AtHomeWithLorraineKelly2016 - 68

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he very healthy-looking Lorraine
giggles. 'That was my ﬁnest hour,'
she says, talking about comedian
Billy Connolly confessing recently
that he'd always fancied her. 'I was
thrilled, honoured and delighted
with that; he's a lovely man. When
he came on the show, he made us
all howl with laughter in the green
room, told brilliant stories during our interview, and we all
felt better having been in his presence.'
It is no surprise that fellow Scot Billy is taken with
Lorraine; she's warm, funny and looks amazing. At least
10 years younger than her 56 years and three dress sizes
smaller than she was six years ago, she's gone from
a size 16 to a 10, thanks to regular zumba classes.
Full of life, she's exactly as she appears on television;
warm but completely professional in a relaxed, informal
way. She also has a cheeky, naughty side and, shock of
shocks, even utters the occasional swear word.
Career-wise, she is most proud of her longevity - and
so she should be, having clocked up 32 years on breakfast
TV. 'I was never hired for how I look - why would I be? I
was not taken on because someone fancied me. I was hired
because it was thought I could do the job as a journalist,
having cut my teeth doing big stories for BBC Scotland,
including the Dunblane massacre and Lockerbie air crash.'
She continues, 'When I ﬁrst started on television, people
had a pop about how I looked and sounded because, back
in those days, nobody had an accent, not even on BBC
Scotland. That I was taken on was groundbreaking in itself,
which I think is good. I was hired because of my ability.
The fact that I'm still here makes me proud.'
She is still passionate about her job presenting the
magazine ITV 8.30am show Lorraine. She's on every week
day and watched by millions of viewers. It is her 22nd year
of presenting her own show.
'I couldn't do it if I didn't love it and, because there's
so much variety, that makes it so good for me. For this
morning's show, for example, we had a rough plan - Tom
Hanks in a pre-recorded interview, so that was a given.
Plus Britain's Got Talent's mother-and-daughter singing
duo Ana and Fia, then the news, followed by our showbiz
reporter Dan Wootton. But sometimes guests are late and
you have to change the schedule very quickly, live on air.
'After this particular show I had to phone someone who'd
won £250,000 in our competition. She was in her car
but it wouldn't start. I said, "Have you got car trouble? It's
just as well that you've also won a Mercedes and BMW!"
What a way to begin a Monday, making a phone call like
that. I've got an amazing job. No two days are the same
- one minute we're covering Syria and the next I'm talking
to our fashion expert Mark Heyes about ﬂorals!'

A PRIVILEGE

This March, 20 years on from the horriﬁc massacre at
Dunblane Primary School, Lorraine was joined on her
show by Alison Ross, whose elder sister, Joanna, was one
of the 16 children killed along with their teacher, Gwen
Mayor. 'I only met the family at the time because Pam,
Joanna's mum, asked to see me just after it had happened
- she'd liked me on television, had read my stuﬀ and wanted
to talk to me personally about her daughter.
'That was such a privilege and she's still my pal - I see
her a lot. Alison, who was a wee baby when it happened,
068 | AUGUST 2016

has grown into a remarkable young woman. She is bright,
sensitive and has an old soul. She's had a tough time, not
knowing her older sister, but Alison saved the whole family.
The worst possible thing had happened, with Joanna being
murdered, but Alison still needed to be fed. Life had to go on.
'I don't know how they manage. They never forget and
there's not a day goes by that Pam doesn't think of Joanna,
who was just ﬁve when she was shot dead. It's the worst
story I've ever covered. I reported on Lockerbie, too, in
1988, when a Pan Am jet was blown up by a terrorist bomb
in mid-air and crashed, killing everyone on board and 11
residents of the Scottish town.'

P... P... PICK UP A...

Penguins are a long-standing passion of Lorraine's, so she
was delighted when she was asked to present Penguin A&E
with Lorraine Kelly, which was shown on Channel 5 in
May. 'It was only supposed to be an hour long with me
voicing it,' she says, 'but the footage was so good, it was
decided to give it four episodes. I had to ﬂy to South Africa
on a Thursday to make further recordings, worked all day
Friday and Saturday, before ﬂying back to London.
'This all came about because I once mentioned that the
best gift I'd ever been given was a penguin statue from my
husband Steve - it sits proudly in my garden. I'm not sure
they realised just how obsessed I am with penguins, though.
'I'd seen these little guys when I'd been on holiday in
South Africa about 10 years ago. There's a colony in Cape
Town that lives dangerously close to a road and they
frequently get run over. They sometimes lay their eggs in
gardens and, because they're in such close proximity to
humans, there's a risk they may become too tame,' she says.
'They are now endangered because of this. You see them
in the middle of the road - they look like drunken old men
or toddlers trying to walk, but then, when they get in the
water, they become torpedoes and are so beautiful.
'I don't know if there will be a second series, but I've had
the best feedback for this of almost anything I've ever done.
It's very sad - sometimes, you can't save the penguins, but it
was a lovely documentary to work on.'

ANIMAL TRAGIC

When it comes to the animal world, it's not just penguins
Lorraine is passionate about. She has travelled all over the
globe seeing animals in their natural habitats.
'Last time I was in Africa, I went trekking in the
rainforests of Uganda to look for gorillas - you can read
all about my adventure on pg 242. I've been all over this
continent and the wildlife is fantastic, but the numbers are
getting smaller every time, and this is partly down to canned
hunting. This is where animals who have been caught and
caged are released into the wild for a hunt and the people
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