CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN
THE QUEEN OF SATURDAY NIGHT TV, CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN, GIVES US A FASCINATING INSIGHT INTO HER LIFE, LOVES AND LAUGH-OUT-LOUD MISHAPS
There’s something about Claudia Winkleman… Anyone who’s met her – OK! included – will tell you that she’s not only hilarious and instantly adorable, but refreshingly down-to-earth, sharp as a pin and effortlessly stylish. She visibly shudders at the notion of being dubbed a “celebrity” and in typical self-deprecating fashion, describes herself as “a short, orange person with a fringe”.
Chuck in her ability to put others at ease and her belief in speaking her mind and it’s easy to see why she’s such a huge hit with her radio and TV audiences.
This month, Claudia makes her welcome return to our screens to co-host Strictly Come Dancing with Tess Daly. She also presents BBC Radio 2’s Claudia On Sunday and is a natural choice for shows such as
Best Home Cook.
We know she’s a mean bridge player, never takes her make-up off at night, refuses to have long-length mirrors at home and thinks “famous people are totally unfanciable”. But what really makes Claudia tick?
Having kept her private life just that for so many years, Claudia’s debut book Quite – which takes its name from her favourite word – lifts the lid on everything from her
20-year marriage to film producer Kris Thykier, to her views on ageing, her advice on men and her kitchen renovation mayhem.
She lives with Kris in London with their three children, Jake, 17, Matilda,
14, and nine-year-old Arthur, or “Bear” as he’s known to his family.
Claudia is unashamedly obsessed with her children, once telling OK! she loves “licking them on the face”!
Her love for Kris, 48, is also evident throughout Quite as she details their first year together (spent mostly in bed, she says), the first holiday they took with his parents and their honeymoon, which – thanks to a misunderstanding over the location – marked a fashion fail for the new bride.
Here, in these exclusive extracts from Quite, Claudia, 48, talks about why Kris is the only man for her, how she always has two spray tans before filming Strictly and why we should welcome imposter syndrome with open arms…
CLAUDIA ON… WHY SHE MARRIED HER HUSBAND
“Do you know why I married my husband? Well, I was 26, desperate for a baby and couldn’t afford to leave home and I liked his flat and he cooked a b **** y good burger and also made my head shoot off my shoulders when we took our clothes off. Which are some of the reasons.
He also knows a lot, which is always hot. ‘Explain what happened in Suez again?’ is my kind of foreplay. I don’t need a Champagne cocktail, a fancy dinner with three forks or a ‘you look stunning’ but rather an encyclopaedic knowledge of oak trees, an explanation of why we drive on the left and what exactly happened in 1917 in Russia. I’ll tell you what, you keep talking about the history of temples in Kyoto and I’ll take my bra off for you.
But other than these little nuggets, what did it for me is how he behaved in restaurants, bars, planes – indeed, simply around people. Thanks so much, no rush, I’ll carry it over for you, you look rushed off your feet so we don’t need to order now, come back to us at the end, here, have a drink on us. Having been a waitress every school holiday from the age of 16, it was just the magic characteristic that tipped me over. I’d been on dates with boys who were slightly entitled – they didn’t exactly click their fingers but I could just tell they believed themselves to be better than the person who was putting away their coat, pouring the wine or bringing them a sandwich.
I married him because he always asks his cab driver how his day was; I love the fact he’ll never take a seat on the tube; I’m happy he believes in big tips and not making a mess. Obviously don’t tell him I’ve said anything nice about him – most of the time I can be found tutting, eye-rolling and asking him why he chose to put the tuna in the cupboard that’s clearly only for rice and pasta. I mean, what is he? An idiot?”
‘keep talking about the history of temples in kyoto and i’ll take my bra off for you’
CLAUDIA ON… WHY NAPPING IS HER “ACT OF DEFIANCE”
“Most of us feel we’re on hamster wheels – homework, cooking, showering, bedtime story, back downstairs, on our phones, watching the latest boxset (FFS put on Tiger King, we’re days behind, I feel like an a**ehole), meetings, weekend plans, calls, conference calls (‘Hi, it’s Phil here. I’m going to introduce six people on this call but then only I am going to talk. That’s just me, cool’) and then it’s lunches and more meetings and racing home and changing and drinks and then out for supper and then home and too exhausted to brush teeth/have sex/laugh about Phil on the conference call and then it happens again. This may feel hard to avoid sometimes but I don’t understand why it’s to be lauded, why anyone thinks it’s a good idea.
The really successful people – I mean the spectacularly smart ones – seem to be gardening and reading books and pottering about (have you seen their Insta stories? They’re literally drinking martinis on a barge). Let’s emulate that. Relax, don’t show off about being busy, boast about being idle, then you’ve done something truly right. And the best place to start in order to achieve this, I strongly believe, is napping.
My bed is my safe place, my happy place and I don’t think it should just be for nights. I’m happy to spring out of it at 7am and make three different breakfasts (you’re right, my kids are totally spoilt, why don’t they all like the same cereal?) and jump on the Central Line to drop the little one off. I whizz home with an enormous smile on my face because I know that, after a coffee and some radio, it’s time to go back to sleep. My friends call it ‘a meeting’. They’ll text, ‘Claud, call after your meeting.’ When we’re filming Strictly, I’ll go in for the morning, rehearse, get two full spray tans (I simply can’t present that show unless I’ve had a double dip) and then I’ll just lie down on the sofa and get a quick 30 minutes. I think I like napping because it feels slightly illegal, stolen, naughty. I’m not interested in actual rebellion (I used to hand in my homework early for God’s sake) but a nap is about the right level for me. I can’t advise enough that you should do it too. It’s a small but lovely act of defiance of this mad rule that we should appear busy at all times.”
CLAUDIA ON… HOW TO USE IMPOSTER SYNDROME TO YOUR ADVANTAGE
“How on earth did I get this job? Why am I here? What if they ask me to speak at the meeting? What do you mean, I’ve been picked to do the presentation? What on earth are they thinking, giving me all this responsibility? What if they think I’m not up to it? I have to open the shop by myself? What if something happens? I’ve got six inches of make-up on, heels I can’t walk in and I’m about to do this actually live on television. I have to hold onto (make that ‘grip’) his arm and walk down stairs and will then have to speak and people (they say) are watching. When will they realise I can’t do it? That they can get someone much better? It’s got to be any time now...
Imposter syndrome. When you think you’re a fraud, when you think that you can’t do the job. That niggling feeling that someone is going to find you out. The phone will ring. ‘Ah, hello, it’s Lucy from HR. Well it turns out that little voice inside your head was completely right after all. All this time you’ve been thinking you weren’t up to it? It took us a while to catch up, so sorry, so much admin up here, but you’re bang on. You’re nowhere near as good as we thought you were. It’s time to pack up your desk. Please do so immediately, leave straight away and don’t stop to talk to anyone.’
It’s a slightly sick feeling, a just-waiting feeling. Here they come, they’re here to tell me I’ve been too lucky, too jammy and it’s all over. This feeling can of course come and go but it’s always slightly there, humming in that little corner of your brain. Here’s the thing: I think a bit of imposter syndrome is incredibly useful. It’s good to ask, ‘Why me?’, it’s tremendous to think this will end in disaster, it’s excellent to question how you got there in the first place. Nerves, worry, a low-level ‘I’m going to get caught out’ makes us better at our jobs, it’s as simple as that. I’ve met the odd person who believes they were meant to be there, that they were born for the role, that this was their rightful path, that the company is lucky to have them. You’re right, total prats – not very popular, massive egos, hideous sense of entitlement and also (here’s the funny bit) not always very good.
We have to make sure we don’t take it for granted because the second we do, boof, it goes wrong. That work thing where you couldn’t really be bothered to read the background notes – ‘Watch me guys, this’ll be easy peasy’ – that’s when it falls apart. Worrying a bit keeps us on our toes, it makes sure we turn up on time, smile a lot, work hard – that all comes from a fear of failure and as long as it’s manageable and doesn’t overwhelm we can really use it to our advantage. Keep thinking ‘Why me?’ and never rest on your laurels, that’s just good sense. You can look back and say, ‘Well, that wasn’t all bad,’ when you’ve retired but not before.” QUITE BY CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN [HQ] IS OUT NOW IN HARDBACK PRICE £16.99