a! Beaten by a seven-year-old!’ Vogue
Williams exclaims in her distinctive Irish
husk. It’s only been 15 minutes since the
33-year-old TV presenter and I met for
the first time in London’s Battersea Park,
and already she’s slagging (Dublin speak
for rinsing) me, hard. I earned it; trying
to kick a tennis ball for her beagle/
Cavalier King Charles spaniel cross,
Winston, I missed spectacularly, only for
a small child to put me to shame by way
of a decent right-foot delivery moments
later. Given the usually tricky power
dynamics of candid celebrity interviews,
being straight-up laughed at is a welcome
surprise. Little escapes Vogue’s notice –
or commentary. ‘Look at that! What the
fuck? Like a gazelle!’ she remarks as
runners bound past with such buoyancy
it’s as if their Asics are making contact with
strategically placed rebounders as opposed
to smooth tarmac. Any subtlety wrought
by her hushed tones is cancelled out by
wide eyes and gesticulation. You get the
impression that no one can really get away
with anything around her – including
herself. ‘What does that say?’ she asks,
leaning over the handle of the pram, in
which sits her nappy-advert-perfect
six-month-old, Theodore, to make out the
blue lettering on the front of his dummy.
Then, grimacing: ‘“I love Mummy”?
Wow. That wasn’t even planned.’
That Vogue is funny won’t come as
a surprise to fans of her most recent TV
offering, E4’s Spencer, Vogue And Baby Too,
a fly-on-the-wall look at her and husband
Spencer Matthews, first as expectant and
now as new parents. It’s Vogue’s lovingly
eviscerating zingers directed at Spencer,
former scripted reality bad boy, that make
the show not just funny by reality telly
standards, but legitimately entertaining.When I settled down to binge-watch the series days
before this interview, low expectations were quickly
transformed into snorty guffaws and, on the moment
she shades his comparatively ‘shite’ TV creds, a full-on,
triumphant LOL. ‘I did get some tweets from people
being like, “You’re being mean to him!”’ she says of the
Made In Chelsea alumnus, aspiring chef and brother-
in-law of Pippa Middleton. (Questions about her other
in-laws are strictly off-limits, soz.) ‘I was like, that’s
not being mean,’ she continues. ‘Spencer and I have
such a laugh and most of it is based around taking the
piss out of each other. I’m massively proud of him,’
she says – before adding, playfully, ‘But he needs to
be put back in his place a lot of the time.’GR E A T E X P E C T A T I O N S
While Vogue may be great craic, her breezy tone and
self-deprecating jokes don’t mask the fact that she
means business. From landing her first modelling job
at 16 to starring in Fade Street – Dublin’s short-lived
answer to Made In Chelsea – she’s grabbed any
career-furthering opportunity with both hands. Such
opportunistic, bloom-where-you’re-planted ambition
makes for a varied CV: former Maxim cover star;
reality TV lead; Bare by Vogue tanning range founder;
presenter of lauded documentary series. The latter,Wild Girls, broadcast on Ireland’s public service
broadcaster RTÉ, garnered acclaim and elicited
comparisons with Stacey Dooley. One Irish critic
described Vogue’s conversation with Emelia Carr, at
the time the youngest woman on America’s death row,
as ‘one of the most sensitively handled interviews I’ve
ever seen with a condemned person’. She looks bashful,
takes a moment to acknowledge the favourable
comparison, then expertly reroutes chat towards
Emelia. ‘[She] was a woman my own age who’s living
in a cell 23 hours a day and it was just so depressing,’
she recalls. ‘She was someone who grew up listening
to the same music as me...’ The enthusiasm with which
Vogue recalls her time reporting on the US prison
system suggests that making documentaries isn’t
something she wants to leave in the past. Indeed, she’s
in talks to do more, unless she gets sidetracked by
more straight-down-the-line presenting (she cites
Holly Willoughby as a career inspiration), or an
are-you-tough-enough celebrity challenge format.
‘Like that SAS show [SAS: Who Dares Wins]! I think
Ant Middleton is just so good!’ she enthuses.
It would be a natural fit for Vogue’s decidedly alpha,
all-in nature. In person, she gives off an irrepressible
energy that makes me grateful we chose a leisurely lap
of a muggy park for our meet, rather than a few rounds
in the ring at one of her favourite fitness studios, Kobox.Vogue seems happy with
plodding over punches, too. ‘My
legs are in bits!’ she grimaces,
before explaining that she was
up at 5.30am for two hours of
jockey training at Epsom
racecourse for a charity race in
August, before a session at the
gym. ‘[I’m training] the way I
train for anything,’ she explains.
‘I just put everything into it
because I want to win. Though
I am up against some horsey
people, so we’ll just see how
we go. Someone was like to me,
“Do you want to win or do you
just want to place?” And I was
like, er, no, it’s a competition,’
she says. ‘So, I want to win.’GO HARD AND
GO AGAIN
Vogue has never had to psych
herself up to train. Exercise was
always a fun hobby for the girl
who grew up thwacking tennis
balls across the net at one of her
three siblings, and it remains
so. Currently, Vogue trains four
times a week with celebrity PTDalton Wong; sessions typically
involve body weight work with
gliders and resistance bands
and wince-inducing stints on
the Versaclimber. ‘I’m never
letting him go!’ she enthuses.
Pre-Dalton, she typically
notched up five gym sessions
per week, and was initially
sceptical when he said she
could drop a session and still
see the gains she wanted for
her first Women’s Health cover.
‘He kills me in 45 minutes to
an hour,’ she says. ‘I make
them really worth it – I leave
exhausted.’ She also fits in a
daily walk, or occasional gentle
run, with dog and baby in tow.
‘I’m not a natural runner,’ she
admits – but seasoned pro
Spencer is helping with that.
‘The last time I felt really proud‘Spencer and I have such a laugh
and most of it is based around
taking the piss out of each other’
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