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Martine Croxall broke the BBC's rules when she pulled a face because her script said 'pregnant people', the broadcaster has said.
The newsreader won a legion of new fans and the backing of JK Rowling when she rejected the gender-neutral language live on air.
But now the Executive Complaints Unit has ruled that her facial expression expressed a 'controversial view about trans people'.
The ECU upheld complaints from 20 viewers saying Ms Croxall had fallen 'short of the BBC's expectations of its presenters and journalists in relation to impartiality'.
Ms Croxall was introducing new research on the number of heat-related deaths expected amid Britain's current heatwave.
But as the autocue prompted her to warn 'pregnant people' to take care in the heat, she first read the term out before overriding it, with a smirk and eyebrow raise.
She said: 'Malcolm Mistry, who was involved in the research, said the aged, pregnant people - women! - and those with pre-existing health conditions need to take precautions.'
Her correction of the autocue won her praise from the Harry Potter author, who called Ms Croxall her 'new favourite BBC presenter'.
JK Rowling's approval coincided with Ms Croxall's following on X jumping from 56,000 to 127,000 – and doubled in the first 24 hours after she changed her BBC script.
Ms Croxall thanked JK Rowling and her other supporters following the extraordinary TV moment.
'A huge thank you to everyone who has chosen to follow me today for whatever reason. It's been quite a ride,' the married mother-of-two wrote.
She posted a picture of herself this morning on the social media platform, smiling into the camera with her colleague Sally Bundock sitting behind the newsdesk as the duo prepared to go live on air.
BBC bosses had backed Ms Croxall, saying her reaction was 'to scripting which somewhat clumsily incorporated phrases from the press release accompanying the research, including "aged", which is not BBC style, and "pregnant people", which did not match what Dr Mistry said in the clip which followed'.
However, the ECU said: 'Even accepting this explanation, however, the ECU considered the facial expression which accompanied the change of "people" to "women" laid it open to the interpretation that it indicated a particular viewpoint in the controversies currently surrounding trans identity, and the congratulatory messages Ms Croxall later received on social media, together with the critical views expressed in the complaints to the BBC and elsewhere, tended to confirm that the impression of her having expressed a personal view was widely shared across the spectrum of opinion on the issue.'
The ECU said its finding had been reported to BBC management and discussed with Ms Croxall and the editorial team.
Ms Croxall has supported women on TV before - and behind the scenes also stood up with female colleagues in their fight for equal pay at the corporation.
Famously she also got tough with a transgender wannabe politician who said she felt attacked when Ms Croxall questioned her claim that the Supreme Court's April ruling that trans women are legally male and trans men are legally female might need further 'clarification'.
There have also been lighter moments, including when she winked and joked that she was a 'beautiful creature' and also the times she was wasn't in her seat as cameras began rolling.
She also appeared tearful when she announced the death of Prince Philip in 2021.
In April the broadcaster was praised when she challenged a transgender activist who claimed the Supreme Court's ruling that the definition of a woman is based on biological sex may still need 'clarification'.
The BBC veteran firmly told ex-Labour MSP candidate Heather Herbert that the landmark ruling made it clear 'sex is binary and immutable'.
Leicestershire-born Ms Croxall repeatedly challenged Herbert after she called for further 'clarification' on single sex spaces, at one point reminding her: 'The ruling is that woman means biological sex.'
She spearheaded a legal case against the BBC over pay, with the corporation settling Ms Croxall, Karin Giannone, Kasia Madera and Annita McVeigh launched an employment tribunal against the BBC in a bombshell case, which included the claim they had not been paid equally compared with their male counterparts.
All four claimed they lost their roles on the BBC News Channel following a 'rigged' recruitment exercise when it was merged with BBC World. The case was settled by the BBC in the spring of this year.
The row meant the women were all off for 12 months, which Ms Croxall chronicled on social media. Instead of being in the studio she enjoyed trips to Mexico, Bulgaria and Thailand.
During her time off, she went swimming with whale sharks and sea lions in the Gulf of California, zipwired over a canyon in Mexico and fed elephants at a sanctuary in Phuket.
That's on top of taking a hot balloon over the pyramids in Mexico and venturing on two ski trips, including one where she was seen relaxing in a massive hot tub after spending a day on the slopes.
Croxall joined the corporation in 1991 following work experience with her local station, BBC Radio Leicester.
She grew up in the countryside, attending an independent school before graduating from the University of Leeds.
In 2022, she was briefly taken off air after breaking the corporation's impartiality rules.