Claudia: I’m awful at make-up because my mum banned mirrors!
By her own admission, Claudia Winkleman regularly leaves the house looking like she ‘slept in a skip’.
But now the presenter has revealed why she is so unconcerned with her appearance – her mother banned all mirrors from the house while she was growing up.
The Strictly Come Dancing host said the somewhat unusual move by her mother, former newspaper editor Eve Pollard, was intended to force her daughter to be reliant on her brain, rather than her looks.
And it seems that her technique succeeded, instilling an admirable lack of vanity into quick-witted Miss Winkleman that has lasted into adulthood.
The 44-year- old Cambridge graduate has often drawn comment for her shaggy hairstyle and bold eye make-up – which she has previously admitted she never removes.
In one memorable red carpet appearance at the GQ awards in 2013, the mother-of-three’s smudged eyes and dishevelled tresses led to comparisons to rocker Alice Cooper.
‘I was brought up by the strongest and most brilliant woman I’ve ever come across – my mum,’ Miss Winkleman said at an event hosted by Standard Issue magazine in London on Wednesday.
‘She was strong and fantastic and taught me everything I needed to know in being female.
‘We weren’t allowed any mirrors in the house, which would explain how I do my make-up ... and the fact I look like I’ve slept in a skip. I was 15 going out saying, “Mum, I need to know how I look, give me an idea!” She’d say, “fine”; she wanted to teach us that appearance is a waste of time, it’s not in the least bit important.’
Describing how her mother instead told her to ‘read books, be funny, be clever, be chatty’, she added: ‘She was, and still is, my role model.’
Last night Miss Pollard, 71, who in 2008 was awarded an OBE for services to journalism, told the Daily Mail: ‘I always felt it was more important to make people laugh, and to be a thinking, sensible being than just rely on your looks. It’s important to teach girls that they are people first and looks second.
‘Frankly, mirrors are for brushing your teeth and that’s about it – and I hope this has stood [Claudia] in good stead for her career now.
‘Claudia works in one of the most vanity-obsessed industries and, yes, of course she uses the Strictly facilities and the spray tan, but the basics are actually about her being silly, funny and smart when she needs to.’
She added: ‘When I see [pictures of her with make-up everywhere], I think “good for her”.’