Radio 1’s Greg James reveals his surprising real name after 17 years on the air
GREG James has been a household name for 17 years ever since bursting onto national radio fresh from university.
But his airwaves moniker isn’t actually his real name, he has revealed.
The Radio 1 Breakfast Show host hastily chose his well-known surname shortly before being picked up by the Beeb in 2007.
Speaking to Kathy Burke’s Where There’s A Will, There’s A Wake podcast, he revealed he is in fact called Greg Milward.
The 38-year-old said: “I’m writing a book. It’s my first non-fiction adult book.
“It’s gonna come out next year, and I was writing a chapter on my
name. It’s turned into a bit of a secret, but it’s not a secret at all. In that Greg James is not my full name.”
Greg explained that James is actually his middle name and he chose to adopt it as a surname while working on student radio in the hope it would be more appealing to Radio 1 bosses.
He said: “I was looking around at like Sara Cox, Scott Mills. So my full name, my surname is Milward. It’s like a teacher’s name. It’s like a headteacher’s name. Greg Milward.
“My dad was a headteacher and I was like, ‘well, it’s
probably not that cool. I don’t really like it that much’. So I chose Greg James.”
However, could he go back in time, it’s likely he would have selected something else.
He said: “My regret is that I should have thought it through, because by the time Radio 1 had sort of spotted me; I’d won this award basically, and Radio 1 were in touch, and before I knew it, I was doing a tryout show for them, and Greg James appeared in the Radio Times, in the listings, and I was like, ‘it’s too late, I can’t change it now’.
“And then it just went on and on and on, and I can’t change it back now, I can’t do anything about it. I don’t mind it. It’s an okay radio name, but, I should have been more imaginative.”
Offering some reassurance, Kathy said: “No, no, because Greg James, like you say, it’s got that bang bang.”
Greg will be hoping he has a similar level of success with his book to those released by his wife, Bella Mackie, 41.
Bella, who is the daughter of former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, wrote the hit non-fiction book Jog On: How Running Saved My Life and fictional best-sellers How to Kill Your Family and What a Way to Go.
This year Netflix greenlit an adaptation of How to Kill Your Family, a dark comedy that explores ways women can commit murder, and Hollywood star Anya Taylor-Joy will star in the lead role.
Where There’s A Will, There’s A Wake with Kathy Burke is available wherever you get your podcasts.