Lorraine Kelly says the reduced length of her ITV show has given her more time to focus on what she calls her "real job" — looking after her young granddaughter, Billie. The presenter, 66, told the Mirror that spending time with the child makes her feel as though she has "gone back 30 years."
ITV cut the budgets of both Lorraine and Loose Women this year, with the two daytime programmes now airing for 30 weeks instead of year-round. Lorraine was also trimmed from 60 minutes to a half-hour show. With less preparation needed, Kelly said she now has more time for family.
More time with granddaughter Billie
"It's given me more time to do my real job, which is babysitting," she said. In 2024, Kelly's daughter Rosie gave birth to her first child, Billie, who is the presenter's only grandchild. "The main thing is to spend more time with that baby, which I would do all the time, basically she is the centre of the universe, and everything else just revolves around this child, and it's a joy."
Kelly added that being able to act as "nana" has stirred feelings of nostalgia. "Billie goes to the same nursery Rosie did, so when I picked Billie up from nursery, it was like, 30 years had disappeared, because I picked her up from exactly the same place, it was lovely, just lovely."
She contrasted her current pace of life with the years when Rosie was young. "When I had Rosie, I was in my early 30s, and you're sort of building your career and you know what it's like if you're a working mum - you're inevitably feeling guilty either way. But now I've got lots more time, and I think lots more patience, so I'm very happy to spend half an hour playing like we're in Frozen, or just going for a wee walk and looking at a leaf. I'll take as long as she likes."
Passing down family recipes
Kelly intends to keep spoiling Billie as she grows older, not only with "blue smarties" and treats, but with family history. She has worked with HP on the National Book of Bakes, a collection of family recipes from across the nation, and is encouraging people to write down recipes handed down from mothers and grandmothers.
The book features a recipe from each of Kelly's grandmothers — Margaret 'Granny Mac' McMahon's Dundee Cake and Margaret 'Maggie' Kelly's Clootie Dumplings. She remarked that these recipes are a way to remember people who are no longer here. "It does evoke so many memories of people who, in the case of my grandmother, are not here anymore," she said. "Both of them are not here anymore, but when you make things like that and follow their recipes, and I'm not very good, my daughter's much better than me, but when you do that, they're there with you."
Making Maggie's dumplings reminds Kelly of how her grandmother boiled them in a pillowcase and put a sixpence inside. She recalled how she, her brother and the other Kelly children would go back for more helpings, hoping to find the coin.
A shorter show that still works
Kelly also praised her daughter's parenting. "She's much better than I was, and she's just taken to it. There are some people who are natural mothers and like I say, she loves to bake, she loves to cook, she loves to just take care of Billie. It's instinctive, where I think I had to learn it with her a little bit. I think we're all different. I love being a mum, it's the best job in the world, but she's really, really taken to it so, so much, and it's great to see the two of them together, it's just lovely."
Reflecting on her career, Kelly said she is happy with the shorter format. "It's crazy!" she laughed. "It's been lots of different names over the years, but I think they've kind of settled on Lorraine now. I really, I really enjoy doing what I do, I'm very happy to be doing it. It's shorter now, but actually, it works, it really works, we get a pint into a half pint pot, and we still have great fun."
She added: "We have very, very consciously said that we're going to be a little half hour of sunshine. We've just thought, let's have some fun. On a Friday, we do our good news headlines, so we store up all the good news from the week. Oftentimes, they slip down the cracks, and you don't maybe get them so much."
Kelly, who started in 1984, said she never takes her position for granted. "I never take it for granted though, and I'm just delighted to still be here after almost 42 years. Can you believe that? I started in 1984, we didn't have mobile phones, we didn't, we didn't have mobile phones, we didn't have the internet, we had nothing. I've seen so many changes, it's been amazing, but at the end of the day, you know, what I do is all about people's stories, and that trust, and like I said, I never take it for granted that people want to talk to me, it's lovely, it's lovely, it really is."
