At the end of the day… Katherine Jenkins
I genuinely thought, when we went into lockdown, that I’d have time to read those books and organise my photo album – all those little personal jobs that I’ve got on my to-do list – but that never happened. My son, Xander, is only two but, for my daughter who’s four, there has been an element of home-schooling that had to be done. We’ve never all been in the same house in this way, because normally I’m travelling, or my husband Andrew is travelling. I’m trying to look at the silver lining of everything, and that’s been the family, the bonding and the connecting. I’ve been speaking to my mum and my sister far more, and it’s nice to get on the phone with a friend for half an hour and have a good chat. It’s good for the soul.
Last week I forgot that I had an interview on BBC Radio Wales, so when they rang I had to quickly set my children up to have their dinner and set the ipad up to give them five minutes of TV as a treat, which they never get. I thought it was going to work. But mid-interview – we were live – my daughter Aaliyah came in and said, ‘Mummy, this is the wrong show, this isn’t what we want to watch.’ There was nothing I could do about it. That’s real life, isn’t it?
When I made my new album, which is all songs from films, nobody knew what was coming. And I certainly didn’t realise that it would come out in a time where we’ve all heavily relied on film to help us escape and have that sense of nostalgia. So I’m very happy that I made something positive and uplifting. There are so many iconic musical moments in film, so there was a wealth of choices, but
I wanted to choose songs that instantly made you visualise a film, like West Side Story or A Star Is Born.
I’ve done live concerts online on Saturdays and it’s become a full family affair. My husband does the sound and my daughter dances around. But I’m really missing a live audience. I like that you can see the reaction of the music in people’s faces. I can’t wait to get back out there.
We’ve been watching a mixture of old and new films. We showed Aaliyah Splash – she loved The Little Mermaid so we thought we’d show her a film about a ‘real’ mermaid – and we’ve watched newer films like 1917 and Jojo Rabbit. There’s been a lot of Netflix, and a lot of documentaries. We love nature programmes, so we’ve been re-watching Blue Planet. But ultimately, for us, it’s been about real life: because we’ve been so confined, we’ve tried to get into nature, enjoying the family walk, letting the kids dig in the garden for bugs. It’s been good to go back to really simple child experiences with them.
I’m an OK cook, but my husband is a natural cook and has a flair for putting things together. So
I have been demoted to sous chef and dishwasher.
I would love to have a good wind-down process but I’m at full capacity until about 10pm, at which point I’ll watch a bit of news in bed.
Sun or shade?
Sun.
Barbra Streisand or Celine Dion?
Barbra!
Jeans or joggers?
Jeans normally. Joggers in lockdown.
Drive or be driven
Drive. I’m a backseat driver.
I always drink a lot of water and tea and, if I have a sore throat, I’ll use manuka honey. When I’m doing a lot of performing I don’t drink alcohol, but that’s been slightly different in lockdown! I think everybody’s probably had a few extra glasses of wine. Katherine’s new album, ‘Cinema Paradiso’ , is out now