LORRAINE KELLY
If anyone looks cracking for their age, it’s Lorraine Kelly. Apple-cheeked, glossy-haired and with a joyful enthusiasm more associated with a toddler than someone who’s eligible for a bus pass, she’s an absolute poster girl for youthfulness in later life.
Now the sunny Scot is sharing her tips and tricks in a new book, Shine. Part self-help manual, part memoir, it’s aimed at anyone who’s feeling rather less then lustrous.
‘I wrote it just before I turned 60, which is a time in your life when you take stock,’ says Lorraine in her familiar Scottish burr. ‘I’ve been very lucky over the years to have met some incredible people who have given me some really good advice, and this is a way of passing that on.’
But Shine isn’t just about how to look glossy at a party. Covering everything from relationship woes to the perils of social media, there’s even a section called ‘Be a bit more Piers Morgan (yes, really)’, about learning to stop minding what people think of you.
Lorraine is remarkably frank about her own life, too, from her heartbreaking miscarriage in 2001 to the anxiety she battled during her menopause.
‘It was important to be totally honest, because otherwise it looks like I wake up and I ride around on a unicorn farting rainbows – the unicorn, that is, not me! – and life really isn’t like that,’ she says. ‘We’ve all gone through tough times, absolutely everyone has, and I think it was important to put that into context and also to say look, it’s OK, I got through it.’
The Buckinghamshire-based broadcaster has certainly had her fair share of knocks. Her father, a TV repairman, and mother met aged 17; she arrived soon afterwards, and grew up in a house with an outside toilet in the notorious Gorbals area of Glasgow. Even so, she was bullied for being ‘posh’ because her mum taught her to read early and dressed her immaculately.
‘Everybody’s going to pick on someone who’s a bit different, and that wasn’t easy,’ she says. ‘What’s really sad these days is that for me it stopped at the school gates, but now of course kids are bullied online. It baffles me that people are so hideous to one another.’
Naturally bright, she won a place at university but turned it down to become a reporter on the local paper. ‘I’m very curious – some might say nosy – about everything, and I just always wanted to be a journalist,’ she recalls. ‘ Of course then there was no internet, so you actually phoned up to find things out, and got up off your bottom and went out and met people to interview them. It was great training.’
Tempted by broadcast journalism, Lorraine joined BBC Scotland as a researcher, but was told in no uncertain terms that her Glaswegian accent was all wrong for the Beeb. Yet rather than putting her off, it made her even more determined to get in front of the camera.
She joined TV-AM as their Scottish reporter in 1984, within five years was on the sofa (‘all shoulder pads and helmet hair’), and married cameraman Steve Smith in 1992. Life took a downward turn two years later when, on maternity leave with daughter Rosie, she was replaced by Anthea Turner, but being offered a twice-weekly 9am slot to talk about babies turned out to be a blessing: the segment morphed into her own show, now known simply as Lorraine.
Over the years her guests have ranged from Oprah Winfrey (‘a goddess’) to Mariah Carey (‘bizarre: I asked her a question and literally five minutes later she was still talking, but wasn’t making any sense’) with everybody in between. A particular favourite is Hugh Jackman, aka ‘the loveliest man in the world. If it’s a massive film with a lot of hoopla, you have to go to them: they hire a whole floor of a posh hotel, and as soon as you arrive, everybody’s smiling because he sets the tone. Equally if it’s somebody a bit more difficult, like Kevin Spacey, then everybody’s on tenterhooks and stressed, and that’s a real shame.
‘I can’t believe it’s 35 years, though,’ she adds. ‘It’s gone by in a wee flash. I’m still learning, I’m still enjoying it, every day’s different, and I still think I’ve got one of the best jobs in the world.’
Breakfast TV is not all cheesy smiles and fluff, however. There’s a steely side Ms Kelly, as anyone who saw her mini-confrontation with Boris Johnson’s close friend Jennifer Arcuri will know, and she cheerfully bats away Weekend’s question about the £1.2m tax case she won for being a ‘freelance theatrical artist’ who puts on a chatty TV persona, rather than simply being herself. ‘It’s so blinking complicated that we would need to probably spend the next half hour talking about it,’ she says, at which point her PR cuts in to move us along.
Is there any advice that’s particularly stuck with her? ‘Don’t save anything for best. Seize the day. Also be kinder, not just to each other but to ourselves: there’s so much pressure on everybody to be perfect.’ Nor, she adds, should we fear getting older. ‘To be honest, I feel in better shape than I have in years, and it’s a great time to be the age I am.
‘When I was a kid, 60 to me was someone with grey hair in a perm, a shapeless coat and one of those little tartan trolleys, and now nothing could be further from the truth. You’ve got 80-year-olds who go sky diving! I’m not saying everybody has to go to that extreme, but we should all be enjoying life.’
:: Shine by Lorraine Kelly is published by Century, priced £20
SHINING EXAMPLES
Need a change? Go to the hairdresser. ‘When we do makeovers on the show, it’s the haircut that makes women look younger and have more confidence.’
Unless your doctor has told you otherwise, ditch the diets. ‘If you lose a stone, your life will still be the same and you’ll have the same problems, you’ll just be buying smaller knickers.’
Not everyone is going to like you. ‘Now let out a long sigh of relief as that realisation sinks in. It feels good to let go of that expectation, doesn’t it?’
Forget the Chanel handbag – a woman’s best accessory is inner confidence.
Shed your negative friends. ‘If you see their name pop up on your phone and think “Oh no, I don’t want to answer that”, this is not someone you want in your life.’
Do what you love and do it now. ‘The only thing holding you back is you.’
An edited version of this article appeared in Waitrose Weekend on January 6th 2020. (c) Waitrose