Lorraine Kelly has said she has no intention of retiring, insisting she has "the best job in telly". The 66-year-old presenter, who has fronted her eponymous ITV daytime show for the past 16 years, spoke exclusively to Express.co.uk about her career and future plans.
A career she loves
Kelly, a grandmother of one, said she draws inspiration from older women in television, including Loose Women panellists Gloria Hunniford and Janet Street Porter. "It's great. I love it...I look round and I see on Loose Women, people like Gloria Hunniford...[and] Janet Street Porter there. These are women that, I mean, Janet's in her late 70s, Gloria's in her early 80s. You can see these women - vibrant, wise women I call them - that have got plenty to say, that are full of wisdom. They've amassed all this wisdom their whole life, and they share it with us all," she said.
She added: "And I think for me that's really important. Putting your hand out and helping people. Giving them a hand. Not pulling the ladder up. And I don't see myself ever totally retiring. When you love what you do and you really enjoy what you do, it's not really like work."
Her team and inspiring guests
Kelly credited her on-screen team, including fashion expert Mark Heyes, LA correspondent Ross King, Doctor Amir Khan and royal editor Russell Myers, for making her job enjoyable. "I honestly think I've got the best job in telly because I've got all my gang around me," she said.
She also highlighted recent interviews with figures such as Derek Jacobi, Michael Palin and Eric Idle, noting that they remain active in their 80s. "Michael Palin's still out there. He's just been back to the Philippines. He's written a book. He's out doing a travel show. It's the curiosity thing. They've still got that curiosity and lust for life. They love life. Just every day counts. All of these cliches that are actually true," she smiled.
National Book of Bakes
Alongside her TV and writing work, Kelly helped HP launch The National Book of Bakes, a project inviting people across Britain to submit treasured family recipes and the stories behind them, which were compiled into a book. The initiative followed research suggesting some of Britain's most treasured bake recipes risk disappearing from kitchens.
Kelly shared her grandmother's Dundee Cake recipe and said: "We honestly didn't know what to expect, and we sort of put it out there and said, 'Well, you know, maybe let's just see what happens'. We got hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people who sent us their precious, precious pieces of paper written on backs of old envelopes, written in jotters and all of that. The whole idea was really to save these things for posterity, and we've now got this collated book, and it's all been printed out by the HP Smart Tank, which is great."
She added that the book will be passed down through generations: "It will be passed from granny to daughter to granddaughter all the way down. Because I'll pass things on to my daughter. Although, to be fair, I think it's skipped a generation with me because I'm not the best baker," she laughed.
