By Dominic Ponsford
After five years of burning the candle at both ends, original Daily
Mirror 3am girl Jessica Callan is leaving the paper to go travelling.
Callan started in journalism eight years ago after studying history at Buckingham University and then taking an MA in biography.
After
eight months of shifts on various gossip columns, she made it on to the
Daily Mirror graduate trainee scheme and was later poached by The Daily
Telegraph to become deputy editor of the Peterborough column.
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After that she was headhunted by then Daily Mirror showbiz editor, Richard Wallace, to help launch the 3am page.
Callan said she was covering an awards bash in Monte Carlo when she got her ultimate 3am story.
She said: “I decided to hang out with Jordan and her then boyfriend, [footballer] Dwight Yorke, for the evening.
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“We
were at a nightclub at four o’clock in the morning when he asked me for
a threesome with one of his friends. I made my excuses and left.
“It was the story which got the biggest reaction.
“Piers
Morgan [who was editor at the time] said: ‘We’re putting it on the
front page and I want you to go out with them again tonight’.”
Callan, 30, said: “I definitely want to go back into newspapers and showbiz – it’s quite a world out there.
“It’s
a hard job – in the office all day and out in the field most nights –
but I think it’s an absolutely fascinating subject matter.”
The Daily Mirror has yet to appoint a successor for Callan.
Her fellow 3am founder member, Eve Simpson, is due to take maternity leave next month.
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