Lorraine Kelly has hit out at the “hurtful” suggestion she takes too much time off from presenting her morning show.
The Scottish TV presenter has let her feelings be known about the parody social media account that tracks her absences from her self-titled breakfast series, which airs weekdays on ITV.
Recent years has seen Kelly take an increasing number of breaks from presenting, with X/Twitter account @LorraineKWatch succinctly totting up the number of times she has appeared on her show.
Having previously laughed off the account, the broadcaster has now said she finds it “really hurtful, actually”.
Kelly, 65, told The Guardian: “It really is. I’ve not spoken about it before. I’m a grafter and I work really hard and I’ve had to take Fridays off for the past year. I just thought it was weird to care so much.”
The host said she “initially” took time off to care for her mum “who has been ill”, but then realised she enjoyed the break – and was jealous of other ITV morning hosts who were able to work four days a week.
“It sort of brings you into line with everyone else because, if you look at This Morning, everybody else does four days. And as I’m getting older, I want to do other things – more writing, all of that,” the host, who has written two books, said. “Mate, I’ve been doing this for 40 years, working my a*** off.”
One recent post, shared to the account’s 26.3k followers, read: “Despite not hosting her own show this morning, #Lorraine is currently appearing on BBC Radio 2… at the same time her self-titled ITV show airs.” Another revealed that, in 2024, Kelly only hosted eight episodes of the series consecutively.
Addressing how the account regularly goes viral, Kelly added: “Maybe it just started off as a wee joke, but it’s the way that everyone piles on. It starts off as a wee tiny thing and it gets bigger and bigger. I find it really sad.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Kelly spoke about the £1.2m tax case she successfully won against HMRC in 2019 after a tribunal ruled that she was self-employed and also performs as “a friendly, chatty and fun personality” on screen.
She described the moment as “a low”, but said: “We had no choice. We took them to a tribunal because what they were trying to do was unfair. They were trying to say that I was a member of staff when I’m a freelancer, so they sent me a massive tax bill.”
Kelly said the saddest consequence of the case was that people thought she avoided paying her taxes.
“I’ll show you my tax returns. I pay my taxes on time every year, of course I do,” she said.
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