Lorraine at the reins.. 10yrs after horror fall
Star conquers fears as she’s back in saddle
EXCLUSIVE LORRAINE Kelly has told how she “faced her fears” head-on after getting back on a horse for the first time since a horror accident that nearly killed her.
The star was badly injured after her horse trampled on her while attempting a jump during a charity challenge in 2012. Her doctors said the animal missed her main artery by millimetres, and she lost three pints of blood during an emergency four-hour operation. She hadn’t ridden since. But in emotional scenes to be aired today on her show Lorraine, she finally gets back in the saddle. Suppressing the tears, the Scots presenter manages to mount a horse called Zion after teaming up with Sir Lee Pearson, a 14-time Paralympic Games gold medallist. He manages to gently coax the visibly nervous star on to Zion and in the end she spends at least 30 minutes trotting with him.
Lorraine said: “I was frightened about it.
“I kept thinking, ‘I really need to do this, it’s a new year, you should really do this’.
“But then Covid happened and I’d make an excuse.
“But then I said to myself, ‘No, I have to do this. If I don’t do it now, I’ll never do it’.
“When he started to walk I was like, ‘Oh my God’, but it was fine, it was absolutely fine.
“I mean I don’t think it is something I would do again but I feel I have faced my fears.”
Lorraine has little recollection of her week-long stay in hospital after the accident.
She said: “I was so lucky. My surgeon was incredible and the people at A&E. I went to see them and say thank you because obviously I don’t remember very much about it, I was in shock.” The accident left her with a nasty scar that Lorraine says she is finally accepting.
“It looks like a shark has taken a chunk out of me,” she said.
“I do remember I posted a picture and someone said that it must have been photoshopped because I had a bulge at the top of my leg in the bikini shot. I was like ‘No, no, no. It’s actually my scar’.
“I own it a bit more now. I used to always cover it up with a sarong when I wore a swimming costume but now I don’t care.”
Watch Lorraine today and every weekday from 9am on ITV and the ITV Hub.