Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I would love to have a baby with Frank but, if it doesn’t happen, I’m happy being stepmum to his two girls
we walk loads. I walk miles and miles with the dog every week.” And as to how she will mark the milestone birthday, she has no idea. “Where will I be next year?” she laughs. “I struggle to tell you what I’m doing next Tuesday – whereas Frank is the polar opposite because he has lived his life as a footballer. “In September he knows what he’s doing on March 3. He’s still like it now, a planner. Nothing would get done in our lives without him.”
The former Chelsea midfielder is also a romantic. When Christine had to work on her birthday, he sent flowers and cupcakes to cheer her up.
The pair then had a birthday dinner and a weekend away before Christine returned to her busy work schedule. As well as Loose Women and covering for Lorraine Kelly on her ITV morning show, Christine is now fronting Celebrity Haunted Mansion – with Matt Richardson hosting sister show High Spirits. Each night stars including Katie Price and Coronation Street’s Simon Gregson have been hunting for ghosts in a supposedly haunted house.
Christine says she’s glad she’s hosting and not taking part. “It’s really freaky and eerie,” she says. “It’s the kind of place where you don’t want to go to the loo on your own.
“I’m happy to believe without witnessing anything. Growing up in Ireland was part of that.
“We’re surrounded by ancient ruins at home and there were always ghost stories, this happened here and that happened there. It lingers with you.”
Having made her name on BBC1’S The One Show with Adrian Chiles, before making the move to ITV’S Daybreak, Christine still loves the thrill of live TV.
“There’s not a time when I do live TV where I don’t get nervous,” she says. “I get the butterfly excitement feeling.”
On the BBC gender pay row, she says: “I wasn’t aware of it when I was there at the BBC. But it should be a blanket thing that you get paid the same.
“If you’re doing exactly the same job you’ve got to be paid exactly the same.
“I can’t believe it’s not happening. It’s madness.”
Pundit Frank will spend his 40th birthday in Russia covering the World Cup, and Christine may be flying out there to help him celebrate the big day.
She says: “I’ve never been to Russia and if you’re going to go I guess it’ll be interesting to go during a World Cup.”
Frank hung up his football boots a year ago while signed to US Major League club New York City.
He has since been working as a pundit and Christine says they’ve even talked about doing a show together.
“It would be fun to do something together,” she says. “Football is what he knows so whether it would be us talking about that, I don’t know.”
Another advantage of his retirement from the game has been having time together, doing the things they love.
“It’s allowed us to have more quality time together, especially at the weekends,” she says. “A Saturday with just us together was unheard of.
“And he’s more of a relaxed person because he’s not stressed about training the next day, or the big game at the weekend. Tomorrow we’re both off.
“And the first thing we’ll do is walk the dog. We love that.”
How’s that for living in the moment? Celebrity Haunted Mansion started on the W Channel last night at 9pm and is live every night until Sunday.