who settled in the UK.

The 41-year-old also traces her other four-times great grandparents Andrew and Elsey Pusey, and finds they were born into slavery in the 1790s.

However, they were freed in Jamaica in 1834 when slavery was abolished and went on to buy land and make a business out of selling produce.

White got emotional as she thought of the determination of the couple, who would have been in their 40s at the time.

“At my age they were freed and wanted more,” she said. “To know I came from here and generations kept on wanting more for their children and they did it.

“The dream Andrew and Elsey had, they did it. I am so proud.”

Speaking of her discoveries, she said of the British Empire: “I have a sense of understanding of my place within the empire that I simply didn’t have before”.

“I believe this isn’t just a story about me or my family,” she adds. “I think it’s a story about who we all are as British people in terms of our history with the Empire.

“And the societies and culture and people will forever be intertwined.”

When is the documentary on TV?

Charlene White: Empire’s Child is on ITV on Thursday 21 October at 9pm.

It will be available on ITV Hub, shortly after broadcast.