My weight helps me look young, says Allsopp

KIRSTIE ALLSOPP finds that being plump helps her to look young, she has disclosed.

The 51-year-old TV presenter said that “it does help being a little bit plumper because you have a bit more flesh on your face” when asked how she maintained her youthful looks.

“I’m always torn between the desire to lose weight and the desire not to have it fall off my face,” she told Good Housekeeping.

She also said there was “something to be said about keeping busy” as it meant she had less time to worry.

The property expert said that she was not “thrilled” about getting older and turning 50 but was fitter than she has ever been. “I don’t think I have a particularly healthy relationship with ageing,” she said.

“When you’re younger, your metabolism is better, your skin is better and your bones are better. You get older and you’re suddenly a lot achier. But I have to say, I’m probably fitter now than I’ve ever been.”

She confessed that while she had not experienced ageism personally, “we’ve all witnessed it”.

“But I think the question is: is it ageism or is it sexism? Or is it both?

“Because the fact is, you’re allowed to go on for much longer as a man than you are as a woman – and women have to work a lot harder than men to not fade out. It’s not easy at all.”

The daughter of businessman Charles Henry Allsopp, the sixth Baron Hindlip, also spoke about how she keeps herself mentally fit, saying it is about “exercise and tidiness”.

She added: “The latter is a big issue for me – I have to have everything neat, otherwise I can’t concentrate on anything. If I’m having a particularly busy day, I think of something our late Queen allegedly used to say: ‘This storm too shall pass’. It’s very true. There are always days ahead.”

Allsopp has been dubbed “the queen of craft” after making Channel 4 programmes Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas and Kirstie’s Celebrity Craft Masters.

However, she is best known for presenting Channel 4’s alongside Phil Spencer for more than 20 years.