OK! Magazine UK – 22 July 2019

WWW.OK.CO.UK 9

rather than accumulating
stuff. I look up to smart,
funny women like Emma
Freud, Kirsty Young and
Victoria Coren Mitchell.

How important are your
friends to you?
I love my friends. I’m
incredibly lucky to have
my family, but my friends
are the ones I call and
who I have a proper laugh
with. Women look after
women, whether it’s at the
school gates – I’ve got
three kids at three different
schools – or at work. Holly
[Willoughby], Davina
[McCall], Fearne [Cotton],
Emma [Willis], Tess [Daly],
we’re all great friends.

Are you all at the age
where you discuss the
perimenopause a lot?
Oh, yes. We’re quite
competitive about who
gets there first. I don’t
think it’s happened to
me yet but I’m ready. I
asked my mum how her
menopause was and she
said she sneezed and it
happened. I don’t know
if there’s a hereditary link
but fingers crossed. Mind
you, I know friends of mine who are going
through it and it’s not very pleasant for them
so I wouldn’t want to laugh about it.

Did you experience sexism in your career
when you were younger?
No, I’m incredibly lucky. Where I work in TV
all the bosses are women and it’s a female-
strong workplace. So when someone’s had
a baby there’s quite a lot of chat about
weaning and routines.

Does it frustrate you that women still
don’t have equality in some walks of life?
We’re on the road to equality but more
needs to be done. We need to do a lot
more with childcare, perhaps crèches in all
places of work. Some of my friends have
had to completely stop work when they’ve
had a baby and then they’ve found it very
hard getting back into their career.

You mentioned that your mum’s a
feminist – how did she shape your
approach to life?
She’s a force. She’s brilliant and bright,
but also very cosy. In the world of
journalism she helped so many women.

She’s a massive believer in women helping

other women, because we just do. She

advised me to be the first one at work and

the last. Always smile. Be kind. Work hard.

And girlfriends are everything. She’s a very

clever mummy.

What’s your impression of the

younger generation?

They’re doing brilliantly, but I feel sorry

for them financially. How will they ever

buy a flat? Our generation were allowed

to really bu**er things up and make

mistakes. Also I think there were a million

parties at school that I wasn’t invited to

but it didn’t matter because I never knew

about them. Thanks to social media, young

people have developed FOMO [fear of

missing out].

Do you get FOMO?

No, I have JOMO – the joy of missing out!

I’m a real home girl. I like to read and I play

bridge obsessively. Me and my husband

plan to enter competitions. All I really want

is my three babies on my bed with me

watching Horrible Histories and me licking

them on the face.

Is the Claudia we see

on TV different from

mum Claudia?

I don’t think so. I’m a cosy

mum with the children.

Otherwise I’m just the

same on telly, but with a

bit more make-up on. The

children don’t watch or see

anything I do. They’d be

too mortified.

Are they embarrassed by

you?

Yes. I’m a very

embarrassing mum, but

it’s my job. My 16 year old

stopped me from taking

him to school when he was

14. He was like: ‘You can’t
    hold my hand, you can’t
    call me Pie or Snuggles
    anymore in public, you’ve
    got to stop greeting my
    friends with “Howdy” and
    stop doing that dancing
    show – it’s weird.’

How do you manage to

stay healthy?

I went spinning for a bit

but I bu**ered my chest

doing push ups on the

bike handles. I sometimes

walk home after taking my

daughter to school on the

tube. And I try not to eat

sugar, but it doesn’t last

long because my daughter

is an amazing baker.

What age do you

feel inside?

Sixty-eight. I always have

done. I asked for a crochet set

for my 21st. I’m finally getting

to the age where I should be.

When I was younger I never

wanted to go to night clubs,

clutching a warm wine, flirting

with some tool. I always felt like

an imposter. Anyway, I’m not

good with alcohol. I like a hot drink.

Tell us why you love being an ambassador

for No7 Laboratories...

No7 is for normal human beings like me. I

really love their HydraLuminous Moisturising

Foundation. It’s not thick and treacly, it’s a

light film of goodness and makes you feel

like a unicorn! And the new Dark Circle

Corrector is amazing. I still have a little

person [Arthur] who likes a midnight visit to

our bed, so under-eye correcting is great.

Do you suffer from dark circles?

Yes. I don’t mind the odd dark circle

because it makes me feel like a bit of a rock

star. I’m in bed by 9pm but I like the idea

that I might have been out, wearing knee-

high boots, possibly ending up in a skip. But

when I need to look fresh-faced, the Dark

Circle Corrector does the trick.

Do you have a regular beauty routine?

Don’t be absurd! I never take my make-up

off. I go to bed with as much make-up on

as I can, so I look cooler in my dreams! My

husband thinks I’m insane. I have a shower

in the morning and some of it comes off.

She’s a massive believer in womenhhellping

s d b w d t s l

is

W

f

S

d

fo

to

W

w

c

w

a