Woman interview Susanna Reid
Susanna Reid may be single, but that doesn’t mean she’s about to start trying online dating...
Susanna Reid has been on our screens for more than two decades, from BBC Breakfast to Good
Morning Britain. She’s also shown off her twinkle toes on
Strictly Come Dancing, reaching the final in 2013 with pro dancer Kevin Clifton. now, the 46-yearold presenter, who has three sons with ex-partner Dominic Cotton, is stepping off the Good Morning Britain sofa to front new show
Save Money: Good Food. Here, Susanna tells us about her love of a cheeky takeaway, going on the lash with ‘TV husband’ Piers morgan and why Twitter dating isn’t on her to-do list...
'There is a lot of warmth in my relationship with Piers. Our editor calls us Jack and Vera, like the Duckworths on Corrie. We are like an old married couple, despite the fact that he’s obviously already married! I think it’s a unique partnership. It isn’t the same as any other partnership I’ve been in, but there’s a lot of mutual respect and we are genuinely friends. I thoroughly enjoy it, and I think Piers does as well.’
‘Piers and I have had two legendary nights out. On one of them we went to the Groucho Club in London. He’s absolutely obsessed with very good quality red wine. I tried it, but I do not get it with red wine, so of course he had to order a whole separate bottle for me. When you’re both on a separate bottle of wine… But I always keep it entirely professional, and we had a very enjoyable evening. The other time was when we were in New York after Donald Trump was elected. It obviously required a gathering of people to reflect on this historic moment.’
‘Strictly Come Dancing is a pretty extraordinary experience. You do genuinely feel like you’ve been on a planet made of glitter, where you’re just inhaling stardust for four months. You’re working out non-stop, doing something amazing, which makes you feel so good. And you’re part of a team and with a partner, all in this incredible thing, all enjoying it together, and then ‘whoof ’, in December it all explodes and sort of disappears. When you look back on it and think, ‘What was that experience I had?’ It’s like a distant dream. It’s life-changing – but life’s completely back to normal now.’
‘I haven’t kept up the dancing, the most I’ll ever do is Zumba. Strictly doesn’t turn you into a professional dancer. The Zumba teacher looks over and I’m the slightly uncoordinated one at the back! It’s all lost. Somebody said about Strictly that it doesn’t teach you to dance, it teaches you a series of dances. It makes you into a dancer for that period of time, but I’m a no better dancer now than I was before I started. Except I think I could still do my paso doble at the drop of a hat. It’s still in my muscle memory.’
‘at weekends I try to have a lie-in, but of course with children you don’t often get one. Weekends are generally just lovely, chilled family time. Although I’m starting to understand how parents who complain about being a taxi service feel. My children have just got to that age where on a Saturday night you’re picking up someone from somewhere to drop someone else off somewhere else having just spent the day trying to coordinate football and rugby and all the rest of it. But it’s all about lovely family time at the weekend.’
‘Screens are banned over dinner at home. I try to stay off my phone, but I’m as addicted as anybody. I think social media is a kind of addiction. We disappear down a rabbit hole and sometimes look up and think, ‘Wow, where did that hour go?’ It’s really great to engage with viewers on Twitter. On the other hand I hate the trolling and how it can waste your time because you’re using it as a distraction from the bills you need to be looking at, or the admin you should be doing. I also don’t like the way it disconnects you from other people in the room. I don’t know what kind of a role model I am to my sons, especially when I’m stuck on my phone and they’re saying, ‘Get off Twitter! Where’s the tea?’ [laughs] But they’ve got two strong, loving parents who still respect each other and are great friends. So hopefully they’re doing all right.’
‘when people say nice things on Twitter, you can only feel flattered by it. Would I go on a date with someone I met on Twitter? Never! It’s not something I’m even considering!’
‘Strictly is like inhaling stardust for four months’
'I’ve got into a really good routine on Good Morning Britain where I am quite careful about what I eat. The danger with getting up really early and getting very tired during the day is that you tend to snack all day. I definitely have been guilty of that, so I just try to eat sensibly. I have apple and peanut butter during the programme – a big bowl of it is just under the desk. Sometimes it makes an appearance on air by accident. Then I have rye toast and avocado and egg when I get home. The danger zone is 3pm, mid-afternoon just before the kids come home and the biscuit tin is calling to me, so that’s the thing I have to say no to. I’m a kind of biscuitaholic, as once I eat one biscuit it tends to be that the whole biscuit pack is gone.’
'my guilty pleasure is eating takeaway Chinese food the next morning. I’m absolutely convinced there’s something in Chinese food that makes it taste even more delicious the morning after from the fridge! I won’t even heat it up, I’ll eat it cold from the box. My boys’ favourite food is steak. They like a big piece of meat! I don’t cook steak very well, so I don’t do it very often. Their favourite thing is when I get a takeaway from each of their favourite takeaways. I’ve learnt a lot from Save Money: Good Food about how to shop better. I run the fridge down so I don’t do a shop a week, I do it every fortnight. I will literally get to the back of the fridge so it will be practically empty, and my challenge is once I can no longer cook a meal from whatever is left in the fridge, then I’ll do the shopping. I’m pretty good about using leftovers. But I definitely still spend money on takeaways!’
Save Money: Good Food airs Tuesdays at 7.30pm, ITV