‘Bury me in curlers and shoulder pads’
Gloria Hunniford jokes about her funeral and why she hated her name when she was a child
GLORIA Hunniford has joked that she wants to be buried in her shoulder pads with a set of hair curlers alongside.
Now living in Kent, she said that as a child growing up in Portadown, Co Armagh that she never liked her first name.
In a wide-ranging interview with Best magazine she revealed: “I hated the name Gloria when I was young. Why would you call a child Gloria?
“Imagine being two years old and someone shouting at you, ‘Gloria, come in now.’ I hated it!”
The Rip Off Britain host and Loose Women panellist also joked that she has instructed second husband, hairdresser Stephen Way, of her funeral wishes.
She said: “I’ll be buried with a pair of shoulder pads. And I like a set of hair curlers, I think they’ll go in the coffin as well.”
She also recounted how her parents did not attend her wedding to first husband Don Keating because he was a Catholic.
She said her mum May was upset at missing it after her dad Charles refused to go and forbid her from the ceremony.
Gloria (80) said: “I wanted to introduce Don to my parents — it was then that I had to tell them he was a Catholic.
“I can see my father’s face to this day, being a Northern Irish Protestant — it was a bit of a shock. He said, ‘If you marry this man, I cannot and will not go to the wedding and nor will your mother.’
“It was the saddest day of my mother’s life but, back then, you did as the father said.”
Don, was a BBC Northern Ireland cameraman when they met before becoming a director.
He was the father of Gloria’s children Paul, Michael and Caron, her late daughter who tragically died from breast cancer in 2004.
Gloria and Don divorced in 1992, five years before he passed away.
She was 21 when they wed and said that eventually her dad “welcomed Don into the family”.
She added: “He never held a grudge and nor did I.”
She also recounted her upset at reporting on the Abercorn Restaurant bomb in 1972.
Two young Catholic friends — Anne Owens (22), who was employed at the Electricity Board, and Janet Bereen (21), a hospital radiographer — were killed in the blast which injured more than 130 people.
No one claimed responsibility for the atrocity but it was believed to have been carried out by the Provisional IRA.
Gloria said: “By the time I arrived at the scene, there were scores of people over the floor, screaming in pain and terror.
“Many had lost limbs. I will never forget seeing a charred teddy bear. It was so upsetting.”
She also told how she stayed on air while the BBC’S Broadcasting House building was evacuated because of another IRA explosion.
She said: “The bomb went off and this mighty building just shook. It was mayhem but we just continued — the show must go on.
“Belfast was ring-fenced and security was on high alert — you could find yourself being searched 20 times a day just to go shopping.”
‘The bomb went off and this mighty building just shook. It was mayhem but we just continued — the show must go on’