Full Name: John Leslie Stott
Date of Birth: February 1965
Place of Birth: Edinburgh, Scotland
Marital Status: Single, formerly engaged to Catherine Zeta-Jones

BIOGRAPHY
Turning from lovable Scottish TV presenter to alleged sex-obsessed rapist, John Leslie has had a spectacular fall from grace, especially considering little has been formally alleged and nothing proven.

Early Life
John Leslie was born in early 1965, the son of a social worker and a newsagent. In early life, John had a passion for music and was moved from his school to St Mary's Music School in Edinburgh while still very young. Not having a happy time there, John moved back to his old school but continued to practice the piano, becoming fairly proficient. After school he took up work as a piano tuner, but his first big job was as a DJ in Copenhagen. While there, he spent a lot of his free time sending demo tapes to regional TV networks in the UK in the hope of landing a presenting job. His height (he is 6'5") was seen as a problem by many, but he was eventually given a chance presenting late night programs on Yorkshire TV. His talent was obviously spotted, because in 1989 he was given a job as co-presenter of long-running BBC children's program, Blue Peter - a very prestigious and sought after position.

Blue Peter
Blue Peter is one of the longest running shows (it started in 1958) on British kids television. It combines entertainment with education (supposedly) and is loved by kids and parents alike (I never had much time for it myself, but what do I know). John Leslie was made a presenter in 1989, effectively replacing Mark Curry - he was the first Scottish presenter and his reasonably strong accent and bubbly enthusiasm made him an immediate favourite.

John stayed on Blue Peter for five years, forging a strong partnership with Diane-Louise Jordan, and it was a sad day when he left (replaced by Tim Vincent). John then had a quiet few years, appearing on TV every now and again, before becoming presenter of gameshow Wheel of Fortune in 1997. This continued for a few years before the exposure landed John a presenting job on This Morning, again a very sought after position.

Women
John has always been known as something of a ladies man. He has had his fair share of high-profile relationships. In the early 90s, while working on Blue Peter, John met Catherine Zeta-Jones when sharing a studio while she was making The Darling Buds of May. She was blown over by him and the two entered into a very serious relationship - she was well on the way to becoming Mrs John Leslie before being unceremoniously dumped. Another high profile relationship was with Sophie Rhys-Jones, now the Countess of Wessex, but this seems to have fizzled out before it even properly began.

Rape Allegations
In 2002, Ulrika Jonsson published her autobiography, Honest. In it she claimed that, during the mid to late 80s during a spell as a weathergirl, she had been raped by a now well known TV personality. She declined to name the perpetrator, both in the book and in the news afterwards, but it became clear pretty soon that most in the media circle knew who was being referred to. It was on his Channel 5 morning TV program The Wright Stuff that Matthew Wright eventually let slip that John Leslie was the name on everyone's lips. The papers had a field day, printing allegations against John from more and more women as well as pictures of him snorting cocaine and quoting people as saying he is sex obsessed.

John was immediately off our screens. He wasn't formally sacked from This Morning, but he has not been seen on it again, supposedly because he didn't make an on air denial. He has been questioned by the police multiple times, but no formal charges have been brought.

Update
On the 1st of August 2003 all charges were dropped against John.


Sources:
the achingly good imdb.com
http://www.mediaweb.co.za/ArticleDetail.asp?ID=2254
http://www.myedinburgh.net/edinburgh/celebs&gossip-media.htm

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