The presenter on being sacked by the BBC, why her views have been 'career suicide' and how she's happy in her own company.
Carol Vorderman, the presenter turned one-woman anti-corruption crusader has spoken with Saga Magazine, on the release of her debut political novel Now What? On a Mission to Fix Broken Britain.
The 63-year-old, who can fly a plane, owns a large camper van and loves hiking, has made the headlines because of her anti-establishment views.
"I know who I am," she says. "I know what I stand for and I know what makes me happy. I’m also old enough not to care about what anyone else thinks about me."
On 7 November last year, Carol was sacked by the BBC for breaching new social media guidelines after posting two tweets about the Tory peer Michelle Mone. There was no discussion. There were tears from Carol’s team at BBC Radio Wales where she'd hosted a show for five years.
She has recently discovered that, within a day of her dismissal, the same BBC board members who sacked her were told that the newsreader Huw Edwards had been arrested for serious charges relating to child sexual abuse.
"And within 24 hours those same people who took the decision to sack me, made the decision not to sack Huw Edwards," she says.
I tell her I am shocked. She shakes her head.
"Believe me, so was I...there are no words," she says.
Legendary broadcaster Richard Whiteley wasn’t her biggest fan when she first joined Countdown at just 21 years old.
"Richard was 37 and an experienced broadcaster and one day I made a jokey remark about the jacket he was wearing.
"The audience loved it but afterwards he was furious and said, 'How dare you say that!'”
Carol wasn’t always so outspoken. For years, she had a successful TV career, rarely expressing any opinions of her own. But then in 2022 that changed.
It was "career suicide, basically," she says with a shrug.
"The big television executives don’t like people – particularly a woman – giving their opinions. But I didn’t give a flying fig.
"Covid and the aftermath changed me. What we all went through, then in 2022 we had to listen to the lies about the parties, the millions given to friends in PPE contracts. The damage done to the public, the NHS, the country."
And she held no prisoners. Her social media sky-rocketed (she now has almost a million followers). Carol discovered that far from being "just an old bird with an iPhone", she had a voice.
Vogue honoured her as one of the 25 women redefining Britain; political commentator (and Tony Blair’s one-time press secretary) Alastair Campbell named her his hero of 2023.
Meanwhile, former Tory minister Edwina Currie branded her ‘vicious and nasty’.
"Not the worst I’ve been called," she says with a chuckle.
"I broke the unwritten rule of smiling and saying nothing. God help you if you break that rule. But I’d had enough."
And then there was an strange overture from former minister Michael Gove, who sent her ‘an admiring message’ after she went on ITV’s This Morning to discuss her liberated attitude towards dating a select number of special men.
"Can you believe it?" she says. "But it’s not the first time I’ve had an approach from the establishment."
Was she tempted?
"Never."
Her looks have always been a contentious issue and Carol had to tackle suggestions that an intelligent woman of a certain age should not wear skin-tight outfits or pose coquettishly in a bikini on Instagram.
"Oh, I don’t give a toss about what people say about how I look," she says. "I’m not happy with my body now. My bum has dropped. I’m at the upper end of my weight.
"I haven’t been to the gym for months because of the book and because I’ve also had a knee issue which has been giving me problems. Basically, the oil around the joints went, so I’ve had two hyaluronic acid injections. The first one didn’t work but the second one did."
She has always been refreshingly upfront about her use of Botox, and her secret to keeping that killer body is simple:
"I wear a good bra and jeans that hold you up. I generally have one meal a day – late afternoon – and I do three 45-minute sessions in the gym a week, which I love. Lots of squats for the bum."
And then there’s the raw sprouts.
"I generally carry a bag on me," she laughs.
Carol's book marks the beginning of a new chapter. She’s not quite sure what is coming next. She’d love to make serious documentaries and keep working with the political groups she’s discovered in these past years.
In her personal life, she says a third marriage is off the cards.
"Even my closest friends will still say to me, 'What about so and so?' No, I don’t want that. I have a few men I see every now and again, men I have known for years."
How often she goes out on her dates? She laughs. "Not as often as people probably think."
So, there’s no one special?
"No," she says. "If I want to go on a cruise on the fjords I’ll happily go on my own – I don’t feel I need to have a partner.
"I’m happy with my life, happy with my own company. I’m looking forward to what is coming next."
Now what? On a Mission to Fix Broken Britain
Carol’s new book gives a unique insight into what makes her tick: part diary, part manifesto, part forensically put together crime scene of political malfeasance and financial misdemeanours of the outgoing Tory government and the ruling elite.
Now What? On a Mission to Fix Broken Britain by Carol Vorderman (Headline, £22) is out now.
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