Kelly Brook went through several high profile splits from boyfriends before marrying longtime boyfriend Jeremy Parisi in 2022.
But the 45-year-old says the hardest break ups in her life have been with other women after they became mothers. Speaking candidly, Kelly says: “The most difficult thing for me not having children over the last 20 years has been losing friends because your lives are so different. It’s sad in a way. I miss a lot of my old friends who have kids. To be honest, when I go for lunch and I’m watching them mother their children, I get a bit like, ‘I want the attention, you’re my friends.’ I don’t want to sit there watching people parent.”
Kelly, who was crowned Sexiest Woman in the World in 2005, counts Hollywood actor Jason Statham and former rugby star Danny Cipriani amongst her former boyfriends and also looked to start a family with ex-fiancé Thom Evans but sadly things didn’t work out as planned. She has spoken of her pain in the past including a miscarriage in 2011 when she was with Thom and she and Jeremy have now decided not to try for a baby again.
On her decision to be child free, Kelly told Prima magazine: “In my 20s and 30s, I had miscarriages and past relationships that took their toll on me, physically and emotionally. It affected my life, my career and how I looked at myself; it made me feel like a bit of a failure. It made me judge my partners negatively, by how they responded to it. I never had a really positive experience with pregnancies and trying for children.
“I just got so sick of being asked about it. ‘We’re not having children’ kind of closes off this conversation. I think people are shocked you can be that blunt about it, but that’s where we’re at. And we’re not saying that having children is a bad thing.
“Obviously, it’s not, but I don’t think I’m alone. A lot of women have reached out to me since I was on Loose Women talking about it and said, ‘I’m the same; thank you for talking about it and thank you for being honest about it.’”
Kelly made her name modelling and appearing on TV and films but these days is best known for being on Drivetime radio on Heart FM with Jason King. Last year she and Judo champion husband Jeremy did take part in BBC series Race Across the World and she says it gave her the chance to show the world herself behind the celebrity persona.
She says: “Kelly Brook has been around for 20-odd years; it was something I created. My name’s Kelly Parsons and Kelly Brook was an alter ego, this public persona and glamour model and actress. Doing Race Across The World, I wanted to reintroduce myself as someone who actually has interests outside of entertainment, who loves my husband, loves my dog, loves my garden, cares about nature, cares about travel, cares about seeing the world and being aware of what’s going on outside of the country I live in.
“I’m really more connected than people would probably give me credit for. I think people think Kelly Brook is this young, ditzy glamour-model girl. Maybe I was, at one point, but it’s not really who I am now. And so it was a nice opportunity to introduce Mrs Parisi.”
Despite the odd hiccup the pair worked well during their trip of a lifetime, having been fans of the show who binge watched it in the past. But she and Jeremy did sometimes clash over what they should do and where they should stay and ended up coming last on the final leg thanks to a bus breakdown.
On taking part in Celebrity Race Across The World Kelly admitted playing up to the cameras a little and says: “Ultimately, I’m an entertainer. I’m an entertainer at heart and cameras are there. And I’d be lying if I didn’t say that. Some of the arguments we had were genuine and some of them we didn’t really need to have.
“But I thought, ‘The cameras are there, it’s what they want.’ I think Jeremy was sometimes a bit shocked by things I would say, or my little quips and one-liners. But you’re amped up, you’re in show mode and you’re like, ‘No, we need to have this conversation on camera, because this is what we’ve signed up to do.’”
Kelly has another race to think about now as she is in training for the London Marathon this year. She has been given a surprising tip to prevent chafing that left her husband perplexed. She explains: “I was chatting to a running expert. She said, ‘What are you going to do about your boobs?’ And I said, ‘Well, what do you recommend?’ She said, ‘You need silicone lubricant, so you don’t get chafing.’ We were in New York recently and I saw this pleasure shop. I said, ‘I need to go in here and see if they’ve got this.’ And Jeremy said, ‘What’s it for?’ And I said, ‘It’s for my breasts.’ I didn’t tell him it was for the marathon.”
Kelly is in great shape and comfortable in her own skin now. But looking back at her career she admits she felt the same earlier in her life and had less pressure to be thin when she was on the cover of magazines every month and landing big money deals to model bikinis and lingerie. She says: “I look back at pictures of myself and people would say I was overweight and curvy, and I was 3st lighter than I am now. It’s just bizarre how much scrutiny I was under as a young woman. You look back and you think, ‘God, I’d do anything to look like that and be like that now.’ And actually, at 45, I feel sorry for my younger self, because there was no one there to support me. If anything, when the vultures came in to get you, everyone didn’t want to be around you, because no one wanted it to affect them. No one would really put their neck out and stick up for you.”
* You can read the full interview with Kelly in the April 2025 issue of Prima now on sale or online now.
I’m backing Kelly – but she needs to grow up, says Siobhan McNally
The thing about children is that they’re extremely boring to anyone except their own parents. And even then, once you’ve had one hanging around the house for 16 years like I have, they’re rude as well as dull, and spend a lot of time loudly testing the limitations of door hinges.
It’s only an innate biological drive that stops me from sticking mine out on a rock like the Ancient Romans did – that and the fact she can find her own way home now.
So I completely agree with Kelly that her mum mates shouldn’t be dragging their annoying sprogs along to an adults-only lunch. Hearing about how Acacia uses potty training time to learn her Latin verbs would test even the strongest of friendships.
I’m particularly grateful for all the nights out with friends who decided not to be parents – they’re fun, rich and haven’t had the life slowly squeezed out of them from years of sleepless nights.
We’ve come a long way since the days when women who didn’t spawn were called “childless”, and now it’s perfectly acceptable to be “child-free”, but as Kelly’s discovered, that freedom to have lunch without a sticky paw in your pasta does come at a price.
But also Kelly needs to grow up herself – she shouldn’t be competing with her friends’ children for attention, because I hate to break it to the Loose Woman star, she’s going to lose out to an irrational, demanding, plague-spreading toddler with green snot where its nose used to be because that’s the deal. I mean, you can’t send them back – God knows, I’ve tried.
Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .
