Strictly’s Claudia Winkleman, the TV presenter who doesn’t own a TV
CLAUDIA Winkleman may be one of the most familiar faces on our TV sets – but, bizarrely, she doesn’t actually own a telly herself.
The 43-year-old, who presents Strictly Come Dancing, Film 2015 and the Great British Sewing Bee, said children and their parents relied on TV, smartphone and computer screens too much for entertainment.
She added: ‘The children of the future will be in therapy going, “I never talked to my mum and dad as they were always online”.
‘It’s gone a bit bonkers. We need to learn when to switch off.
‘I’m probably the only person who doesn’t have an iPhone, and I’ve got no tellies – which is ridiculous seeing as I work in telly.’
The admission is all the more surprising because the mother- of-three is married to film executive Kris Thykier, also 43, and is appearing in a promotion for BBC TV in which she talks of her love of shows such as the Great British Bake Off.
She warned that parents were obsessed with technology – to the detriment of their children – and said some were ‘moronic’ role models who wasted hours staring at their mobiles instead of getting involved with their families. She told the Sun on Sunday: ‘I want my children to lay in a hammock, read a book and use their imaginations.’
It is the second time in weeks that she has discussed her private life after she talked for the first time last month about how her daughter Matilda, eight, was severely burned when her Halloween dress caught fire.