Two women. Same surname. Same employer. Same profession. Both with BBC News in North West England. One can understand why people will continue to ask is Judith Moritz related to Eleanor Moritz. The short answer? No. They’re not.
But this is why the question persists.
The Moritz Surname Is Rare
Moritz is no Smith, or Jones. It’s a Germanic and Ashkenazi Jewish name that is not at all common in the UK. When you’ve got two big journalists with that name working for the same broadcaster in roughly the same region of a country, people are bound to assume there’s a family connection.
Judith Katherine Moritz was born in Manchester on 12 March 1977. She’s 48 now. She is BBC’s North of England and Special Correspondent. She covered a lot of big stories, such as the Lucy Letby trial, the Hillsborough disaster, and the Harold Shipman inquiry.
Eleanor Moritz has been with the BBC since 1987. She’s around 59 or 60 now. She is the presenter and producer of BBC North West Tonight in Salford. She has been with the broadcaster for nearly 38 years, beginning at BBC Radio Lancashire.
Both women are brilliant at their jobs. Both have won respect in British journalism. And both happen to share a surname. That’s it.
Why People Think They’re Related
The assumptions appear reasonable on the surface. Moritz is a rare and unusual enough name that two people completely unrelated to each other should be so named, share the same profession, work for the same company, and live in the same part of the country. But it happens.
Online forums like Reddit and Quora are full of questions on this. “Are Judith Moritz and Eleanor Moritz sisters?” “Is there a family connection?” The speculation has been rampant for ages.
The two women have not publicly acknowledged a family relationship. Neither has denied it either, which is probably a perfectly appropriate response, because frankly it’s no one’s business but theirs.
According to multiple sources, there’s no publicly available evidence of a family connection. No shared genealogy records. No LinkedIn family links. No press acknowledgments. Nothing.
Judith Moritz Partner and Family
Judith Moritz’s husband is fellow BBC journalist Nick Garnett. He is a radio reporter for BBC Radio 5 Live. They met while both were working at the BBC.
Judith Moritz has two children, at least. The eldest son was born in 1997 or so, meaning he is around 27 years old today. In 2010 they had a younger child. Nick has shared glimpses of their family life in Instagram posts, though they keep most details private. Which is fair enough.
Judith has been vocal about being Jewish. In April 2021, she penned an Instagram post about lighting a yellow candle for Yom HaShoah. She wrote about her great grandparents, Maximillian and Clara Hermine Moritz, who were killed in the Holocaust. She brought up 19 year old Willem Preso as well. “May their memories be a blessing,” she wrote.
That post indicates how the Moritz surname in Judith’s case is from her paternal great grandparents. It’s her family name going back generations.
Eleanor Moritz’s Private Life
Eleanor Moritz husband has not been made public. She is married, with three children, and lives in Manchester, but has never released her husband’s name or the names of her children. She has kept her family life private.
Eleanor Moritz age is estimated at 59 or 60 in December 2025. She graduated from the University of Leeds with a BA in English, and received a Postgraduate Diploma in Radio and TV Journalism from the University of Lancashire.
Eleanor Moritz religion is not known publicly. She has never talked about her faith or background in interviews. Judith has talked about being Jewish, but Eleanor has not shared such information about her background.
What we do know is that Eleanor started at BBC Radio Lancashire in 1987, working on sports programmes. She eventually became News Editor there before joining North West Tonight in 1994. She’s been presenting and producing that programme ever since.
They’re Colleagues, Not Family
Both women have acknowledged each other warmly on social media. Professional colleagues who respect each other’s work. But colleagues, not relatives.
The BBC has a strict code about employee privacy. Unless a journalist chooses to make personal information public, the organisation doesn’t disclose family connections. Even if Judith and Eleanor were related, the BBC wouldn’t confirm it unless they wanted it confirmed.
But everything we know points to them not being related. Different backgrounds. Different family histories. Different ages. Just the same surname and the same employer.
Why The Question Matters
The persistent question about their relationship reveals something about how we think about success and nepotism. When two people with an unusual surname succeed in the same field, we assume family connections helped.
Sometimes that’s true. The entertainment industry is full of it. But sometimes it’s just coincidence.
Judith and Eleanor have each carved their own paths. Judith has won Royal Television Society awards and BT Press & Broadcast Awards. She co-authored “Unmasking Lucy Letby” with Jonathan Coffey, which was shortlisted for Book of the Year at the 2025 True Crime Awards.
Eleanor has spent nearly four decades at the BBC, becoming a trusted face of North West journalism. She’s known for her calm under pressure, her news judgement, and her high standards.
Neither woman owes their success to family connections at the BBC. They’ve both earned it through decades of hard work.
The Answer
Is Judith Moritz related to Eleanor Moritz? No. They’re not sisters. They’re not cousins. They’re not related as far as any public record shows.
They are two great, distinguished journalists with an unusual name in common and who both work for the same broadcaster.
And honestly, that’s probably less interesting than the work they’ve both done. Judith’s coverage of the Lucy Letby trial was brilliant. Eleanor’s 38 years at the BBC says it all.
Maybe we should concentrate there instead of trying to manufacture family connections that aren’t there.
