Anne Robinson: “I couldn’t live with anyone full time again”
The TV icon and Saga agony aunt opens up to Lorraine Kelly on our Experience is Everything podcast.
Saga
The TV icon and Saga agony aunt opens up to Lorraine Kelly on our Experience is Everything podcast.
There’s no denying that Anne Robinson is a formidable woman. The 81-year-old star is famed for her sharp wit and no-nonsense attitude which helped her to become one of the biggest TV presenters in the world.
But as Saga Magazine’s agony aunt tells Lorraine Kelly on our Experience is Everything podcast, she’s had to overcome many personal and professional battles to get where she is today.
The first episode of the podcast hosted by Lorraine is an emotional, honest and funny interview with Anne. She opens up about the “appalling” drink problem that saw her lose custody of her daughter Emma, now 56; why she really had to quit her Cotswolds home; living with a partner again; and why she’ll never say no to a selfie.
Speaking about her “shame” over losing custody of her then two-year-old daughter Emma to ex-husband Charlie Wilson due to her alcoholism, Anne tells Lorraine: “I developed the most appalling drink problem in my 20s.
"And it was so bad that when I was divorcing my husband, he fought and won custody of Emma, which was the most shameful, and remains the most shameful thing, in my life. And I really had to pick myself up from that and somehow start again from quite a low rate.
“I think the shame is quite heavy. And I realised I had to stop drinking, which I did in the next couple of years. And slowly she was mine again, but it was quite a tough start. We had to start again when she was five or six, to really build a relationship which is untouchable now and has been for years and years and years.”
She thrilled to be close to Emma and her grandsons again after her deteriorating eyesight contributed to the decision to leave her Cotswolds’ home of 40 years and move back to London.
Anne admits she would be open to a new relationship but has her rules.
“I believe that real happiness is sharing a life with someone,” she says. “Joan Rivers said you need somebody to go home to and talk nothing to, so I do miss that. But on the other hand, I don’t want to compromise. So that’s where I am. And I don’t think it’s a bad place.
“Ideally, I think we’re best as a two if we’re happy. But I’m not sure, in fact, I’m very sure I could not live full time with anyone again.”
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