TV favourite Lorraine Kelly has opened up about the moment she’ll hang up her presenting hat. The beloved host of ‘Lorraine’, now 64, recently celebrated an impressive 40-year milestone in showbiz and was recognised with a BAFTA for her significant impact on television.
With her 65th birthday on the horizon and having embraced the joys of becoming a grandmother this summer, speculation has been rife about her future on screen, reports the Mirror.
Rosie, Lorraine’s daughter, gave birth to baby Billie Kelly Smith-White in August, and the wee one made her debut on Lorraine’s popular ITV1 programme just six weeks later. Sharing the joyous news with her audience, Lorraine gushed: “It’s just, it’s brilliant! “.
“Everybody said to me you won’t believe how much you’ll love this little tiny thing and of course you do, but it’s amazing to see your own child having a wee baby. It’s just lovely, it’s wonderful. I can’t stop smiling! ” Yet, with the new addition to her family, questions have arisen about whether granddaughter Billie might lead Lorraine to retire after a 14-year stint on her show.
Speaking to Woman’s Own, Lorraine revealed: “I’ve always said if the day comes when I don’t really want to go to work, I will stop. This year has been amazing, but obviously the most wonderful uplifting thing was the birth of Billie. I would live in the garden, in a hut, just to get cuddles.”
Since 2010, Lorraine has been a morning staple on her eponymous ITV show, Lorraine, following years of brightening our mornings on GMTV. Discussing the hurdles she’s faced throughout her career, Lorraine once revealed that she was advised her Glaswegian roots might hinder her television career.
“It was actually the best thing that could have happened: that comment spurred me to phone the boss of the relatively new breakfast TV station TV- am, who asked me to come down for an interview and then hired me as Scottish correspondent (Bruce Gyngell was Australian so didn’t have the same class prejudices,” she shared.
Lorraine’s daughter Rosie has candidly discussed her postpartum struggles during an appearance on her mother’s show. Rosie admitted: “I didn’t really know about postpartum anxiety. I think a lot of people say your hormones are mental and you have all these feelings. I was very prepared to feel like, ‘I’m not good enough, I’m doing well enough,’ but I wasn’t prepared for not feeling safe as I thought, ‘That’s not normal.'”.
Dr Hillary reassured her: “It is normal, 15 percent of women postnatally will feel anxious and worried about everything. You have a new responsibility but you’re also tired. You have sleep deprivation and your hormones are taking a huge drop and all of that has a huge influence physiologically on your body and on your mind. You’ll worry about everything, Steve, the baby.”