Carol Vorderman has opened up about meeting former Health Secretary Matt Hancock at the Cheltenham Festival. On Tuesday, March 14, the former Countdown star was spotted laughing with the I’m A Celebrity star - Read more about that here.
The 62-year-old explained their encounter in a two part video that she posted to social media. “Just seen a hilarious set up in an online newspaper about how I've been "cosying up to Matt Hancock". I mean WTAF,” she captioned the first video.
Opening the video, Carol said: “Right I’m home and I’m in my pyjamas and I’m with my Jules and we had a great day at Cheltenham. We’ve just looked online and there’s a whole bloomin thing in The Daily Mail - Talk about a setup - About how I’ve been cozying up to Matt Han-cock at the races.”
Read more: Carol Vorderman proudly shows off 'special room' named after her at her old university
Carol continued: “Ok I’m going to tell you what happened - I am always a guest at the jockey club, I’m at Cheltenham races all the time, I go to a lot of meetings there, I go to a lot of racing. I have shares in a horse with the chairman of Cheltenham races, it’s one of my things.
“Michael Dickinson, the genius trainer of all time, is a dear friend of mine. Along with Sir Brendan Foster, we were having lunch, we went into the Parade Ring and we always go to the royal box at some point to watch the race.
“I love the races so my friend Jules and I go, ‘We’re just going out early onto the terrace to watch Honeysuckle’... We’re looking out onto the course and I get a tap on the shoulder, ‘Hello, my name’s Gina’ and then I turn round and it’s Matt Hancock. ‘Hello, my name’s Matt.’
“I went, ‘Hello I’m Carol and this is my friend Jules’. What are you meant to do? You’re in the royal box. You can’t call them a [expletive] in the royal box can you?
“So we turned round to watch the course and [Matt] turned round and said, ‘By the way, thank you for everything you do with your son about enlightening people about dyslexia. I am dyslexic,’ and I said that it’s very important to me as a mother of a child with special educational needs that people are aware that you can become very successful.
At that point I said, ‘By the way, I really want to watch this race, turned round and watched the race.’ Jules and I never spoke another word again. That’s it! Talk about a b***dy setup. I was trying to be polite, just as I am to 500/600 people who ask for selfies everyday at Cheltenham.”
Hancock is still the serving Member of Parliament for West Sussex and is still a member of the Conservative Party. He stated in December that he will not stand for re-election at the next general election. For more TV and showbiz stories, subscribe to our newsletter here.
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