Lorraine Kelly on love, loss and finding joy after a difficult year
From personal grief to joyful new beginnings, the TV presenter shares how she's made it through a challenging year.
Elisabeth Hoff
From personal grief to joyful new beginnings, the TV presenter shares how she's made it through a challenging year.
We’re only halfway through the year, yet it’s already brought seismic change for Lorraine Kelly. In January, her beloved dad John died aged 84 after slipping and falling on an icy path. That same month, her long-running ITV show was cut from one hour to half an hour and from 52 to just 30 weeks of the year.
Yet when we meet in an east London photo studio, Lorraine, 66, shows no self-pity. Instead of dwelling on the lows, she’s bubbling with excitement about the highs. Her second novel, The Island Secret, is about to be published, and she’s signed another two-book deal. Then there’s the joyous anticipation of her 32-year-old daughter Rosie’s July wedding in Scotland to fiancé Steve White.
"Rosie has planned it all," Lorraine says. "I keep asking, 'Can I do something?' and she says, 'Don’t worry.' I’m so looking forward to it. Rosie was asking me if I wanted my make-up done for it. I said there’s absolutely no point. It will all just be running down my face because from the moment I see her, I’ll be crying."
Lorraine’s adored 22-month-year-old granddaughter Billie is bridesmaid. "Rosie’s maid of honour is taking Billie down the aisle. Otherwise, the two grannies would be fighting over who does it."
The nuptials have been a welcome focus for Lorraine’s widowed mother, Anne, 85, who suffers from the kidney condition nephrotic syndrome. She’s in East Kilbride, just outside Lorraine’s native Glasgow. Lorraine visits frequently from her home in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, where she lives with her husband of 33 years, retired television cameraman Steve Smith.
"Mum’s health’s bad, but she’s grand. She’s very self-sufficient, like all those war babies are. I always keep an eye on her but don’t let her know I’m keeping an eye on her. I’ve said, 'You can stay with us any time for as long as you like." Her bedroom’s ready, downstairs with an en-suite, but she says, “No, no, no.” But there might come the day – you just never know."
Lorraine’s composed as she talks about losing her dad John, a television repairman, who was suffering from depression after being wrongly diagnosed with lung cancer during the pandemic. "It’s weird. When something massive is happening, your hand still goes to your phone. Dad is – I keep speaking about him in the present tense – really into space. When [NASA’s rocket] Artemis II flew around the moon, I wanted to say, 'Are you watching this? It’s amazing.' Then you remember he’s not there."
She’s found a positive in that she is now closer to her brother Graham, six years her junior, who works in marketing. He’s lived in the Far East for decades but is now spending more time in Scotland.
"When Dad wasn’t well, it brought us closer, supporting each other. It’s been a tough time, but the conversations you have with your relatives you wouldn’t have had otherwise are amazing: you talk about the past and then the wedding – that’s a new beginning."
The Island Secret, by Lorraine Kelly (Orion)
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