Carol Vorderman
One true love stuff is nonsense... the single life is great
Carol Vorderman has a scientific rather than sentimental outlook when it comes to finding love. The self-confessed engineering nerd has based her theory on evidence gained from real-life experience.
And her conclusion? “All this ‘you have a love of your life’ stuff is just tat. It’s just from Disney, really.
“Half of all marriages disintegrate. Of those that last longer than 10 years, of what percentage of those are happy? In all my years I’ve rarely met any.
“If couples have found that, they should be celebrated – that’s fantastic. But if they haven’t, that’s equally OK. We shouldn’t beat ourselves up.
“I’ve seen men and women suffer unnecessarily in a bad relationship. They stay together but they’re unhappy.
“That might make me sound hard. But I’m just very realistic. It means I make the best of my life because I’m not clinging on to any dream whatsoever.”
Carol, 57, recently said she’s “happily, blissfully single”. Asked if she’s seeing anyone special now, she says: “I’m not telling. I never tell.”
If there is a special man, perhaps he’d be well advised not to get too cosy or make long-term plans. Because Carol doesn’t want to play a long game in love.
She says: “I don’t have a problem with getting over people. I see my life in chapters because we all change.
“The 20-year-old Carol is very different from the 57-year-old Carol, who is different from 40-year-old Carol. Therefore, why would I want someone to fit into each part of my life?
“When you’ve got a busy life dating is not the priority, not the biggest thing in my world.”
Finding a man to match Carol’s brain power “isn’t a problem at all”, she laughs. But finding one who can keep up with her non-stop schedule might be tough.
In the past week or so she has spent time in Washington DC with a friend who was an astronaut and space shuttle commander.
Then she jetted to Dallas to an air show where she was shown the RAF’s new F35 fighter jets.
This week she’s hosting ITV’s Lorraine and next the Daily Mirror’s Pride of Britain Awards, in partnership with TSB.
Then it’s off to Argentina with NASA to take a 12-hour flight across Antarctica. Then to California “for a break, but also to write a book”. Any potential dates who would like to spend time cuddling Carol on the couch should swap that idea for an up-to-date passport.
“I’m not romantic. So when I have been with people, and lived with them, and they’ve gone, ‘Let’s snuggle up on the sofa and watch telly’. I look at them blankly. I’ll do it, because that’s what they want to do. But they can see I’m kinda like, ‘urgh’.
“Do I stay in on a Saturday and watch Strictly? No! Nothing to do with Strictly, but because I’ve got so many other things I want to do. I enjoy living life like that. I’ve so much I want to do, I stack it all in. Even if by the end of the week I’m exhausted, I’d rather that because I’d have a big grin on my face.”
Her children Katie, 27, and Cameron,
I’m NOT a sex symbol. You can’t be at my age. That’s ridiculous
22, from her second marriage to Patrick King [her first, to Christopher Mather in 1985, lasted a year] have flown the nest, giving Carol more time to focus on herself.
She’s moved back to Cambridge, where Katie is researching a PhD in nanotechnology and Carol also gained her degree in engi- neering. Carol’s TV career, which she famously began in Countdown with Richard Whiteley in 1982, has never been busier.
Recently viewers watched one of TV’s brainiest hosts taking dating advice from Love Island winner Kem Cetinay.
The pair, who have a 35-year age gap, flirted up a storm. Carol laughs at rumours they linked up offscreen.
“That’s hilarious. And ridiculous! I am old enough to be his mother.” Carol and Kem swapped their experiences of dating and the contrast was stark. She says: “It was so much easier when I was young. You had dates with people you were actually in contact with, from school, the youth club or night club.
“You arranged to meet outside a chippie before going to the pictures and both turned up. There weren’t 273 text messages beforehand.
“There weren’t all these nuances like, ‘oh, he’s put a kiss on this text’, ‘he replied straightaway’ or ‘he changed his Facebook relationship status’.
“This is not me, I’ve never been on Facebook. It’s good to have a bit of mystery and privacy.”
Recently being asked for ID before being served alcohol is proof she looks decades younger.
Fans love her curves and Carol jokes that her bottom, a frequent winner of rear of the year, is so big it has its own gravitational field.
But ask her how she feels to be a sex symbol and she is serious. “I’m NOT a sex symbol. You can’t be at my age. That’s ridiculous,” she says.
“I am a very physical person, I’m effusive, I love my life and I’m a free spirit. If people want to put a label, it’s their label. I care nothing for that.”
■ The Daily Mirror’s Pride of Britain Awards are broadcast on Tuesday November 6 on ITV1.