I love my parents but I’m not going to have a baby just because they want me to!
months, we’ve started considering it more.
“We’re not quite there yet but we are definitely more open-minded about it than we were a year ago, so obviously something’s shifted.” Of course, her parents would love to be grandparents again, she beams. “They already have three grandchildren, but I’m the only girl in the family and they always say to me that there would be something quite special about me having a baby.
“They would find it really lovely. But as much as I want to make my parents happy and I love them to death, I am not going to have a baby just because they want me to!”
She admits her anxiety when she was younger was exacerbated by the fact she’s the daughter of a famous TV couple.
“It would have been fine had I not wrongly decided to go into a career in television,” she says candidly. “If I’d found a different career earlier on, it wouldn’t have got so bad.
“I was in their world as their daughter and was given a lot of flak both behind the scenes and in the press. Everybody was accusing my whole family of nepotism – it was and it wasn’t. I was working my socks off as a runner behind the scenes, and then I was taking the novelty factor of being my parents’ daughter and going in front of the camera. “Because I didn’t have my own identity or my own sense of self, it made the problem worse.”
Now, with a successful personal training career and two previous bestselling fitness books under her belt, she has found time to support her parents with their own wellbeing. Judy has lost lots of weight over the past few years, Chloe agrees. “Both she and my dad stopped drinking completely about a year ago. A glass of wine is anywhere between 100 and 200 calories. If you are drinking throughout the week, those calories add up, so when you take that out, you are talking about potentially thousands of calories being pulled out of your weekly average calorie intake.
“I didn’t encourage them to give up booze, they just decided to stop drinking. I would never encourage them to do anything. They’re my parents, they’re not children. They can make their own decisions,” she says.
“But when they told me they were giving up drinking, I said, ‘That’s fantastic!’ I thought it would probably be for a few weeks, but we’re a year later and they feel so much better that they are still going. I feel quite proud of them.”
She has also been supporting her parents with lifestyle and diet advice. “I’ve been helping mum implement intermittent fasting. I’ve been helping her figure out how she wants to do it. She’s not the most active person, she has bad eyes and bad knees, so I tell her just to be active, to get up, walk around. I don’t think she’ll ever throw herself into an exercise routine and nor should she. As long as she’s active, she’s fine.
“I’ve bought my dad some dumbbells and barbells and have helped him do some very simple lifts, which will help his body,” she continues. “He had a fall last Christmas on some black ice at a petrol station and shattered his elbow. It’s really important he keeps the muscle in his arms and upper body, so he doesn’t have any issues in later life with that arm. We need to get his bones strong and his muscles around the bone strong.
“Dad’s really active. He loves a walk, loves a bike ride, he loves moving, so he’s doing great. That’s partly why he looks so young!”
While her fitness career remains her focus, there’s only one way she’d be lured back to TV now, she reveals. “I would go back to TV if I could do something with my husband, because it would just be so much fun to work together,” says Chloe. “That is pretty much the only situation in which I would go back to television, or if it was really focused on what I do, which is health and fitness.” Laughing, she dismisses any notion that they could become the next Richard and Judy.
“Absolutely not. In order to hit that level, you have to be very driven in the world of TV and I’m not. James is, though.
“I think he has a lot ahead of him, but that’s his dream, not mine.”
Dad’s really active. He loves a walk, loves a bike ride, he loves moving. That’s partly why he looks so young
THE Duchess of Sussex was sweet like chocolate on her recent visit to London’s Canada House following her and Prince Harry’s Christmas stay in the country. And it was a very affordable look from the designer labelloving duchess. Both her silk wool sweater £49.95 and silky skirt £89.95 were from high street brand Massimo Dutti. Last time we looked they were both still available online.