BBC Breakfast's Victoria Fritz explains why she changed her name

Fritz used social media to provide an explanation, hoping that viewers of the BBC One news program would take note.

Victoria is standing in for another BBC host

This week, Victoria Fritz, who often hosts newscasts for the network, has been filling in for Sally Nugent, the show's primary host. According to the Express, Sally is enjoying her 'well-deserved' break from the show after months of hard work. It remains uncertain whether Victoria will be a long-term replacement for Sally, but she has clearly gained some support from the fans.

On Wednesday, October 26, she and Jon Kay were once again in charge of the BBC One newscast. Prior to the episode, Victoria had spent much of the week presenting alone while Jon traveled to Downing Street to deliver the latest on Rishi Sunak being the next Prime Minister.

However, Victoria's latest appearance on the show took the viewers aback after she revealed her name change.

Why did Victoria change her name?

According to the Mirror, Victoria's takeover of the broadcast thrilled BBC viewers, who urged the network to make her a regular presence. However, several viewers of the news program were perplexed when she returned to the well-known red sofa on Wednesday.

Within seconds of the show starting, spectators saw that Victoria, 38, identified herself as Victoria Valentine rather than Fritz, and several of them asked why she was doing so on social media.

@MarkOborne wrote on Twitter:

‘@VValentineNews Morning Victoria, how come the name has changed? Was confused when you just introduced yourself on the red couch’.

@WorfDelm2016 asked: ‘Anyone surprised by Victoria Fritz name change? What's that about? #bbcbreakfast’.

@hamiltonsusan19 replied: ‘I noticed that, how strange?’

Victoria rushed to Twitter to explain the switch from Fritz to Valentine after realizing viewers would notice it. She published a link to a blog post where she explained the partially sad reason for the abrupt transition.

‘Hello. You may notice a little change today’ she said on the social networking site.

Following the dissolution of her 2011 marriage to Dan Fritz, Victoria says that she has taken back her mother's mother's surname.

The beloved host shared why she kept her marriage breakdown under wraps, citing her two 'wonderful young children':

‘The reasons for the breakdown of my marriage are private. I have two wonderful young children to consider. Protecting their well-being and right to private life will always be my priorities. Yet, however private I wish to keep my private life, there is an aspect of it that will always remain as much in public hands as it is in my own. And that is my name’.

Victoria then explained that her old name (Fritz) no longer 'fits the future ahead of me':

‘Here’s the rub. It no longer fits. It doesn’t fit the person that has emerged nor does it truthfully describe the future ahead of me. In the re-casting and the re-crafting, I’ve discovered my name matters. And so I am changing it’.

The mother of two said, however, that she ‘couldn't go back’ to her maiden name because it seemed ‘emotionally regressive, stunting, depressing, and quite frankly, anti-feminist’. In its place, she explained how she had adopted her ‘Dubliner mother's name’, which she would thereafter use.

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