Introduction
Jacqueline Ashley (born 10 September 1954, St Pancras, London), known as Jackie Ashley, is an English journalist and broadcaster.
Early life
Ashley was born in St Pancras, London, England. She is the daughter of Jack Ashley, Baron Ashley of Stoke (1922–2012), a former Labour Party politician, and Pauline Kay Ashley (née Crispin; 1932–2003).
She was educated at Rosebery Grammar School for Girls, a grammar school in Epsom, Surrey. She went on to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St Anne's College, University of Oxford. She was a member of the Oxford University Broadcasting Society.
Career
She has been a television news reporter and newspaper journalist, writing for the New Statesman and The Guardian. She specializes in the Labour Party, the media, politics, public services, trade unions and women's issues. She was broadly a supporter of Gordon Brown's government.
Having graduated from university, she spent two years, from 1979-81, as a trainee with the BBC. She was a producer and newsreader on Newsnight from 1981-84. Then, from 1984-86, she was a reporter on TV-am, and a producer and reporter on Channel 4. She moved to ITN in 1986, where she was a political correspondent. She then moved from television to journalism, and was political editor of the New Statesman from 2000 to 2002. Since 2002, she has been a columnist and political interviewer for The Guardian.
In October 2015, Ashley became President of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.
Personal life
Jackie Ashley married fellow journalist Andrew Marr in Surrey in 1987; they live in west London. The couple have a son and two daughters. Ashley took nine months leave in 2013 to care for her husband after Marr suffered a stroke.