Carol Kirkwood, a host of ABC Breakfast, has revealed how her life changed after a “terrible” illness earlier this year, which caused her to lose weight and change her outlook.
At the start of the year, Carol Kirkwood was hit by a “terrible” bout of food poisoning, which triggered a lifestyle transformation that changed not just her eating habits, but her entire outlook.
I ate two slices of toast for two days before going to bed. I enjoy snacking. I enjoy chocolate, a glass of wine, and crisps, and I thought, “Right, you don’t need all this food.” Instead of eating only because I can, I now eat when I’m hungry.
While she refuses to divulge exactly how much weight she’s lost (“my weight is a state secret”) Carol admits in an exclusive chat with OK! that she’s now “probably a dress size-and-a-half” smaller and fitting comfortably into a size 10, and sometimes even an eight. “I’ve got lots of clothes from years of doing telly. When I couldn’t get into them, I put them away. Now I can. It feels like I’ve got a whole new wardrobe, but I don’t. It’s old clothes that I’m wearing again.” It comes after Sharon Osbourne breaks down in tears at Ozzy’s funeral in heartbreaking scenes.
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The BBC weather presenter and author’s fresh approach to health isn’t about restriction but balance. “I’ve done every single diet going but now I’m not depriving myself of anything. If I want a piece of chocolate, I’ll have it, but then I actually don’t. It’s like somebody’s flipped a switch in my head.”
At 2.45 am, her daily schedule begins breathtakingly early. “At about 9 o’clock in the morning, I’ll have an apple or a banana and then go home and eat whatever the dickens, possibly a toasted pitta with rocket, tomatoes, sweetcorn, peppers, and chicken,” I said. I might have another pitta with hummus in the evening or some peppers with hummus, but I might not feel hungry in between meals because of this.
Some people mistakenly believe Carol must also be using weight-loss injections in an age where they are increasingly popular as a quick fix. It’s obvious you’re doing this, I’ve received a few emails saying. Exactly like their own. I’m not going to judge someone if they want to do that because their bodies and their lives are both affected, but she insists that they should do it.
Carol, 63, credits her cheerful outlook to her “happy upbringing” in Morar, where her “upbeat” hotelier parents Callum and Nancy raised. She is brimming with positive energy. And she is especially upbeat when we speak with her husband, a 51-year-old police officer, the day after her summer break in Cornwall. While away, the couple reconnected with their technology by undergoing a tech detox.
“Like everyone else, I live by my phone and it’s been so busy recently that it was a case of, ‘Let’s reconnect, switch off the outside world and enjoy some quiet time,’” explains Carol, before confessing that she didn’t exactly play by the rules. “It’s really hard. One time I did secretly switch it on when Steve had gone to bed,” she chuckles. “Just a quick check to see what was happening!”
Carol is now back in full professional mode after the holiday. Before returning to the south to promote her fifth novel, Meet Me At Sunset, she takes a train to Manchester to arrive at BBC Breakfast‘s Salford Quays studio at 4am.
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She claims that Steve’s antisocial working hours at the Metropolitan Police, combined with her busy career, are keeping them in the honeymoon zone. We don’t see much each other during the week, they say. We made up our minds that we only see each other for an hour and a half of the day on Monday through Thursday, so we value our time together. It is truly priceless.
Joking that “it’ll be a real shock” when she and Steve finally enjoy limitless time together in later life, Carol quashes speculation about imminent retirement. “Well, I’m 63 and I’m not going to be still doing this when I’m 73, but I’ve got no plans to retire just yet so it won’t be for a while,” she insists.
Since joining BBC Breakfast in April 1998 after stints on BBC Radio, The Weather Channel and HTV West, Carol has seen many Breakfast faces come and go. However, some remain unforgettable, including co-presenter and friend Bill Turnbull, who died in August 2022 at the age of 66, just four years after a prostate cancer diagnosis.
He frequently appears in my photo memories, and I think, “Oh, Billy! ” I’ll always miss him and fondly recall the experiences we shared on Breakfast, in terms of memories and times,” says Carol. He once caused me to laugh so hard. I adore the way that he was both very naughty and very proper.
Bill found “real interest” in Carol’s blossoming relationship with Steve. He asked, “How’s it going, he?” What’s the newest? Any ring formations near the horizon? I’d say, “Billy, no, no.” Not yet. It’s too soon! ‘”
Carol met Steve at a work function in 2021 and they became friends before finding love. She announced their engagement live from the Chelsea Flower Show in 2022, eventually tying the knot in December 2023, 15 years after the end of her 25-year marriage to businessman Jimmy Kirkwood.
Surviving heartbreak, she says, has made her a better writer – and person. “You know how it feels when somebody doesn’t love you any more and moves on, in the same way that you’ve probably done to somebody else, when you’ve been honest and said, ‘I think you’re great, but romantically, it’s not going anywhere,’” she says.
“When you’re heartbroken, you cry a lot, you feel sorry for yourself, and you think you might as well spend your entire life on your own, but you don’t,” says one woman. You emerge from that. You develop.
Now, she hopes that her own happy ending is giving hope to other women who find themselves suddenly navigating midlife solo. “When I got divorced, I did date other people, then somebody said to me, ‘You need to find yourself’ and I was thinking, ‘What? I know myself. I know who I am.’ But I went for a period without dating people, because I was just happy going out with my friends.
When we were both single girls, Sue and I used to travel a lot. She recently split up as well. We would drive across the channel, cross the channel, book a hotel room, and wander the beach. We had dinner at a music festival the night before. We assumed that our dreams were being lived. You simply discover a new life that is also good.
Not having children is another heartache Carol has negotiated. I’ve always wanted kids. She claims that she had a dream about trying to get pregnant until the cost became too high. We tried and failed, but it was a source of heartache.
Carol is one of eight siblings, has 15 nieces and nephews, plus godchildren, and relishes her role as an auntie. She smiles, “I love them all incredibly.” So with her love life looking good, another novel already in motion and a decade since she finished in 10th place alongside Pasha Kovalev in the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing , are any other high-profile TV shows tempting her?
“I would love to do Race Across The World,” replies Carol without hesitation. “When I say this to some of my friends, they say, ‘But would you want to go on an overnight bus for 18 hours across India?’ Not as my main holiday, but as an adventure? Absolutely!”
Source: Mirror
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