Lorraine's personal best Print E-mail
Written by Penny Kitchen, 2004   
With her singsong Scottish accent and ready smile Lorraine Kelly has been bringing stories and stars to our morning TV screens for over a decade. Penny Kitchen talks to her about health issues, her role as mother, as rector of Dundee University and as proud finisher in the London Marathon.

Q What do the late Sir Peter Ustinov, Stephen Fry and Lorraine Kelly have in common?

A They have all held the post of rector of Dundee University.

Lorraine, best known for her morning programme on GMTV, was installed as the Scottish university's first female rector in May 2004 and was the hugely popular choice among the student body. She will hold the office for three years representing students at the University Court.

Before moving 'down south' to Berkshire where she now lives, Lorraine lived 20 years in Dundee. "I'm an 'adopted Dundonian' and very proud to have been elected as rector of the university," she said. "My husband is from Dundee. When we first met he chatted me up by asking if I wanted to go see Dundee United play Hearts. It's unusual but it worked!"

Although she will be 45 in November, this professional journalist and broadcaster comes across to her viewers, her guests and to those who meet her as the bubbly girl-next-door, the one who's always willing to listen, smile and offer sympathy along with the advice.

Lorraine is from Glasgow and as she told Woman's World a few weeks after her installation as rector, "Glaswegians are generally a very open, friendly and chatty bunch. If you stand at a bus-stop in Glasgow someone will come and strike up a conversation. When I first came to London I would talk to people in the Tube and they would back away from me thinking I was some kind of nutter!"

Thank heavens the experience didn't put her off or breakfast telly would have been the poorer - Lorraine is a presenter who can talk to a celebrity as easily as she can to the mother of a disabled child. In fact her career began in Glasgow where she joined her local paper, the East Kilbride News, after sitting her Scottish Highers. She joined BBC Scotland as a researcher before moving to TV-am in 1984 as a senior reporter covering Scottish news. Presenting jobs followed: Summer Sunday, Good Morning Britain and then with Eamonn Holmes at GMTV in 1993. In November 2000 she was voted Showbiz Personality of the Year by the readers of the Scottish Daily Record.

Those are her front-of-camera credentials, but Lorraine was in the news last spring for an altogether more 'breathtaking' personal achievement - she ran the Flora London Marathon and made it to the finish line, raising in the process £11,000 for charities, including Scottish Autism and MS.

She had to work her training around her morning chat show, writing regular columns for The Sun and the Scottish Sunday Post, and looking after her ten-year-old daughter Rosie and cameraman husband Steve Smith. It was a juggling act that included sessions at the gym four times a week and eating sensibly, but she was determined to do it just once.

Describing herself as a "sturdy pit pony" rather than an elegant runner, Lorraine's sense of humour is never far from the surface. "I felt fab crossing the line at the end of the marathon.

I managed to beat (just) the 93-year-old man, but the rhinos and the Wombles finished before me! I was really helped round the route by the crowd who cheered our team on."

Her team was made up of forty 40-year-olds all running to celebrate the 40th birthday of the British Heart Foundation charity and to prove that it is never too late to get fit.

Lorraine is aware of the poor reputation her native Scotland has when it comes to diet and heart disease, so she was happy to convey this serious message by getting fit and running herself. As a personal bonus Lorraine has looked trimmer (she lost a stone and a half) and felt healthier since she took up the challenge.

Having made two fitness videos in 1998 and 1999, she is prepared to practise what she preached but is realistic enough to know that she could never keep up the level of training the marathon required. Nevertheless, when we spoke she was already getting prepared to run the Dundee half- marathon in June.

After that, Lorraine might go back to the gentler Playtex Moonwalk for Breast Cancer, which she has twice completed with her friend and running partner Joyce.

What we eat

Lorraine's humour and infectious giggle belie a thoughtful side, especially in matters of health and wellbeing.

"My mum is a very good cook so I ate really well when I was growing up - home-made soup, mince and tatties, traditional grub. But you're right, people in the west of Scotland in particular do have a poor diet generally with too many sweets and pies. Parents these days have a big task trying to get youngsters to eat in a healthy way without making too much of an issue about food, especially with young girls as that can lead to problems later on."

Lorraine is mindful of her own daughter, but says she herself has yo-yo dieted virtually all of her life: "It is only in the past few years since I started exercising and eating the right food that I have banned the word diet! Diets don't work and I don't even have scales or a calorie counter now. Too many women make themselves miserable by denying themselves food they love. I still have curries and chocolates but in small amounts. There are all kinds of books telling you what to eat and how to get fit and I just think: eat less rubbish and get off your backside!"

So what about exercise then - especially once there are no more marathons or half-marathons on the horizon?

"I don't go to the gym religiously," she admitted. "Training for the marathon got me fit (she worked up to running 16 miles and then 18 miles the week before the race), but it is tough to find the time to exercise to that extent. No, I take our three-month-old border terrier Rocky for a walk (it's good fun and gets me out of the door) or just go for a short run."

She also does some pilates-type tummy exercises. "I don't overdo it - I try to do something every day or two.

"I would love to have taut arms and a flat tummy, but it will never happen. I am content now. I'm a size 12 and that's what I'm supposed to be. I look gaunt if I'm any thinner and lumpy if I am any fatter!"

Dangers for children

Since being a mum, Lorraine has become as anxious as the next parent about the dangers of obesity among children and alcohol abuse, but as always she is as down-to-earth in her approach. Like most sensible parents she would like to see junk food relegated to weekend treats only, but she knows only too well the difficulties: "I've been solemnly told by mums of some of the kids who come to our house for tea that so-and-so only eats organic veggie-burgers. They are the first ones to want chicken nuggets and chips and to stick their head into my biscuit tin as soon as Mum is gone!

"We have to get kids eating better food and get them active - they need to 'go out to play' like I did when I was young. They are storing up all kinds of health problems for the future. Meanwhile cases of anorexia and bulimia are on the increase - I find that very scary.

"Luckily Rosie has so much energy she just burns it all up. She plays footie with her dad and I take her swimming. We've got swingball in the garden and she loves that - she is quite outdoorsy. Her school do a lot of sports and she has just got back from an adventure weekend where they did rock climbing and canoeing. But she is also a Square Eyes (like me) and would sit in front of the TV for hours if I let her. It is all about getting the balance right."

Her new post as Dundee's rector might give Lorraine the opportunity to get across another health message - that of the dangers of binge drinking among young people. "Binge drinking is a real worry, especially among young women who get legless and then make themselves vulnerable to all kinds of dangers. I enjoy a drink but again it's a moderation thing, you have to be very careful.

"It doesn't help either that there is so much confusion resulting from health scares. One minute wine is the devil's brew and the next we are told a glass of red wine a day can help heart conditions. It is very befuddling - I think we should eat and drink what we like but in moderation."
 
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