Gail: “I don’t feel pretty enough for love”
Former TV presenter and mum-of-one Gail Porter talks to Closer about her insecurities and how she’s turned her personal traumas into a positive by helping others
She became the nation’s S number one sex symbol when her naked body was projected on to the Houses Of Parliament as a publicity stunt for lads’ mag FHM in 1999.
At the time Gail Porter, now 46, seemed unstoppable. She was a regular face on Saturday-morning children’s TV and one of the highest-paid women in the industry, presenting Top Of The Pops, The Big Breakfast and Live & Kicking at the height of her fame.
LOWEST EBB
She went on to make a name as one of the most popular pin-up girls in the country and was a regular on the party circuit during the heady ’90s Britpop era.
But things came crashing down when her marriage to Toploader guitarist Dan Hipgrave – father of her daughter, Honey, now 15 – broke down in 2004. The TV offers started to dry up and, in 2005, she lost all her hair to alopecia.
Gail’s personal battles have included postnatal depression, bipolar disorder and being sectioned in 2011. At the start of this year she was declared bankrupt – and she admitted in July that she had even slept rough on a park bench at her lowest ebb.
But the Edinburgh-born star is determined to stay positive and reveals that what now makes her truly happy is charity work.
She says, “I have gone through such a lot – but people go through a lot worse. I’ve been homeless and lost my hair, but I’m not embarrassed. I went bankrupt but I’m not ashamed of it – or of anything. I’m now doing charity work, supporting the blind. I don’t think I could have kept going if I had lost my sight like my friend of 15 years Dave did aged 11. He inspired me to keep going.”
Gail doesn’t seem the least bit bothered that her days in the TV spotlight are behind her, and laughs off the idea of signing up to a show such as Strictly.
She says, “I don’t think Strictly would ever ask me! I’m not pretty enough for TV – I’ve no hair so what would they do with me? What if the wig fell off? There are so many more important things than me doing telly.”
Currently single, Gail’s love life has been notoriously rocky. She dated singer Keith Flint from The Prodigy for a few months in 1999 and was later briefly linked with Fun Lovin’ Criminals frontman Huey Morgan and former Hollyoaks actor Paul Danan. She married Dan Hipgrave in 2001 but they split just three years later. Gail found love again in 2010 with guitarist Jonny Davies, who’s 14 years her junior, but they broke up within two years.
However, she insists she’s happy to stay single, and says, “Am I looking for love? No! I’m quite happy. I’m not very pretty! I still don’t feel pretty enough for love. You never know [maybe] one day, but it’s not top of my list.”
For now, the only relationship Gail wants to focus on is the one with Honey.
“Now I’ve got a teenager, I want to make sure her life is perfect,” Gail reveals. “Obviously nobody’s life is ever really perfect, but I want her to know her mum is there for her. She knows everything I have been through and she’s like my best friend.”
MOVING ON
Determined as always to power through whatever life throws at her, Gail has used her experiences of self-harming and attempting suicide in the past to help her write her new biography.
She says, “It’s about all the dark stuff in my life; being mentally ill and sectioned. It has been hard as I’ve been through so many highs and lows and I’ve been so insecure for so long.
“I’ve always wanted to write my