Prosecutors have said they will take no further action after a man was arrested on suspicion of blackmailing the TV presenter Alison Hammond.
Reports emerged last March that Hammond, who co-presents ITV’s This Morning and Channel 4’s The Great British Bake Off, had been blackmailed for large sums of money. It was alleged that a man had threatened to spread lies about her if she did not cooperate with his demands.
A 36-year-old-man from Warwickshire was arrested last year by West Midlands police on suspicion of blackmail and later released.
In a statement on Saturday, the force said: “We carried out a thorough investigation and submitted files to the Crown Prosecution Service for assessment.
“CPS has concluded that there will be no further action. We have passed on this information to all parties involved.”
The Birmingham-born Hammond, who rose to fame as a contestant on Big Brother in 2002, co-hosts the ITV daytime show This Morning with Dermot O’Leary and took over from the comedian Matt Lucas in 2023 to co-present Channel 4’s The Great British Bake Off alongside the comedian Noel Fielding.
The latest season of The Great British Bake Off, which concluded last month, ended with the 34-year-old Georgie Grasso from Carmarthenshire as victor. He became the first Welsh winner in the show’s history.
Hammond has also taken part in the reality shows I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!, Celebrity Coach Trip, Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity MasterChef, and appeared alongside the actor Richard E Grant to host the 2023 Bafta film awards.
Hammond is also due to host Alison Hammond’s Big Weekend, in which she spends 48 hours with various celebrities in a new BBC interview show, next year.
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Hammond’s representatives and the CPS have been contacted for comment.