Claudia: My body is falling to bits at 50 but I just don’t care
CLAUDIA Winkleman has laughed off the ravages of time as she says she is more worried about her bridge game than looking glam. The Strictly Come Dancing co-host, who turned 50 in January, insists she does not care what she looks like because her mum, former Sunday Express editor Eve Pollard, has always insisted looks and body shape do not matter. Asked about her body changing at this stage of her life, Claudia said:
“My face (is) actually physically falling off, and my body is, like, made of crepe all of a sudden. It’s
OK, it’s fine.
“I’ve never been to the gym –
I don’t care. But I was brought up by a woman who had no mirrors in the house. I have no pretence about what I look like. Because what we looked like, she always said, was the least interesting thing about us.
“So, it was, ‘Don’t worry about being interesting, but always be interested.’ And, ‘Keep your girlfriends close, your girlfriends are your scaffolding, your everything.’ “She sort of talked about the menopause, but my mum had an OK time with it. She loves a doctor, we worship the health service. I have to take vitamin D. My doctor said, ‘I thought you were always in the sun?’
I went, ‘No, babe, this is from a bottle. I haven’t been in the sun for 15 years.’ I think I look after myself because I’m so dull. I’m in bed with a book by nine.”
Claudia has three children, Jake, 18, Matilda, 15, and 10-year-old Arthur with her husband Kris Thykier. And the TV presenter struggles when she is away from her children, admitting she was devastated when Jake went to university last year. She said: “I handle it very badly. I’ve felt heartbroken.
“But it’s not fair on him for me to keep him here with me all the time. I remember my mum dropping me off at university and she couldn’t stop crying.
“And I was like, ‘I won’t do that, I’ll be brave.’ And of course, I fell apart. Because they’re my life. Me and girlfriends look after each other.
“And they held me up when Jake left. Because I was a wreck.”
Claudia also loves playing card game bridge and is keen to go on bridge tours in the future.
When asked about turning 50, she told the Postcards from Midlife podcast: “I’ve felt 64 for the last 25 years. I like playing bridge, I like playing with my same eight girls.
“Bridge uses a part of your brain that we do not use in everyday life.”