Lorraine Kelly has opened up about her enduring “working class cringe” despite her on-screen confidence and 40 years of television success. The ITV presenter, who has rubbed shoulders with the elite of showbiz, remains grounded in her origins.
Speaking to Woman’s Weekly, Lorraine, 65, shared: “I don’t even know if I have got confidence. I’ve still got a wee bit of that working class cringe, where you think if you’re somewhere posh, someone is going to tap you on the shoulder and say ‘I’m sorry, you’ll have to leave.'” She credits her mother for fostering her love of reading, saying, “That was probably the best gift that my mum and dad could ever give to me. We might not have been rich as far as money goes, but in terms of education, culture and appreciation of books, we were.”
In the same interview, Lorraine also spoke about how Oprah Winfrey made her feel comfortable during an interview, remarking, “I absolutely loved talking to Oprah Winfrey. I was very nervous about it because, obviously, she’s the queen of everything, but she could not have been nicer. She put me at ease – that’s supposed to be my job. She was fantastic and such a pro.”
Lorraine, a self-confessed space enthusiast, named her 2016 conversation with Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, as her all-time favourite interview.
Reflecting on a memorable encounter, she expressed her astonishment at having shared the studio with a moonwalker: “I couldn’t believe I was actually in the same studio as somebody who had walked on the moon. I sat there as a 10-year-old watching it on a black-and-white telly with my dad.”, reports the Mirror.
She continued, sharing the impact of the experience: “I get these really strange moments sometimes of thinking, ‘Gosh, imagine if I told that kid, you’re going to interview that man one day.’ You just wouldn’t believe it – of course you wouldn’t.”
The presenter also mentioned her least favourable guest in an interview with You magazine, where she branded Kevin Spacey as the “worst” guest prior to his fall from grace, attributing her opinion to his behaviour during their interaction: “The worst was Kevin Spacey. This was before the scandal. The interview was about his series ‘House Of Cards’, which I loved.”
She recalled her disappointment with a hint of frustration: “Isn’t it disappointing when you meet somebody whose work you really admire and you think, ‘He’s being an a***? ‘ … He didn’t want to be there. One-word answers. Snapping at people. You think, ‘Och, don’t do that’.”