Judith Cynthia Aline Keppel (born 18 August 1942) was the first one million-pound

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

 winner on the television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (UK game show)

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a British television quiz show which offers a maximum cash prize of one million pounds for correctly answering successive multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty...

in the United Kingdom.

Personal life

Keppel's father was a Lieutenant Commander in the Fleet Air Arm, who moved with the family to various naval postings around Britain until they settled in London when she was 17. Although she took A-levels and completed a secretarial course, she was groomed for marriage, rather than a career.
Her first husband was Desmond Corcoran, an art dealer. The couple went on to have three children, Sibylla, Alexander, and Rosie, but divorced in 1980. In 1985 she married comedy script writer Neil Shand. They separated in 1987.

Keppel is the granddaughter of Walter, 9th Earl of Albemarle. Her great-grandfather, the 8th Earl was brother-in-law of Alice Keppel

Alice Keppel

Alice Frederica Keppel, née Edmonstone was a British socialite and the most famous mistress of Edward VII, the eldest son of Queen Victoria. Her formal style after marriage was The Hon. Mrs George Keppel. Her daughter, Violet Trefusis, was the lover of poet Vita Sackville-West...

, the mistress of King Edward VII

Edward VII of the United Kingdom

Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...

 and was the great-uncle of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. The Duchess of Cornwall is therefore her third cousin.

Career

Keppel appeared on the 20 November 2000 episode of the UK edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (UK game show)

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a British television quiz show which offers a maximum cash prize of one million pounds for correctly answering successive multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty...

, becoming the 12th winner in the world and the first in the UK to win one million pounds. There was speculation at the time that the win was fixed so that ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 would draw ratings away from BBC One

BBC One

BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

 which was showing the last episode of One Foot in the Grave

One Foot in the Grave

One Foot in the Grave is a BBC television sitcom series written by David Renwick. The show ran for six series, including seven Christmas specials, two Comic Relief specials, over an eleven year period, from early 1990 to late 2000...

in the same timeslot. However, the ITC cleared Celador and ITV of the allegations. Keppel's victory was achieved exactly a year after the first Millionaire winner was broadcast, when John Carpenter

John Carpenter (game show contestant)

John Carpenter became the first millionaire on the United States version of the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire on November 19, 1999. He held the record for the largest single win in United States game show history, until it was broken by Rahim Oberholtzer who won $1.12 million on...

 became the first winner of the US version of the show

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (US game show)

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is an American television quiz show which offers a maximum prize of $1,000,000 for correctly answering 14 consecutive multiple-choice questions of random difficulty. Until 2010, the format required contestants to correctly answer 15 consecutive questions of increasing...

 as well as becoming the first winner worldwide.

Keppel now appears on the BBC Two

BBC Two

BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

 quiz show Eggheads, where she and four other quiz champions are pitted against members of the public.

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