GK Barry lands major new gig in career move that’s worlds away from Loose Women and TiKTok

GK Barry has landed a brand new national presenting gig and it’s worlds away from Loose Women and her TikTok fame.

The influencer, 25, has seen her career sky rocket since jetting off to Australia last November for I’m A Celebrity.

And now GK, whose real name is Grace Keeling, has landed a spot on BBC Radio 1’s schedule this summer.

The star will present her very own show for the entire month of July after BBC bosses announced a schedule shakeup.

GK will host Radio 1’s afternoon show from July 4 and will be on air from 1pm to 4pm every Saturday and Sunday.

Speaking about her new gig, GK said: ‘I am so excited to be presenting my own show with BBC Radio 1 across July, I thank the whole team for trusting me with such an incredible audience and I’m ready to bring you all into my world and music a few hours a week.’

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GK Barry has landed a brand new national presenting gig and it’s worlds away from Loose Women and her TikTok fame

The influencer, 25, has seen her career sky rocket since jetting off to Australia last November for I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!

GK will host BBC Radio 1’s afternoon show from July 4 and will be on air from 1pm to 4pm every Saturday and Sunday

Teasing her new show, the BBC said the TiKToker will be joined by ‘special guests’ who will co-host the programme alongside her.

Elsewhere, Jamie Laing will host his radio show with his wife Sophie Habboo this June.

Sophie, 30, will step in as co-host with her husband as Jamie’s co-anchors Vick Hope and Katie Thistleton continue their respective maternity leaves.

GK previously revealed how she struggled with the ‘vicious’ reaction to her Caribbean accent when her family relocated to the UK from the British Virgin Islands. 

She had grown up with her mum Loretta and stepfather Andrew in Tortola before they moved to Cambridge when she was just eight years old.

Speaking on the Loose Women podcast, GK told Jane Moore that her family moved to a small town that was ‘predominantly white,’ and her classmates couldn’t ‘wrap their head around’ her Caribbean accent. 

Speaking about her upbringing in the British Virgin Islands, GK said: ‘From as young as I can remember, I was in Tortola and I was one of the only white girls.

‘All the aunties were doing my hair, they were braiding my hair, little cornrows and I just never saw anything different about that. I just thought, ”Oh, this is it”.

‘But also the school that I went to, there were so many different races that it was just normal for me to see just any race, at any time… So I was friends with everyone. I had an incredible time.’ 

Discussing her family moving back to the UK, she explained: ‘And then when I moved back to the UK, we moved back to a predominantly white, small town and I had a Caribbean accent.

‘Now Jane, I don’t know if you’ve ever gone into a small town with a Caribbean accent and be white, but it’s vicious.

‘It was just really, really weird and most people couldn’t wrap their head around [it at school]… I’m talking about my life and people had no clue what I was on about.

‘And then obviously you’ve got the other side, my dad was getting a lot of hate at the time because again, we were in a white community, he was getting a lot of racism.

‘So, it was sort of just like, ‘I don’t really know where we all stand here’.’ and Jane confirms, ‘This is your stepdad, but he’s your dad.’

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