Jay Blades

Jay Blades (born 21 February 1970)[1][2] is a furniture restorer and presenter originally from Hackney but currently based in Wolverhampton.[3][4] He is best known for presenting The Repair Shop and Money for Nothing.[5] He has also appeared in Would I Lie To You?, Celebrity Masterchef, Richard Osman's House of Games, and Michael McIntyre's The Wheel.[6][7]

Blades was raised in East London with his mother and half-brother.[4] He is one of 26 children his father fathered in different countries.[4] He has dyslexia which was not diagnosed at school.[4] He experienced racism at school and from the police.[4] As a young man he worked as a labourer and in factories.[4] He then went to Buckinghamshire New University as a mature student to study criminology.[4][8]

When Blades married, he and his then wife, Jade, set up a charity based in High Wycombe, Out of the Dark, to train disadvantaged young people in furniture restoration.[4] The charity lost funding, Blades's marriage broke down and he became homeless.[4] He was supported by friends and by the Caribbean community.[4] Around the same time, TV producers saw a short film about the charity which led to his work as a television presenter.[4]

Blades lives in Wolverhampton, as of 2020.[4] He has three children: a daughter from his marriage and two children from previous relationships.[4][8][9][10]