Is Elizabeth Rizzini Married to Frank Gardner? Age, Children and BBC Career

Introduction

Elizabeth Rizzini is one of the familiar faces of BBC Weather. Trained by the Met Office, she presents forecasts on BBC One bulletins, the BBC News Channel, BBC Breakfast and BBC Radio, and she has a particular following among viewers who enjoy her stargazing and space weather forecasts. Before she ever stood in front of a weather map, she spent years living and studying in France and Spain, and her first broadcast forecasting job was a bilingual jellyfish forecast for Spanish coastal resorts.

Away from the studio, Elizabeth Rizzini is also known as the partner of BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, which explains why so many people search for “is Elizabeth Rizzini married to Frank Gardner” and “Elizabeth Rizzini husband”. Those questions are often answered online with guesses. This article sticks to what has been reported by reliable sources and what she has made public herself.

Below you will find her quick bio, her route from the Met Office to the BBC News at Ten, the facts about her relationship and family, her Celebrity Mastermind victory, and clear answers to the questions people ask most often.

Contents

Elizabeth Rizzini Quick Bio

Who Is Elizabeth Rizzini?

Elizabeth Rizzini is a British broadcast meteorologist who works for the BBC Weather Centre. Her speaker agency, NMP Live, describes her as a Met Office-trained presenter whose television work spans BBC Breakfast, the BBC News at One, Six and Ten, and BBC World, while on radio she has presented forecasts for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5 Live.

What sets her apart from many forecasters is her interest in the night sky. She regularly produces stargazing forecasts for the national BBC Weather team and has worked with The Sky at Night, explaining when and where viewers might catch meteor showers, the northern lights or a clear view of a planet. That mix of science and plain-speaking presentation is a big part of why viewers search for “BBC Weather Elizabeth Rizzini” after seeing her on air.

Early Life and Education

Very little about Elizabeth Rizzini’s childhood has been made public, and she has not confirmed her birthplace or date of birth in any official profile. What is known is that she spent formative years abroad. She lived and studied in France and Spain, and she was based in Madrid for several years.

That time overseas shaped her career in a practical way. Her agency profile notes that she is conversationally fluent in Spanish and Italian and also speaks French, and that she has worked in Spanish-speaking business settings. Her first taste of broadcast meteorology came through a bilingual jellyfish forecast for Spanish coastal resorts, an unusual starting point that combined her language skills with weather science.

After returning to the UK, she completed a master’s degree in environmental journalism and climate change. The institution has not been named in her public profiles, so we have not included it here.

From the Met Office to BBC Weather

By her own account, Elizabeth Rizzini joined the Met Office in around 2008 or 2009. The Met Office supplies the meteorologists who present BBC Weather, and she completed professional meteorological training there before moving into broadcasting. Her first television training came from two of the best-known names in British forecasting, Michael Fish and Carol Kirkwood.

Regional television and local radio

Like many BBC forecasters, she built her experience in the regions. She began appearing on BBC South East Today from November 2010, and she presented on BBC London from around 2011. In later years she also covered Points West and Look East. Alongside regional TV, she presented forecasts on local BBC Radio stations, which is where many presenters learn to describe the weather without a map to point at.

BBC World, Radio 5 Live and the News Channel

She made her debut on BBC World in 2011, forecasting for an international audience. On 2 September 2019, she made her first appearance on BBC Radio 5 Live, deputising for Simon King, and she has since worked regularly on the BBC News Channel, including its morning shift.

National BBC One bulletins

The big step for any BBC weather presenter is the flagship BBC One bulletins. Elizabeth Rizzini made her debut after the BBC News at Six on 30 December 2019. She followed that with her first BBC News at One forecast alongside Reeta Chakrabarti on 14 June 2022, and her first BBC News at Ten forecast on 29 October 2023. She also presented a BBC Radio 4 forecast on 25 June 2022. She now appears regularly on BBC One and BBC Breakfast.

Stargazing, Wimbledon and other work

Her television work goes beyond the standard forecast. She has produced and presented pieces for CBBC’s Newsround and for Antiques Roadshow, appeared on Weather World, and presented forecasts from Wimbledon during the tennis championships, a sport she has called one of her passions. Her forecast for the 2018 Mars rover landing even turned up on Channel 4’s Gogglebox, a sign of how her space-themed segments reach beyond regular weather watchers.

She also works as a host and moderator. She has presented awards ceremonies, including events for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, moderated conferences on climate and environmental topics, and judged charity competitions such as Cats Protection’s National Cat Awards.

Elizabeth Rizzini Age

People often search for “Elizabeth Rizzini age”, but her date of birth has not been confirmed by the BBC, the Met Office or her agency. Various biography sites list a specific year and age, yet none of them cite a reliable source, and some contradict themselves. For that reason we list her age as not publicly confirmed. What can be said with confidence is that she has worked in professional meteorology since the late 2000s and has been a BBC presenter for well over a decade.

Is There an Elizabeth Rizzini Wikipedia Page?

There is no dedicated English Wikipedia article for Elizabeth Rizzini at the time of writing, which is why searches for “Elizabeth Rizzini Wikipedia” tend to land on fan databases and third-party biographies instead. The most dependable public information about her career comes from her speaker agency profile, BBC programme credits and broadcaster databases that record her on-air debuts. This page brings that verified material together in one place.

Elizabeth Rizzini Partner: Frank Gardner

Elizabeth Rizzini’s partner is Frank Gardner, the BBC’s long-serving security correspondent. Their relationship was widely reported in October 2020, and she appeared in the BBC Two documentary Being Frank: The Frank Gardner Story, which was broadcast in November 2020. The film followed Gardner’s life as a wheelchair user since he was shot by al-Qaeda gunmen in Saudi Arabia in 2004, and it offered viewers a rare glimpse of the couple together.

Both of them are experienced journalists who keep their private life largely out of the headlines. Gardner has told Radio Times that he finds public declarations of love “a bit icky”, and neither of them shares much detail about their relationship on social media.

Is Elizabeth Rizzini married to Frank Gardner?

This is the most common question about her, and the honest answer is that no marriage between Elizabeth Rizzini and Frank Gardner has been publicly confirmed. Neither of them has announced an engagement or a wedding, and no reliable news outlet has reported one. Gardner was previously married to Amanda Pearson, whom he wed in 1997, and that marriage ended in divorce in 2019 according to his Wikipedia entry. Searches for “wedding Elizabeth Rizzini” or “Frank Gardner Elizabeth Rizzini wedding” therefore have no confirmed event to point to. Some websites describe Gardner as her husband, but that description is not backed by any reliable source.

Is Elizabeth Rizzini still married?

People also ask “is Elizabeth Rizzini still married”, often because her surname is assumed to come from a previous marriage. She has not publicly discussed a former husband, and details of any earlier marriage, including a name, a wedding date or a divorce date, are not publicly confirmed. Several biography sites make specific claims about an “Elizabeth Rizzini ex husband”, but they cite no sources, so we do not repeat them. The confirmed position is simply that she is in a long-term relationship with Frank Gardner.

Elizabeth Rizzini Children

Elizabeth Rizzini has two children. Her public profiles mention that she is a mother of two, but she keeps her family out of the spotlight, and we respect that by not publishing names, ages or other personal details. Frank Gardner has two daughters from his marriage to Amanda Pearson.

Her public profiles also mention a houseful of pets, including cats and guinea pigs, which ties in with her charity work for Cats Protection.

Elizabeth Rizzini Disability Searches Explained

Some people search for “Elizabeth Rizzini disability”. Elizabeth Rizzini has not spoken publicly about having any disability, and there is no reliable report suggesting that she has one. The search term most likely comes from her relationship with Frank Gardner, who has used a wheelchair since the 2004 shooting and has campaigned on access for disabled travellers and wheelchair users. Content that claims otherwise about her should be treated with caution.

Celebrity Mastermind Win

One of Elizabeth Rizzini’s proudest moments outside forecasting came on Celebrity Mastermind. In an episode broadcast on 13 January 2025, she took first place with Celine Dion as her specialist subject, beating actor Danny Miller, presenter Josie d’Arby and BBC journalist Qasa Alom. Her agency notes that she was raising money for Hospice in the Weald. The win was a reminder that her quick recall is not limited to isobars and pressure systems.

Charity Work and Interests

Elizabeth Rizzini has a strong record of charity fundraising. She ran the 2016 London Marathon on a media place for Save the Children and Médecins Sans Frontières, and she has also completed the Great North Run. She has supported refugee charities by collecting clothes and toiletries, and she has worked with Cats Protection.

Her interests mirror her on-screen work. Astronomy is a genuine passion, which explains why she is so often the presenter chosen for meteor showers and aurora forecasts. Tennis is another favourite, and presenting the weather from Wimbledon combines both her job and a sport she loves.

Elizabeth Rizzini Net Worth and Salary

There is no reliable figure for Elizabeth Rizzini’s net worth, and her BBC salary has not been published. The BBC only discloses pay for on-air staff who earn above a set threshold, and weather presenters below that level are not named. Any specific net worth figure you see online is a guess, so we list it as not publicly confirmed.

Latest News

Elizabeth Rizzini continues to present for BBC Weather across BBC One, BBC Breakfast and the BBC News Channel, and she remains a go-to presenter for stargazing and space weather segments when aurora displays or meteor showers make the news. Her relationship with Frank Gardner continues to be private, with no announcement of an engagement or wedding.

Conclusion

Elizabeth Rizzini has built a solid career the traditional way, moving from Met Office training through regional television and local radio to the flagship BBC One bulletins. Her languages, her master’s degree in environmental journalism and her love of astronomy give her forecasts a distinctive character, and her Celebrity Mastermind win showed a different side of her to viewers.

On her personal life, the facts are simpler than many websites suggest. She is in a long-term relationship with Frank Gardner, she has two children, and there is no public confirmation that she and Gardner have married. Details about her age, birthplace and any former husband have not been confirmed by reliable sources.

If you are searching for Elizabeth Rizzini, the clearest picture comes from her work on screen, which is exactly where she prefers the attention to stay.

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FAQs

1. Is Elizabeth Rizzini married to Frank Gardner?

No marriage between Elizabeth Rizzini and Frank Gardner has been publicly confirmed. They have been reported as partners since 2020 and she appeared in his BBC Two documentary Being Frank, but neither has announced an engagement or wedding.

2. How old is Elizabeth Rizzini?

Elizabeth Rizzini’s age is not publicly confirmed. The BBC, the Met Office and her agency have not published her date of birth, and the ages listed on biography sites are unsourced.

3. Does Elizabeth Rizzini have children?

Yes. Elizabeth Rizzini has two children. She keeps her family life private, so no further details have been shared publicly.

4. Who is Elizabeth Rizzini’s ex-husband?

Details of any former husband are not publicly confirmed. Elizabeth Rizzini has not discussed a previous marriage in public, and claims about an ex-husband on biography sites are not backed by reliable sources.

5. Does Elizabeth Rizzini have a disability?

Elizabeth Rizzini has not spoken publicly about having a disability, and there is no reliable report that she has one. The search often comes from her partner Frank Gardner, who has used a wheelchair since 2004.

6. When did Elizabeth Rizzini join BBC Weather?

She joined the Met Office in around 2008 to 2009 and began presenting on BBC regional television in 2010. She made her BBC One national debut on the News at Six on 30 December 2019.