I’ve just helped half a million children with their maths; now I’m counting down to an empty nest
LOCKDOWN may have curbed her love of socialising but, as she nears 60, Carol Vorderman says she’s never felt so free.the past few months have allowed her to focus on work projects and to take time for herself, which she says has never happened before.
For many years, and until the death of her mother Jean from cancer three years ago, Carol had been living with her and her children Katie, 29, and Cameron, 23.
And now that her youngest is about to fly the nest to university in Dundee, she is not dreading but rather embracing the prospect of having an empty nest.
“I’m already starting to feel this amazing sense of freedom,” says Carol. “You have no idea how different this time of life is.
“I’ve been living with Cameron in lockdown in Bristol, my daughter has been in Cambridge finishing her PHD in nanotechnology and Cameron has graduated with a first-class honours degree in animation and will be going to Dundee for his masters as he has always wanted to be a video game designer.
“So it will be the first time in my life that I have ever lived alone because as soon as I graduated my mum came to live with me at the age of 21.
“I employed her full-time when I was 25 and she lived with me until she died.
“Now will be the first time without the children, not being married and not being in a relationship, and I will be living between Cardiff and Pembrokeshire.
“I love it. It has taken me a long time to get to this point. I know what I like, I know who I like, I know what I don’t like and I know who I don’t like. I’ve sifted it out to all the good bits, really.”
Carol is grateful for the many years that she had with her mother.
“I feel very lucky that I had Mum until she was nearly 89,” she reflects. “She battled cancer three times before she was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
“But I know that I looked after her well and she never wanted for anything. She always had good company and plenty of laughing. Bless her, I don’t think Mum would have coped very well with lockdown. If losing her has taught me anything it’s that we are all only here for as long as we are here.
“I always tell my kids, ‘We only go once around’ and I say that as a very positive thing in that you should cram it all in. Doing new things is one of my driving forces in my life, always has been, even before coronavirus happened.
“I love the fact I got my pilot’s licence five years ago and although I haven’t been able to fly because of the coronavirus, my plane Mildred is being used to deliver PPE equipment to the NHS.”
Growing up in Prestatyn, north Wales, Carol’s parents split up when she was a few weeks old and her mum brought up her and her two siblings alone.
“We were very poor,” recalls Carol. “I knew from a very young age that the only thing that I had going for me was my brain and I also knew that I could use it to escape poverty.
“Through hunger and adversity, I overcame the odds and when I was 17, I got into Cambridge to study engineering, which was no mean feat. I was from a poor background and on free school meals at a comprehensive in Wales, not a privileged kid with a great private education like the vast majority of my peers.”
BUT IT WAS in 1982 when her life changed for ever. Her mum saw an advert in the paper calling for girls “who had brains and beauty” to become a hostess for Channel 4’s launch show Countdown. With an IQ of 154, she went on to appear on Countdown with Richard Whiteley until his death in June 2005 and then carried on alongside Des Lynam until 2008, when she was replaced by Rachel Riley.
Maths genius Carol received an MBE from the Queen in 2000 for her “services to broadcasting” and in 2011 she chaired a task force for the Government to recommend the way forward for maths education in primary and secondary