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Janet Street-Porter is so unashamedly honest, witty and entertaining that you wish you could spend days, not hours in her company. Described on her own website as “the nation’s favourite pissed-off pensioner”, this is a woman with plenty of stories to tell.
The Loose Women stalwart, who turns 80 next year, vibrant red hair still intact, spills the beans on her recent surgery and her riotous UK tour Off The Leash in an exclusive chat with OK! – also telling us why she believes a rant is good for the soul.
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With her famous cackle, she says she’s truly on her way to becoming a bionic woman. She recently had her right knee “done” following a hip replacement last year and a left knee replacement eight years ago.
She claims that she was waving my arms around and showing off as she was walking to the loo without a stick two hours later, and that she was still full of painkillers. She acknowledges that she has since relinquished that high and is still suffering greatly.
“I’m walking around fine but at night the nerve pain is shocking. Really awful You have just got to tough these things out, she says, but I’m putting a lot of ice on it.
It’s hard to imagine someone like Janet wallowing. She asserts that you can make the decision to become someone who looks backwards, to embrace getting older, to discuss the drawbacks but also to applaud the benefits.
With her milestone birthday next December, we ask if there’s a big star-studded bash in the works. She admits she’s not sure yet, reminding us she’s had plenty in her time, attended by the likes of I’m A Celebrity star Ruby Wax, James Bond actor Daniel Craig and her close pal of 40-odd years Sir Elton John.
She’s unsure how she feels about turning 80. “My agent keeps saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to call a new tour 80 not out ?’ I say, ‘Darling, when you get to 80 and you’re a woman, you’re not interested in bloody cricket. And does that mean at 81 I kick the bucket? I’ll still be working and growing veg, but I’ll probably find a younger person to do the donkey work.”
She declares that she will continue to enjoy a greasy fry-up and the occasional glass of wine while also getting irritated about articles about healthy living. She claims, “I still detest those health pages.” “I read them then start ranting. However, ranting benefits the soul.
Janet has never shied away from making controversial comments, especially when she sits on the Loose Women panel. Asked if they ever get her into hot water, she insists they’ve merely “ruffled a few feathers”.
“I sometimes look at Coleen [Nolan]’s face and she’s totally amazed at something I’ve said. But on a live show, people want spontaneity, to see women saying things they secretly think but don’t have the guts to say. We’re saying it on their behalf.”
She adores working with pals like Coleen, Ruth Langsford and Brenda Edwards, and says they very often don’t agree on things, which is what makes the programme so watchable.
People are extremely concerned about upsetting people today. To me, it’s adding a level of anxiety that’s not necessary”, she says. However, I don’t intend to offend or cause harm to anyone. My observations, which are not hostile toward others, are the majority of my own.
” But I do have an opinion about everything. My partner suggests that I express my thoughts on the refrigerator’s yoghurt. And I do, because we actually discussed it this morning.
As for all the staff cuts at Loose Women and the reduced shows from January, Janet – who has produced and presented over the years – says she’s philosophical about it.
I’ve had to shave myself. She explains, “I’ve been made redundant.” For those concerned it’s very traumatic and I empathise. I’ve been told to stop watching TV and getting kicked out of it. It really wounds you.
“But there’s another job out there, and sometimes, especially when it’s early in your career, it can improve your chances and give you strength. I’m not talking about the Loose staff right now, but what worries me is that some young people don’t have the ability to look at something that isn’t working their way and get past it without collapsing or breaking down.
She adds, “People love our show exactly because the women on it have been through so much – the menopause, cheating husbands, money problems, we’ve done it all between us”.
After recovering from surgery, Janet returns to the road with her hilarious and autobiographical Off the Leash tour. Her close friend Elton aptly states, “The bitch is back.
In the first scene, Janet explains how she came to live in a working-class family in London in the 1950s and how she coped with her parents’ problems.
“I thought they were a bit weird,” she admits. “As a teenager, I’d look at them and think, ‘They can’t possibly be my parents. They’re far too boring.’ People might think I’m a bit odd, but I think when you see the show you’ll understand more about why I turned out the way I did.”
When they met, Janet claims, “They were very secretive,” despite the fact that both of her parents were married to other people. I’m a typical Baby Boomer in that my parents met during tumultuous times and were married very young to other people. I was raised in a family with a lot of rules and secrets. My father served in Burma during the war, and it had a negative impact on his personality.
During the show, she often gets audience members who identify with her descriptions so strongly that they shout out, “Mine were just like that”.
The production also includes hilarious descriptions of the food Janet’s mother, who “couldn’t cook to save her life,” would serve up, including a salad made from a lettuce on a plate, a spring onion and tomato, and, if you were lucky, a “tin of mystery meat.”
“I’ve done so much telly about food over the years – The F Word with Gordon Ramsay and MasterChef , twice – but I try to explain that none of that love of food comes from growing up.”
Janet kept a detailed diary from the age of 14 to 16, and in her show, she reads some excerpts from it. It touches on everything, including the boys she was dating, her beloved mod outfits, her famous hair, and her love of the Rolling Stones’ early music (surprise, she wasn’t impressed).
The star, who’s been married four times and has been in a long-term relationship with Peter Spanton since 1999, also opens up about key moments in her colourful life. There’s the time when she was forced to have a backstreet abortion as a teenager and the time she met her first husband Tim and promptly dumped the man she was engaged to be married to.
In retrospect, Janet acknowledges feeling bad about it. “I thought nothing of dumping the man I was supposed to marry, which in retrospect was very cruel. I chose my first husband because he was so gorgeous, funny, and wise. I followed my mother’s instructions exactly. But my mother then had the cheek to tell me she couldn’t hold her head up because she was so embarrassed about it. She appeared to be a bit of a hypocrite.
Her illustrious career in journalism and broadcasting is discussed in the show. She started off on Petticoat Magazine, as did Claudia Winkleman’s mum Eve Pollard, before becoming a columnist aged just 21.
She claims, “I’ve never really looked back since.” However, things weren’t always as it seemed. I remember the horrible prejudice about my accent when I first did radio. Although it’s not new, I had it in the early 1970s because of my working-class accent.
She says she left her television career in 1975, and she still finds it hard to believe that her own television show, The London Weekend Show, is still airing on the now-defunct channel LWT, has lasted fifty years. “Reading out my diaries on stage, I do sometimes wonder if I’m really that different from the silly teenager I was back then. I don’t believe I am.
