‘I’m going to LIVE LIFE to the FULL!’

Presenter and TV legend Alison Hammond on whacking George Clooney in the face and why she’s obsessed with snooping around other people’s houses

Alison lives in Birmingham with her son Aidan, 16. She presents ITV’S This Morning with Dermot O’leary on Fridays and has just written her autobiography,

You’ve Got To Laugh.

FAMILY IS EVERYTHING

My autobiography is dedicated to my mum, Maria. She died last year, and would have just loved me having a book out. She loved all the glamour and all the glitz, the fame, everything. She’d have been buying about 25 copies and giving them out to everyone. She would have loved every minute of it. It is so sad that she didn’t get to see it, but I feel like she is on my shoulder guiding me. I’m a mummy’s girl. Maybe that’s why I don’t have a boyfriend or why I’m not married! She was always first in my life.

Mum taught me so many lessons.

To be myself and just own it. That you can only be yourself because literally everyone else is taken. And not to worry if things aren’t going well, because something else will come up.

I’m named after Muhammad Ali.

All my dad’s kids were; one’s called Ali, one’s called Alisa and

I’m Alison. My dad was Muhammad Ali’s bodyguard when he was in Birmingham. I first met him when

I was about four years old, and I didn’t realise he was the legend that he was! I’d see him all the time, and he would rave about me, saying I looked just like his daughter. The weirdest thing is that he was the spitting image of my dad, and everyone used to say they looked like brothers.

My son takes my fame in his stride. He’s so cool. People have seen Aidan literally from the beginning, when I did a scan on This Morning to see if I was having a boy or a girl. I think he’s interested in the business side of things. He’s constantly saying, ‘How much money do you actually have, Mum?’ I’m like, ‘Babes, you shouldn’t be talking about money to anybody.’

He’s like, ‘Yeah, but how much do you have?’ You don’t discuss that!

Aidan’s father is still in our lives.

I wanted Aidan to have that more than anything; that’s all I cared about. As time has gone on, he’s met a new wife, who’s lovely, and has had another three kids, and that’s just how the situation is. So, when he sees us, his whole family comes and it’s actually really lovely. Even my brother said to me, ‘You are so cool, Sis; the fact you have your ex here with his wife and kids – and it just works.’ That’s how it is now. It’s a new time and that’s our situation, our blended family, and that’s really nice.

I do wish I’d had more kids early on. Literally, when Aidan was one, gone and banged another one out. I’m so gutted that I didn’t, because I think I’m too old now. But it is what it is, isn’t it? That’s my life and I have one child, and I’m so grateful, because some people haven’t even had that. I love Aidan so much, and he makes up for all the kids I never had, anyway.➺

‘Don’t worry if things aren’t going well; something else will come up’

MY FAVOURITE THINGS

Looking on Rightmove is my current obsession. I go to see houses

I can’t afford. Whenever I’m travelling around the country, I will put in ‘current area’ and I’ll just see what is on offer. When I turn up to see the houses, they think I’m going to buy them, because ‘it’s Alison Hammond off the telly, isn’t it? Obviously she can afford it’. Which I obviously can’t. I go and see £10m houses that I can’t afford and they think I’m going to buy them. I love houses. My mum always used to say you have to have a dream and something to aspire to, so that is my dream.

Deadlifting shifts my mood if I’m having a down day. I have a 10kg weightlifting bar at the bottom of the garden, and I do some deadlifts. It’s very rare that it happens – that’s why I’m not in the gym very often! But, hey-ho. I love going to the gym, though, or swimming or going for a walk to just change that energy. Speaking to Aidan always lifts me up. He’s hilarious. He’s the kid I always wanted to be.

BIG BROTHERLY LOVE

Going on Big Brother felt like a little mini holiday. [Alison was on the reality TV show in 2002.] I was there for 14 days. For those two weeks, we’d won a task and got a big shopping budget. So, I went in the house, went in the swimming pool, ate the best food, made some friends, had a lovely time on my mini holiday, and then my life changed.

If social media had existed back then, it would have been a very different experience. Everyone would have had their say. I’m sure I did a few things that were so uncouth. I broke the table. Imagine that on social media! Do you think that would have gone down well? I think people would have laughed, wouldn’t they?

After I came out of the house, I was busy for two weeks, and then it just

went dead. It was the next person who came out of the house that everyone was interested in and no one wanted to speak to me any more. It was such a big anticlimax. So, I thought I’d just go back to my job in the cinema [Alison worked as an usherette], but they wouldn’t let me because they said I was too famous. So, I signed on, and went to the job centre in disguise. I thought no one had recognised me, but as I was going out, the security guard went, ‘See you next week, Alison.’ It is what it is.

DATING DILEMMAS

People think I’m pretending to be Alison Hammond on dating apps.

I get people saying, ‘Stop pretending to be Alison Hammond – does she know you are putting her pictures online?’ People don’t believe I am who I say I am on there! I have tried to get on the celebrity dating app Raya, but

it’s not interested in me. I’m obviously not a big enough celebrity to get on it or I’m not hot enough. I’m still waiting for the reply! Hopefully, Raya will see this article and then let me through the door. But I think I’m quite happy being single at the moment.

When it comes to men, I don’t think

I have a type. All the boyfriends I’ve ever been with are so different. I like them old, young, dark, light. I don’t really care, as long as they’re kind and nice, someone who makes me laugh, someone who accepts me for who

I am and who can deal with the fact that I’m actually quite busy and I might not text or phone, and they’re cool with that. It’s quite hard, isn’t it, to find that? If I did get into a relationship, I would give them more time. An extra 10 minutes, maybe!

LEARNING TO LOVE MY BODY

My relationship with my body has changed so much over the years.

I’m 46, and I’ve accepted who I am. I embrace it. Hand on heart, I accept myself smaller, and I accept myself larger. I do need to get healthier, because I’m not getting any younger, but I’m not going to stop my life if I’m not a certain size. It’s just not going to happen. I’m going to live life to the full. I’ve never tried to be a role model for anyone, really. I am who I am.

Mentally, I wasn’t ready to have a gastric band back in 2007. I just wanted to be smaller. The band did make me eat less, but I was still hungry. I had it for about two years and lost maybe a stone in that time. I got it removed because I hated the feeling of not being able to eat. Life is too short. I don’t look down on gastric surgery, it just wasn’t for me. People like myself,

‘You have to have a dream and something to aspire to’

our regulation systems don’t work properly. It’s not that we eat loads or gorge on food. Sometimes, you need help. You treat diabetes, you treat kidney problems… obesity needs treatment as well, and surgery is a way of treating it. But it wasn’t for me.

Joe Swash once ‘saved’ me

when I was feeling low. We were doing a show called Hole

In The Wall, and had to wear a silver bodysuit that left nothing to the imagination. I could see my stomach, my boobs, my love handles, and I was absolutely mortified. I’m normally really confident, but I felt awful and looked in the mirror thinking, ‘I can’t do this.’ I hated it. The next thing I know, Joe, who was one of the team captains on the show, bursts into my dressing room, gives me the biggest hug and says, ‘You look amazing like that!’ He wasn’t bothered that I was standing there feeling so vulnerable. In that moment, he picked up my confidence and I stepped into my power. He’s one of the nicest guys you’ll ever know. He probably doesn’t even know how much he saved me that day.

Your body is an instrument, not an

ornament. We’re constantly thinking, ‘How does this look? Do I look small in this?’ When, really and truly, it’s not for other people to be staring at; it’s more about what your body can do. Can you swim? Can you run? Can you do this? What can you do?

DREAM JOBS

I’ve done all sorts of jobs over the years.

I even went on holiday to Tunisia and ended up getting a job as an entertainer there. I worked in a shop, and did theatre in schools, too. I’ve worked my socks off. But I’ve never settled in any job, really. It wasn’t until after Big Brother, when I did slots on This Morning, that I felt settled, because every day was different. I just fell into presenting and I’ve been there ever since. I’ve never left!

I once hit George Clooney in the face and he let me get away with it. It was my first celebrity interview, on the red carpet for the premiere of his first directorial role, and I was so starstruck. I did the interview, then he went off and came back, and I thought I’d try to get another quote as he walked past, but I hit him in the face with my microphone. Luckily for me, he was lovely.

After that, I was asked to interview more celebrities. I was just being myself, and people seemed to like it. My calamities, and doing things in a klutzy sort of way seemed to work. I think it was a refreshing change for the celebrities and they seemed to enjoy being interviewed by me. Then, it got to a point where they were asking if I could interview them, which was amazing. It made me feel special, Babes. It means people appreciate you.

It was bittersweet when I got the

Friday job on This Morning. It was difficult because, obviously, I’d been asked to do a job and when you get asked to do a job, you take it as read that it’s available. A lot of people were very upset with the fact that Eamonn and Ruth were going and I felt like I was getting all the flack on that, which was really difficult. Eamonn and Ruth are my friends, which made things more difficult. Obviously, I spoke to them, and they were like, ‘You have to go for it; don’t be silly, it’s not your fault, it is what it is.’ So, by the time I came on air, I don’t think I was that excited about it, if I’m honest. I was just a bit sad about the whole thing. I got that job on This Morning, and I personally believe I deserved to be there, 100%. I’d been working there for 20 years. However, I think the circumstances could have been different.

There’s a dedication to George Floyd

in my book. It’s so sad that that’s what had to happen in order to open up people’s hearts and minds. I think, if anything, it has made people more aware and it has made people see things that, maybe in the past, they might not have seen before. So, they may question themselves, and they might even go as far as questioning their friends for saying certain things, and that is what I think the change has been, which is brilliant.

I love seeing Black people do well.

It makes me so happy because I’m Black, and that is my culture so, of course, I am going to lift it up and be happy. I’m happy for everyone doing well, but it is lovely to see people who are not normally in certain positions doing it, and doing it well. I love it.

• You’ve Got To

Laugh (Bantam Press) by Alison Hammond is published in hardback on

14 October