When we chat to Lorraine Kelly, she’s hiding in her husband Steve’s “wee den” upstairs in their London home so she can get a bit of peace and quiet.
“We’ve got a full house because Rosie’s here and her wee boyfriend and her dog Ruby. So I’m up in the man cave,” she explains.
Lorraine is with us to talk about her work as an ambassador for WW, formerly known as Weight Watchers. The presenter has started working with the company after going up two dress sizes during the pandemic – from a size 10 to a 14 – and she tells us that the brand’s personalised app, which helps with your mind and your fitness as well as your diet, really appeals to her.
“I did Weight Watchers decades ago and it really worked for me,” she says. “But we’ve moved on [since then] and it isn’t about weight – that had to be taken out of the equation. It’s about the whole body.”
Anyone who’s watched Lorraine’s ITV show won’t be surprised to hear that she has us laughing several times during our chat with her dry sense of humour. At one point she even stands up, turns around and sticks her bum into the camera to show us how big
it is (for the record, it really isn’t big).
There’s also a funny moment when the opinionated presenter gets an alert on her phone (which turns out to be a news bulletin) and our poor connection means that we can only hear the end of her sentence where she says the words “ Boris Johnson ”. When we jokingly ask if the PM is trying to call her, Lorraine, who’s been very vocal in her criticism of him, raises an eyebrow and says, “I’m sure I’d probably be one of the last people he’d call.”
We chat to the 62-year-old about eating too many doughnuts, why she doesn’t weigh herself and how she loves nothing more than hanging out with her husband of 30 years, Steve Smith, and their 27-year-old daughter Rosie…
Hi, Lorraine! Tell us why you’re keen to shape up…
During the pandemic I started comfort eating and that was my downfall – comfort eating and not being able to go to my fitness classes. When those classes stopped I started eating far too much – it was things that I would probably never bother with. Like I wanted muffins, I wanted croissants, I wanted doughnuts. All of these things that you know you shouldn’t be having and you think it’s making you feel better at the time and it doesn’t. And so slowly, slowly, slowly over the past couple of years, I’ve gone from a size 10 to a size 14…
You look great to us…
Everybody says, “But you look OK!” and, yeah, I look OK – but I don’t feel great. I’ve definitely not got as much energy, as the more you do the more energy you’ve got and the classes really gave me that. So I needed a bit of help. And that’s what WW has given me. It’s so updated now as it’s all on the app. It’s dead easy and it’s all tailored towards you. You don’t even have to weigh yourself if you don’t want to.
Do you weigh yourself?
I go by dress size. I’ve got a red dress that I want to get back into.
When did you realise you’d gone up two dress sizes? You don’t look any different...
If you look at me you can tell because I’m wearing different things. And I can show you the labels! I’m definitely a size 14, for sure. I wanted to wear my favourite red dress as I was going to a big ITV event. I thought, “Oh, I’ll just try this on.” No chance! It’s not even that it didn’t button up, it didn’t even go over my thighs. Before the pandemic I would have got into that and I would have felt good. So I ended up wearing a black stretchy dress and I looked absolutely fine, but I didn’t feel fine. There was also the occasion where I was talking to the boys from The Wanted on my show and my button pinged off my dress during the interview. I nearly took one of their eyes out. It was hilariously funny and I didn’t expose myself or anything like that – those poor young men! But I thought, “I need to get a grip.”
You look very slim in the pics on your Instagram …
That’s just the angle of the camera. Wait, let me stand up. Look at the size of my bum – can you see it?
It looks perfect!
It’s really, really, really not. I’ve got a tummy too but it’s gonna go.
Did food become a focus for you over the pandemic?
Yes – even though I was lucky enough to still go to work every day, all of our routines went a bit askew. Looking back on the past two years, it’s like a big blob because we didn’t have weddings or things that punctuate the year. I’d get home from work and take the dog out for an hour but I didn’t have any of my fitness classes. I don’t cook at all because I’m a rubbish cook but my husband’s great. But he’d cook these elaborate rendang curries and massive portions. And then sweeties at night time. It was just comfort eating, comfort eating, comfort eating.
Have you ditched the delicious curries now?
Every woman who’s ever dieted knows that a diet doesn’t work. You’re not going to eat cabbages for the rest of your life! It’s ridiculous. I love curries, they’re my favourite things. But what I do now is I use the recipes in the WW app. You just cook them in a different way or you use different things. So it’s just wee tweaks. But for me, the most important thing is this isn’t about how much space you’re taking up in the world. This isn’t about how much you weigh. It’s about how you feel. Over the past two years I’ve had
a few times when I’ve woken up and thought, “Oh my God, it’s all a bit too much.” So it’s about mindfulness too. It’s not about conforming to anyone else’s idea of what’s beautiful, it’s about conforming to how you feel.
Did you find it difficult that you had to be on TV every day during lockdown and couldn’t get away from the news?
Well, it’s part of the job but from the very start, I said, “Look, there’s got to be some light here. It can’t all be darkness.” And then we saw things like the late, great Captain Sir Tom, God bless him. And all these kids doing these incredible things. And the NHS – all of a sudden people knowing how great it is. I mean, we all know how brilliant they are, but people really realised that. So that was a little bit of light. But yeah, you’re right, I couldn’t switch off from it. That’s where you need to cut yourself a wee bit of slack now and again and think about wellbeing, because I’m very much like, “Soldier on!”
How do you relax?
My happy place is a weekend at home really. I love having Rosie over and her lovely boyfriend James and her wee dog Ruby. I take the dogs for a walk and obviously if we were up in Scotland we’d be able to go to the football. During the pandemic I didn’t so much miss going out but I missed having people round and laughing. You can laugh on Zoom, but it’s not quite the same as when they’re there and you’re holding on to them while you’re laughing.
* Lorraine Kelly has joined WW as an ambassador. join Lorraine on her weight loss and wellness journey with WW, where you can enjoy the foods you love with no restrictions. visit ww.com/uk/ambassadors/lorraine-kelly and get 50% off
