Alex Jones, the host of The One Show, has revealed details about her time on a sexy 90s dating show where she was forced to take her university exams at the same location the show was shot.
The One Show presenter Alex Jones has opened up about her wild appearance on the raunchy 90s Magaluf dating programme. Alex said that while on the show Prickly Heat, “everyone was having sex with everybody.”
The 48-year-old star featured on the Sky series back in 1998, presented by Davina McCall and Julian Clary, whilst studying theatre, film and television at Aberystwyth University at the age of 21.
In a surprising twist, following the show’s steamy challenges and a chaotic booze cruise, presenter Davina stepped in to help her complete her university exams by acting as an invigilator. Speaking on Jamie Laing’s Great Company podcast, Alex explained how she pleaded with her university to send her exam papers abroad, managing to fit in her studies around the filming schedule.
“I participated in this dating game show that was shot in Magaluf,” I said. She claimed that Davina and Julian Clary were the hosts. Prickly Heat was used to describe it. Everyone in Magaluf was having sex with everyone, and it was just really good fun, to say 40 people in Magaluf between the ages of, say, 19 and 23.
When Jamie inquired, “Does Davina remember?” She responded, “Oh my god, absolutely. My Magaluf finals were my degree’s. The university responded with “absolutely not, you’re not doing your finals in Magaluf,” and I was told to “please let me go and do this,” so they flew my papers out and Davina was the invigilator.
Alex faced some turmoil the day before her examination, when one of the participants reportedly grabbed her revision notes and is thought to have hurled them into the sea. During the podcast, Alex also disclosed that Davina had sent all the contestants a little card afterwards with a personal message, something which she still has today.
Often described as a precursor to shows like Love Island, Prickly Heat involved contestants staying in a villa in a holiday resort setting and participating in various challenges.
Alex has become a household name in the entertainment sector since making her first reality TV debut. Since taking over from Christine Lampard in 2010, she is best known for hosting The One Show.
Elsewhere in the interview, Alex has reflected on her co-host Jermaine Jenas’s sexting scandal as she admitted she was ‘the last to know’. Alex and Jermaine, 42, worked together on the popular evening magazine show from 2020 until his departure in 2024. Jermaine was taken off the show after being fired by the BBC for sending inappropriate messages to female employees during his time at the corporation.
After his wife, Ellie, the mother of three of his four children, announced the pair’s divorce earlier in March, Jermaine lost his 13-year marriage to her. She claimed that JJ and I had developed close relationships. The last one to know was me. The BBC handled it, and I believe they must handle it if viewers feel uncomfortable.
The presenter continued, “I would hope to God that I’d given my daughter the tools to speak up if she was at work in any industry and she felt uncomfortable.” I would hope that the business, corporation, or whoever would deal with it if she had the bravery to speak up because it is a brave thing to do.
Have you ever had unfavorable experiences, journalists are asked? There was stuff and there were some ways that things weren’t great when people spoke in the 1990s or the early 2000s. But nothing has kept me moving or made me shiver. And I was the same age as the girl I was, so I had no idea how to react.
You might be concerned that you wouldn’t have said anything if your job were in jeopardy, Jamie said.
Alex acknowledged that she knew she wouldn’t have said anything, and that she has a lot of respect for those who did because she believes it to be incredibly brave.
