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She may be gearing up to host the Daily Mirror’s Pride of Britain awards but 64-year-old Carol Vorderman reveals she may be gettting older but she’s still down with the youngsters

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Carol Vorderman jokes she’s “getting trendy with the youngsters” as she ages, having sworn – mostly – off the booze.

The 64-year-old broadcast legend, who is gearing up to host the Daily Mirror’s Pride of Britain Awards, with P&O Cruises, later this month alongside Ashley Banjo, is following in the footsteps of sober Gen Z-ers and cutting out alcohol.

“I’m out all the time at the moment – I’ve just had the best summer of my life,” says Carol. “I’ve never smoked, I’ve literally never done a recreational drug in my life. I used to go out and get merry, but now I hardly drink either. But I’m having a great time.”

After spending the summer enjoying mini-breaks with “the gays and the girls”, and catching up with old friends, Carol now can’t wait to meet her extended Pride of Britain family at the star-studded show next week.

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“It’s just wonderful to be in the same room with all the winners,” she says. “It lifts you. With all this terrible stuff in the news, you get to hear the stories about good people, who get drowned out otherwise. I think it’s ever more important that we celebrate them.”

And the incredible winners this year will get their own moment the night before the glittering awards ceremony at Carol and Ashley’s informal ‘Winners’ Dinner’. “We started doing this a few years ago, getting all the winners and their families round the table and we go through the running order,” she explains.

“We briefly tell each person’s story and the reason they’ve won their award, and then everyone cheers. Then, every time, they go, ‘oh, isn’t so-and-so amazing, I completely understand why they’ve won an award, but I don’t understand why I have.’ Every year they do this!”

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But being able to celebrate the nation’s ordinary people who have done extraordinary things is the best part of Carol’s job – while witnessing them forge close friendships is a close second. “They’re all extraordinary. And by their nature, they seem to all be modest, and by that same nature, they love other people,” she says.

“So I think it’s very easy for people like that to form a ‘framily’ – that’s what they call them now, a family of friends. I know there’s at least six WhatsApp groups from last year’s winners – and several of them are all going on the same P&O Cruises ship to the Caribbean in November.”

Just days before the awards show, Carol is being recognised by her Cambridge University college with an honorary fellowship as Sidney Sussex marks 50 years since it allowed the first women to enrol as undergraduates.

“I went 47 years ago, so I was in the third year there that they took women,” she remembers. “I’ve won a children’s BAFTA in the past and various other awards, but this, for a nerd and a geek like me, is the equivalent of an Oscar and BAFTA combined.

“My role will be to encourage kids from my kind of background, particularly girls – from state school, on free school meals – to apply to Cambridge,” she says proudly. “I’m delighted with it.”

Loose Women regular Brenda Edwards has opened up on how her battle with breast cancer has changed her entire outlook on life – and made her stay on top of her health more than ever before

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Popular, straight-talking Brenda Edwards, who first rose to fame on The X Factor in 2005, has opened up exclusively to OK! about how her experience with breast cancer a few years ago totally transformed how the 56-year-old lives her life today.

The TV presenter, singer and actress, who is part of ITV’s Loose Women panel alongside Coleen Nolan, Ruth Langsford and Christine Lampard, has had a very difficult few years – following the tragic death of her son, Jamal Edwards, who passed away in 2022 at the age of just 31 from a cardiac arrest.

But the TV star, who also has a 31-year-old daughter, Tanisha, has also fought breast cancer – and reveals in an exclusive chat with OK! that her experiences have taught her not only the importance of life, but how short it can be.

After being diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2015, when she was just 46 and playing Motormouth Maybelle in Hairspray, Brenda underwent chemotherapy, a mastectomy and breast reconstruction, and is now cancer-free.

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And though she admits it was terrifying, Brenda says her illness led to a change for the better. “It really makes you appreciate life. It makes you want to grab each moment when you can in whatever way you can. You realise that life isn’t promised to you. I think I’ve also become a bit more confident since facing cancer, to talk about things that have happened to me and to be open,” she adds.

Brenda admits, past experience means she is now extremely vigilant when it comes to looking after her health. “I’m always on top of things to do with my health now, since the diagnosis.

“If something doesn’t feel right, I’m on top of it. For many people, it can be nerve-wracking when something is wrong and you’re worried about whether there’s a problem, but I see it the other way around. What if it’s nothing? It’s better to have peace of mind.”

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It’s this new philosophy on taking meticulous care of her physical and mental health that has led the star to supporting a campaign dubbed The Aunties Army, in conjunction with Specsavers and Glaucoma UK – encouraging those from African-Caribbean backgrounds to get their eyes checked more regularly, as new research shows that African-Caribbean communities are up to four times more likely to develop glaucoma, yet more likely to delay or avoid health appointments.

“I’ve got a history of women in my family having issues with their eyes, so I felt it would be good to use my platform to help raise awareness for people of the African and Caribbean communities,” Brenda says. “Since the campaign video aired, I’ve had messages from people saying they’re going to get checked, so initiatives like this really do work.”

Brenda Edwards supports the Specsavers Aunties Army campaign raising awareness of glaucoma in Afro-Caribbean communities. To watch the video and help spread the message, visit specsavers.co.uk/eye-health/glaucoma

National treasre Joanna Lumley had some words of wisdom at the Cheltenham Literature Festival and opened up about her former fear of death

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Dame Joanna Lumley has revealed the secrets of her long-lasting marriage – and why she is no longer scared of dying. The 79-year-old national treasure gave a wide-ranging talk at the Cheltenham Literature Festival.

She insisted she was not scared of dying after several incidents had made her more relaxed about her mortality. The first event was when she filmed BBC documentary Girl Friday in 1994 when she agreed to spend nine days on an uninhabited desert island off the coast of Madagascar with just a basic survival kit.

She said: “I had this piece of sacking, no bed or anything like that. No towels kept dry, and I lived like a little animal. And it was the most thrilling thing. It changed me completely. I stopped being afraid of death. because I suddenly thought everything’s here, these little creatures, when the crew came on in the morning to film me, and then went off in the evening, when the sun set, and when it goes down it’s gone black.

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“And so it was black for about 12 hours of the night on my own in a cave or on the beach with nothing to read, nothing to do. So you have your own thoughts with you there.

“And I thought, Look, if this is what it is, I belong to the earth, the small turtles running there, the great big fish eagles who come looking at me, the fruit bats who fly close. I could just belong here, and that would be okay, and I could lie on the ground and be asleep. So I stopped being afraid.

“And another time I stopped being afraid was when Patsy fell into an open grave. We’d been up to somewhere like Highgate Cemetery and they put some crash mats in the bottom.

“But one feels a bit spooky about these things lying in a grave. But I went onto the bottom and lay there, and I saw these lovely earth walls empty, and it felt like home.

“No matter what we think or want or do or say, we can’t stop us being alive and being dead. Everybody here is alive, and so all of us will be dead, so we can’t stop that. So you’ve got to kind of come to terms with it.”

Dame Joanna was promoting her new publication My Book of Treasures, which features lines from her best-loved authors, her pearls of wisdom and nuggets of trivia.

She said: “When I say I have written it, the truth is I have assembled it. It is things in my head, or that people have said, or poems, and things I have collected that I love. It is magic.” She also spoke briefly about her husband, composer Stephen Barlow, and the secret of their long marriage, having walked down the aisle in 1986.

She said: “I think one of the great things about Stevie, he’s a conductor, and he’s a composer, and he’s also a pianist and so we both knew we had different lives when we married, and we both knew that we’d be apart quite off the time.

“And I think that’s probably quite healthy, because I go off on trips and I do stuff and film. He goes off and does operas and things. We don’t need each other in each other’s lives when you’re working. I can’t just sit there while he’s rehearsing an opera. He doesn’t need to come and just hang around the film set when I’m working.

“And so we keep it separate from each other. But I think one of the first things you’ve got to have for whoever you marry, who is going to be your chosen companion, is respect. You’ve got to think the world of them. You’ve got to think they’re the cat’s pyjamas, because if you don’t, it’s got no chance.”

Dame Joanna Lumley has opened up about her childhood and while things are Absolutely Fabulous now, this wasn’t always the case for the iconic actress

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Dame Joanna Lumley is acting royalty now, but she clearly remembers the terror she felt playing a queen in her acting debut, aged six. The 79-year-old star recalled being cast in an adaptation of the AA Milne poem, The King’s Breakfast.

She said: “I was the Queen, and mummy made me a lovely blue dress, a little gold crown made of cardboard. I was to just walk on and say things like, ‘Could we have some butter for the royal slice of bread?’”

Speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, she remembered having a meltdown when she got to the side of the stage. She said: “I thought my heart was going to explode with terror. I thought I would go deaf and blind simultaneously, so I walked out on the stage, and I had to say the lines.”

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But she got through it, and said: “I knew then, for sure, that was what I was going to be doing for the rest of my life.” Dame Joanna was promoting her new publication My Book of Treasures, which features lines from her best-loved authors, her pearls of wisdom and nuggets of trivia.

She said: “When I say I have written it, the truth is I have assembled it. It is things in my head or that people have said or poems and things I have collected that I love. It is magic.”

Later in the session at Cheltenham, Joanna Lumley also insisted she was not scared of dying after several incidents had made her more relaxed about her mortality.

The first event was when she filmed BBC documentary Girl Friday in 1994 when she agreed to spend nine days on an uninhabited desert island off the coast of Madagascar with just a basic survival kit.

She said: “I had this piece of sacking, no bed or anything like that. No towels kept dry, and I lived like a little animal. And it was the most thrilling thing.

“It changed me completely, I stopped being afraid of death. because I suddenly thought everything’s here, these little creatures, when the crew came on in the morning to film me, and then went off in the evening, when the sun set, and when it goes down it’s gone black.

“And so it was black for about 12 hours of the night on my own in a cave or on the beach with nothing to read, nothing to do. So you have your own thoughts with you there.

“And I thought, Look, if this is what it is, I belong to the earth, the small turtles running there, the great big fish eagles who come looking at me, the fruit bats who fly close. I could just belong here, and that would be okay, and I could lie on the ground and be asleep. So I stopped being afraid.

“And another time I stopped being afraid was when Patsy fell into an open grave. We’d been up to somewhere like Highgate Cemetery and they put some crash mats in the bottom.

“But one feels a bit spooky about these things lying in a grave. But I went onto the bottom and lay there, and I saw these lovely earth walls empty, and it felt like home.

“No matter what we think or want or do or say, we can’t stop us being alive and being dead. Everybody here is alive, and so all of us will be dead, so we can’t stop that. So you’ve got to kind of come to terms with it.”

Asked if she had advice for young women, she said: “Be brave, that’s all. Just be courageous and brave and pour kindness out of you. And always volunteer before somebody’s finished the sentence say ‘I’ll do that’. Do it because sometimes it will be ghastly, but quite often it will be thrilling.”

If Joanna could have dinner with any three people alive or dead, she said she would like to sit down with Elvis Presley, Beethoven and Shakespeare.

Eminem’s daughter, Alaina Marie Scott, shared the delightful news of her pregnancy with a series of photos shared on social media. In the first snap, Alaina and her partner, Matt Moeller, held up a tiny baby onesie as they stood in a field and smiled, while another picture showed him blindfolded as she guided him into a building.

Others showed him removing his blindfold to be greeted with balloons and the announcement in the form of baby Nike sneakers and a positive pregnancy test. She captioned the post: “The best of you and me. For months, I’ve carried a tiny heartbeat inside me, one that has already changed mine in every possible way.

“There’s something indescribable about knowing there’s a little life growing, dreaming, and becoming, all while you go about your day, whispering prayers and hopes only they can hear.”

She added: “I’ve never felt more grateful for this gift and to grow our family, something we’ve wanted for so long. Thank you God for this blessing. Baby M, we can’t wait to meet you, little one.”

Alaina’s sister, Hailie, was quick to congratulate her, writing: “Sooo happy for you guys. can’t wait to be this little ones auntie & elliot is so excited to meet his cousin.”

Eminem’s brother, Nathan, said: “Congrats I’m so excited for you guys! You’re gonna be great parents. Stop making me old lol,” while Alaina’s partner wrote: “God has blessed our family with the miracle of life. The little one doesn’t know how lucky they are to have a mother like you yet, but they will.

“The way you show love, kindness, patience and happiness towards kids makes so proud and honored to have you as my wife, and now the mother of our first child. The two of you are the best thing in my life, and that will never change. I love you and I love baby M!”

Alaina and Matt got engaged in 2021, with Alaina announcing: “This moment. this life. Yes a hundred times over. I LOVE YOU.”

Eminem shares Hailie Jade, Alaina, and Stevie Laine with his ex-wife, Kim Scott. Alaina is Kim’s sister’s daughter, but Eminem legally adopted her in the 00s as her mother struggled with drug use and died in 2016.

In March this year, the rapper became a grandfather for the first time when Hailie welcomed a baby boy named Elliot Marshall.

In 2004, Eminem opened up on fatherhood, telling Rolling Stone: “Being a dad is definitely living a double life. Even before Hailie was born, I was a firm believer in freedom of speech … But once I hit them gates where I live, that’s when I’m Dad.”

He continued, “Taking the kids to school, picking ’em up, teaching ’em rules. I’m not saying I’m the perfect father, but the most important thing is to be there for my kids and raise them the right way.”

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