Daniel John William Wootton (born 2 March 1983) is a New Zealand and British journalist and broadcaster.
In 2007, he joined the News of the World. In 2013, he joined The Sun on Sunday and became editor of the Bizarre column the following year. In February 2016, he joined The Sun, under the editorship of Victoria Newton, as associate editor and in March 2018 progressed to executive editor.
Wootton has made appearances as a show business presenter on the ITV Breakfast shows Lorraine and Daybreak. From 2015 to 2018, he was also a regular contributor and panelist on Big Brother's Bit on the Side. In 2021 Wootton left News UK to join the MailOnline as a columnist and present a show, four days a week, on GB News.
From July 2023, allegations were published against Wootton in Byline Times of inappropriate and criminal conduct, including catfishing former colleagues, overseeing a culture of sexual harassment while working at The Sun and orchestrating non-consensual voyeurism of victims using male pornographic actors paid with misappropriated funds. Wootton said all criminal allegations were "untrue" and that he is the victim of a "smear campaign". In early October 2023, the Metropolitan Police confirmed an investigation was underway in relation to the allegations.
Wootton was suspended from GB News in September 2023 following an incident in which sexual comments were made on his show by guest Laurence Fox about journalist Ava Evans, which were described by the channel as "totally unacceptable". Wootton apologised and said that he should have intervened. His contract with MailOnline was subsequently terminated and Ofcom opened an investigation into the incident.
Early life
Daniel John William Wootton was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1983 to British parents; his mother was born in Basildon, Essex and his father was born on a British army base in Malta. Wootton grew up in Lower Hutt, a city in the Wellington region of New Zealand and attended Naenae College and Victoria University of Wellington, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in media studies and political science.
Career
Wootton started his career as a journalist in his native New Zealand, writing an entertainment column for the Wellington-based broadsheet newspaper The Dominion Post and was also a reporter for the daily television show Good Morning. He immigrated to the United Kingdom when he was 21, and after a period working for trade magazines, he found a job with Broadcast magazine.
Wootton joined the News of the World TV team in February 2007, becoming TV editor in November 2007, and show-business editor in November 2008 until its closure in July 2011, when he then became a columnist and feature writer for the Daily Mail and editor-at-large for Now magazine. He later testified to the Leveson Inquiry in 2012 about the News International phone hacking scandal, where he denied illegally publishing stories collected through phone hacking while an editor at the News of the World.
In 2013, Wootton joined The Sun newspaper launching a new column on Sundays. He became editor of the newspaper's Bizarre column in 2014, and was promoted to associate editor (showbiz and TV) in 2016. He was named 'Showbiz reporter of the year' at the 2010, 2013 and 2018 British Press Awards. Wootton also made appearances as a showbiz reporter on ITV's morning show Lorraine between 2011 and 2019, and has been a guest on BBC Radio 5 Live.
In 2015, Wootton and The Sun received widespread criticism for an article he penned for the newspaper titled "Hollywood HIV Panic". HIV policy adviser Lisa Power called it "vile" and expressed disappointment that Wootton had "lent his name to such a shameful piece", saying that it reinforced stigma against people with HIV. British HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust called it "irresponsible", and The BMJ, a peer-reviewed medical journal also criticised the article.
Wootton hosted a weekly talkRADIO show called Dan's Dilemmas from March 2018 and, in February 2020, he took over as host of the station's drivetime show, replacing Eamonn Holmes.