Dan Wootton

Dan Wootton
Daniel John William Wootton (born 2 March 1983) is a New Zealand and British journalist and broadcaster.
In 2007, he joined the News of the World. In 2013, he joined The Sun on Sunday and became editor of the Bizarre column the following year. In February 2016, he joined The Sun, under the editorship of Victoria Newton, as associate editor and in March 2018 progressed to executive editor.
Wootton has made appearances as a show business presenter on the ITV Breakfast shows Lorraine and Daybreak. From 2015 to 2018, he was also a regular contributor and panelist on Big Brother's Bit on the Side. In 2021 Wootton left News UK to join the MailOnline as a columnist and present a show, four days a week, on GB News.
From July 2023, allegations were published against Wootton in Byline Times of inappropriate and criminal conduct, including catfishing former colleagues, overseeing a culture of sexual harassment while working at The Sun and orchestrating non-consensual voyeurism of victims using male pornographic actors paid with misappropriated funds. Wootton said all criminal allegations were "untrue" and that he is the victim of a "smear campaign". In early October 2023, the Metropolitan Police confirmed an investigation was underway in relation to the allegations.
Wootton was suspended from GB News in September 2023 following an incident in which sexual comments were made on his show by guest Laurence Fox about journalist Ava Evans, which were described by the channel as "totally unacceptable". Wootton apologised and said that he should have intervened. His contract with MailOnline was subsequently terminated and Ofcom opened an investigation into the incident.
Early life
Daniel John William Wootton was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1983 to British parents; his mother was born in Basildon, Essex and his father was born on a British army base in Malta. Wootton grew up in Lower Hutt, a city in the Wellington region of New Zealand and attended Naenae College and Victoria University of Wellington, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in media studies and political science.
Career
Wootton started his career as a journalist in his native New Zealand, writing an entertainment column for the Wellington-based broadsheet newspaper The Dominion Post and was also a reporter for the daily television show Good Morning. He immigrated to the United Kingdom when he was 21, and after a period working for trade magazines, he found a job with Broadcast magazine.
Wootton joined the News of the World TV team in February 2007, becoming TV editor in November 2007, and show-business editor in November 2008 until its closure in July 2011, when he then became a columnist and feature writer for the Daily Mail and editor-at-large for Now magazine. He later testified to the Leveson Inquiry in 2012 about the News International phone hacking scandal, where he denied illegally publishing stories collected through phone hacking while an editor at the News of the World.
In 2013, Wootton joined The Sun newspaper launching a new column on Sundays. He became editor of the newspaper's Bizarre column in 2014, and was promoted to associate editor (showbiz and TV) in 2016. He was named 'Showbiz reporter of the year' at the 2010, 2013 and 2018 British Press Awards. Wootton also made appearances as a showbiz reporter on ITV's morning show Lorraine between 2011 and 2019, and has been a guest on BBC Radio 5 Live.
In 2015, Wootton and The Sun received widespread criticism for an article he penned for the newspaper titled "Hollywood HIV Panic". HIV policy adviser Lisa Power called it "vile" and expressed disappointment that Wootton had "lent his name to such a shameful piece", saying that it reinforced stigma against people with HIV. British HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust called it "irresponsible", and The BMJ, a peer-reviewed medical journal also criticised the article.
Wootton hosted a weekly talkRADIO show called Dan's Dilemmas from March 2018 and, in February 2020, he took over as host of the station's drivetime show, replacing Eamonn Holmes.
Wootton has been credited with breaking the story about Megxit in The Sun on 8 January 2020, which prompted Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, to announce within hours, confirming their plans for stepping back from their royal duties. Wootton stated that he had been in contact with the couple's spokesperson on 28 December and gave them a ten days' notice before the story broke, despite facing pressure from royal officials not to run the piece. Sources close to the couple later spoke to The New York Times, stating that they "felt forced to disclose their plans prematurely" as they learned about The Suns intentions to publish the story. Wootton disputed the claim as "They released the statement after we had published the story and had so much notice."
In June 2020, it was reported that Harry's lawyers had issued a 'letter before action', threatening to sue Dan Wootton and The Sun, based on allegations that they had paid money to associates of palace officials to secure their stories. Wootton's lawyers denied that any payments were made unlawfully to a public official or a proxy and described the claims as "a smear campaign by unknown bad actors." Prince Harry later said that he believed Wootton was able to publish the story due to "the strength of his secret relationship with one particularly close friend of William, Prince of Wales comms secretary – who fed him trivial (and mostly fake) gossip."
In July 2020, libel proceedings, brought by Johnny Depp against Wootton and News Group Newspapers, began in the High Court of Justice in the case of Depp v News Group Newspapers Ltd. The action related to an article published in 2018 in The Sun describing Depp as a "wife beater". On 2 November 2020, the court ruled in favour of News Group. Mr Justice Nicol found that assaults were proven to the civil standard in 12 of the 14 incidents reported by Amber Heard, and he concluded that The Sun article was substantially accurate on the balance of probabilities. In 2022, Depp sued Heard in a separate defamation trial in the United States. This case had a different outcome, with the jury finding that Depp had proven all the elements of defamation, including that the statements were false, and that Heard defamed Depp with actual malice.
In October 2020, Labour MP Chris Bryant criticised Wootton for being "a dangerous conspiracy theorist" after Wootton advocated for the Great Barrington Declaration and suggested that herd immunity could be a solution for COVID-19.
In January 2021, Wootton announced that he would leave The Sun and talkRADIO to become a columnist for MailOnline and present a daily show, four days a week, on GB News. In November 2021, his GB News programme, Tonight Live with Dan Wootton, was rebranded to Dan Wootton Tonight and shortened to two hours.
On 26 September 2023, whilst appearing on Wootton's GB News show, actor Laurence Fox made sexual comments about journalist Ava Evans of the news website Joe that the broadcaster deemed "totally unacceptable". Wootton, who could be seen laughing at points as Fox spoke, subsequently apologised, saying he should have intervened and had reacted "out of shock". Following the apology, private messages between Fox and Wootton, shared by Fox on X (formerly Twitter), appeared to show Wootton reacting to the incident on GB News with laughing emojis. Fox was sacked following the incident and Wootton was suspended pending an internal investigation. His freelance column at MailOnline was subsequently terminated and Ofcom, the government's broadcasting regulatory body, opened an investigation into the incident.
Allegations of inappropriate and criminal conduct
In February 2022, Andrew Brady, a former Apprentice contestant and ex-fiancé of Caroline Flack, was jailed for four months for harassing Wootton and making false accusations of sexual offences against him.
In July 2023, Byline Times accused Wooton of using fake online identities to trick men, including co-workers at his then-employer The Sun, into sending sexual images. Wootton said all criminal allegations were "untrue" and said he is the victim of a "smear campaign", and that he was the victim of an abusive relationship in the past.
A further story by Byline Times claimed that Wootton oversaw a culture of sexual harassment at The Sun and was the subject of at least six bullying claims by colleagues, all of which resulted in large pay-offs and confidentiality agreements. In response, Wootton said: "A hard left blog is on a deranged campaign of harassment designed to destroy me financially, mentally and professionally." He sought crowdfunding, with a target of £150,000, to fight a legal campaign against the allegations. As of October 2023, the crowdfunding website had been closed down.
A further article by Byline Times alleged that Wootton instructed male pornographic actors to use equipment to secretly film themselves having sex with men he had spoken to on Facebook. The article further alleged Wootton paid the pornographic actors by misappropriating funds for sources from News UK.
The allegations resulted in an investigation by an external law firm hired by News UK, and the MailOnline confirmed it had paused Wootton's freelance column with the website.
In August 2023, a further article by Byline Times alleged that Wootton asked former Big Brother contestant JJ Bird if he was willing to pose in his underwear or to have nude photographs taken in exchange for money. Bird declined the offer. Wootton also allegedly made a "modelling" proposition to English television personality Kirk Norcross, which Norcross declined. Byline Times further alleged that Wootton offered money to an anonymous trainee osteopath, following a home visit appointment, to provide "extra" services. According to Paul Wragg, Professor of Media Law at the University of Leeds, Wootton's alleged behaviour raises serious questions about safeguarding for The Sun, the Daily Mail and ITV.
In September 2023, the chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Conservative MP Caroline Dinenage, wrote to the editor of The Sun newspaper, and to thechief executive of GB News, Angelos Frangopoulos, asking them to outline what "investigations or processes" the channel had taken in the wake of the "serious allegations" regarding Wootton "being involved in payments for sexual material". Frangopoulos confirmed that GB News were not investigating the alleged offences, as they had not occurred during Wootton's employment with the channel.
In early October 2023, the Metropolitan Police confirmed to Byline Times that after seeking to “establish whether any criminal offence” had taken place, they had now commenced an investigation into the allegations. They added that no arrests had been made.
On 3 October 2023, the Press Gazette reported that several newspapers including The Guardian and The Mirror had removed stories from their news websites after being threatened by possible legal action by lawyers acting for Wootton, warning media outlets that the outcome of a court case could be aggravated and/or exemplary damages and an order to pay both sides’ legal fees.
Personal life
Wootton holds both New Zealand and British citizenship.
In 2013, Wootton announced on his Twitter account that he is gay.
He has said that his favourite film is Grease and his favourite band is ABBA.
Wootton is in a relationship with Alan Longair.
References
External links
Living people
English male journalists
English gay men
New Zealand gay men
New Zealand journalists
New Zealand columnists
New Zealand editors
New Zealand magazine editors
News of the World people
New Zealand expatriates in England
People from Lower Hutt
People educated at Naenae College
Victoria University of Wellington alumni
English LGBT journalists
New Zealand LGBT journalists
English LGBT broadcasters
Gay journalists
GB News newsreaders and journalists
21st-century English LGBT people
21st-century New Zealand LGBT people
1983 births