Female board roles on rise
Presenter reveals all about preparing to turn 50, cosmetic surgery and testing out a sex challenge with her husband
THE number of women appointed to public boards has risen by 20 per cent since 2012.
Figures show 59 per cent of appointments to public boards in 2016 were women. GOOD Morning Britain presenter Kate Garraway is often compared to Bridget Jones, thanks to her moments of calamity.
The most famous of these happened last year, when her crotch – sporting nude-coloured support pants – was accidentally flashed to the nation as her co-presenter Ben Shephard lifted her up and pretended to dunk her in a pool of muddy water.
Kate said: “I’ve made such a fool of myself so many times on TV.
“When you’ve flashed your crotch in front of the nation, it’s hard to get nervous about anything ever again. It was my worst nightmare.
“Ben picked me up without any warning. The floor manager looked up and said, ‘We saw everything’. I had to go back through it, frame by frame, to see just how much had been revealed.
“It was awful but I am still speaking to Ben.”
Relaying the story with mock horror, laughter never far away, it’s clear Kate doesn’t take herself too seriously.
Turning 50 this year, she’s now tackling middle age with her book The Joy of Big Knickers.
It’s partly anecdotal – her thoughts on cosmetic surgery, embarking on a sex challenge with her husband, changing her couch potato habits – as well as research which addresses the problems and feelings of modern women as they reach this phase of life.
She had her own mid-life crisis while writing the book when she walked in to do her Smooth Radio show on her 49th birthday and they’d decked it out for her 50th.
Kate said: “It made me think, ‘But I am going to be 50 and it feels like a very big number, where you should have achieved things or be content.
“I thought, ‘I’m still overstretched, overworked, feeling like I’m not being as good a mum as I should be or as good at work as I should be’. I needed to take stock. I needed to look at exercise and eating.”
She’s worked on breakfast TV for nearly 20 years, interviewing everyone from heavyweight politicians to film stars such as Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise.
Kate admits that while there have been times she wanted to enhance her own looks, she has resisted Botox and going under the knife.
She said: “I wanted a facelift quite obsessively for ages. But everyone said it wouldn’t make any difference at all.
“My husband thought I was bonkers. He wouldn’t want me to do it.
“I’m not saying I’d never have a facelift long-term. Never say never.”
Kate has been married for 11 years to her second husband, former Labour adviser Derek Draper, 49, who she met through a mutual friend at GMTV.
She said: “We went for drinks and she invited him, telling him there was a girl at GMTV she wanted him to meet.
“He thought it was Andrea McLean. He’d Googled the wrong person. I think he was a bit disappointed when I turned up because Andrea’s gorgeous.
“We got on straight away. I thought he was, and still is, very interesting.”
Married in their late 30s, they have a daughter, Darcey, 10, and son, Billy,