Television presenter Lorraine Kelly has opened up about her upbringing in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, where she lived with her parents in a single room with no hot water and an outside toilet. Her parents were teenagers when they married four months before her birth, after her maternal grandmother wanted her to be adopted. Kelly described those early years as 'Dickensian' but said she 'couldn't have had a better childhood.'
Kelly's father worked as a TV repair man and worked hard to upgrade the family's living situation, moving them to a tenement flat and later a house in East Kilbride. Despite her parents' young age, Kelly said her friends loved visiting because her parents listened to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan, and her mother had a 'brilliant sense of style.'
Kelly remains close to her mother, who watches her on television daily and offers interview questions. 'If I'm talking to anyone while I'm presenting, it's Mum,' she said. She also spoke fondly of her father, a self-taught man with incredible general knowledge who introduced her to astronomy.
Kelly discussed her relationship with her younger brother Graham, born when she was six. She admitted resenting him initially but said they became best friends after she left home. She has been married to husband Steve, a cameraman she met at TV-am in 1984, for 30 years, describing their partnership as equal.
Regarding her daughter Rosie, who is studying journalism and about to turn 20, Kelly said they are incredibly close but she does not believe a mother should be a best friend. She shared that she had a miscarriage in 2001 but did not pursue IVF, feeling lucky to have one healthy child.
