Lorraine Kelly tells woman&home she is loving like as a granny and a TV host with a perfect life balance
Lorraine Kelly says she has no plans to retire and “won’t grow up” – instead hoping to present her chat show until she is into her Nineties.
The TV host celebrated 40 years on screen last year and was even given a BAFTA for her outstanding contributions to television. But she is not planning to give up just yet.
ITV star Lorraine, 65, said: “I couldn’t give up the show because I love it – honestly, I’d do it until I was 95! When you’re lucky enough to skip to your work – without sounding like Snow White – why would I not? At the start I was quite nervous, but I don’t get anxious any more because I think, ‘This person is coming to talk to me. It’s my job to make them look the best we possibly can.’ It doesn’t matter whether you’re Meryl Streep or a wee lady who’s done an amazing thing.
“Of course, there have been storms along the way and so many regime changes, but I feel as if we’re in a really good place. The show’s doing really well.
“I don’t feel my age. I certainly don’t act my age! I love the way Helen Mirren says to embrace everything and enjoy every single second of what you’re doing. She said, ‘I’m not growing old, I’m growing up.’ But I’ve got no intention of growing up, thank you very much!”
Speaking to woman&home magazine, grandmother Lorraine also told how she has seen benefits from cutting back to working four days a week on her ITV show but won’t be going any further. She said: “Not presenting on Fridays gives me a chance to breathe and brings me in line with everyone else. Phil and Holly used to do four days, lovely Ben and Cat do four.
“Susanna does four and three. I wasn’t sure about it at first because I’ve been working five days a week for 40 years. It was a wee bit of a wrench. Sometimes you’ve just got to take a step back in order to appreciate what you’ve got, and it has certainly made life a lot easier with my mum not being well. She has this horrible kidney problem, but is doing OK now. As far as looking after her goes, also with Billie and then the writing, it has been a good change.”
Lorraine met her beloved husband Stephen Smith when working on TV Am when he was a cameraman and the pair married in 1992 and have remained inseparable ever since. Their daughter Rosie has now had a child of her own too.
And Lorraine has vowed to be a granny with an attitude to the baby girl born in August last year. She said: “Billie is the light of my life. I really miss Billie when I’m not with her. They’re an hour away [in north London], and I babysit as often as I can, but I don’t interfere. I’m just there. I love the fact that I’m Granny Smith!
“I’m a mischievous granny. As Billie gets older, we’ll get up to all sorts of nonsense. I want to take Billie travelling everywhere on adventures, like to see the penguins [in Antarctica].
“When you’re a grandparent, you see the world through their wee eyes and rediscover everything.”
Lorraine is not short of opinions on her morning show but says she does now rarely use X, formerly Twitter, anymore because she finds it too toxic.
She also told the magazine she is against cancelling people and they should instead be called out, having recently criticised Gregg Wallace herself on screen. She also urged people to try to stand up for themselves if they are being mistreated.
She said: “If somebody is misbehaving, being inappropriate and making anyone feel uncomfortable, they have to be called out so they can apologise. I object strongly to people enabling that sort of behaviour, and that happened in the past [like with] Gregg Wallace. You’ve got to be strong as a boss and say ‘No’.”
She added: “I’m against cancelling people. You’ve got to hear their point of view, so you can go, ‘They’re being an absolute t**t, what a load of old twaddle.’ You should never be cancelled for something that you believe, unless it is something heinous. I may think you’re the biggest w***er that ever roamed the earth, but you should be allowed to express your opinion.
“If we only talked to people that we agreed with, we’d be living in an echo chamber, all patting each other on the back saying, ‘How smug are we?’.”
* The April issue of woman&home is on sale March 6.
Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .
