Lorraine Kelly's health and beauty secrets

It's difficult to find anyone who doesn't like Lorraine Kelly and when she arrives (bang on time) for the Good Housekeeping shoot at a studio in North London, it's not hard to see why. Fresh-faced and naturally gorgeous, she is dressed down for the day in Ugg boots, brown combats and a hooded top after spending the early morning presenting her show on GMTV. She  is relaxed, informal, regularly bursts into giggly laughter and talks non-stop in that soothing East Kilbride lilt - the words tumble out more quickly than when she's on screen.

Within a few minutes, she has told us why she doesn't consider herself to be famous (‘When people recognise me, they say, "Oh hi, how are you?" as if they know me - I'm not someone like Madonna...') and how, while she might love a dose of glamour, she is also a home-body. (She recently enjoyed a designer fashion show with her 15-year-old daughter Rosie - and was doubly pleased because she was home in her ‘jim-jams' by nine o'clock.) Lorraine clearly loves a good natter, so we sit down with a cup of tea and get talking.

GH: You look great - do you feel you've got real body confidence?

LK: Well, I don't think we women will ever be 100% happy with what we've got, but I'm nearly 50 and at the stage where I'm very comfortable with who I am. Of course it would be fantastic to have a flat tummy and no cellulite on my bum, but I think I'm alright, you know? I wouldn't say I was a very confident person necessarily, but I think women in their 40s and over are so lucky nowadays - in years gone by, I would have been that wee woman with the grey hair and three buttons on her coat, wheeling a tartan trolley along! Now, we've got women like Lulu and Helen Mirren who are really sexy. The allure of the older woman is allowed to come out.

GH: Do you feel sexier now than you did in your 20s?

LK: I absolutely think I look better now. I see pictures of myself from the ‘80s and my hair and makeup was so ageing - unfortunately all these mistakes are around for people to see!

GH: Your weight has fluctuated a bit over the years. Has that ever affected your self-confidence?

LK: Oh, my weight has yo-yo'd all over the place! It hasn't been that hard having it happen in the public eye, though, to be honest. Not one of my bosses has ever asked me to lose weight; even when I was at my fattest when my daughter was around a year old. All the pressure to lose weight came from me, because I felt unfit and unhealthy.

GH: A lot of celebrities are obsessed with ‘pinging' back into shape after having children...

LK: It's ludicrous! It's bad for your health and your relationship with your baby. It gets me so cross - it's bonkers.

GH: You went on a healthy-eating plan to lose weight last year - why did you do that?

LK: It's really just a regular thing for me. I love food, it's one of the great joys in life, and every winter I put on that half a stone like everyone else, sitting indoors nibbling away. Then when the weather gets good again, I have to pull my finger out. But it's not one of those stupid not-eating things.

GH: You've said before you're ‘anti-diets', so where do you differentiate between healthy eating and dieting?

LK: I don't think diets work because dieting is denial. If you're on a healthy-eating plan you're retraining your body, but still allowing yourself a chocolate biscuit should you so wish. Have a glass of wine, for goodness' sake! But when people go on diets they immediately think: ‘I can't have anything I love', so if they're a crisp fanatic all they think about is having a crisp. And then they fall off the wagon and put all the weight back on again. A healthy-eating plan is for life, but it doesn't matter if one evening you have friends over and have loads of cheese and wine. If you were on a diet you'd just have a miserable night.

GH: How else do you look after your body and wellbeing?

LK: I try and take my dog Rocky out every day for a 40-minute walk. And during the warmer months, I've usually got something to aim for, like a Race for Life or a charity walk. It doesn't have to be a marathon, just getting together with some mates and walking a mile can be enough. It's also a great time to catch up and have a good chat.

GH: Are you happy with the shape you are now?

LK: Yes - I'm a size 12 and I think that's the right size for me. When I'm a 14, I look a bit plump and my waistband is uncomfy. But when I was training for the marathon a few years back, I went down to a size 10 and looked too thin. My husband [cameraman Steve Smith] thought I was too wee because my boobs had gone, and he was like: ‘Oh no, this is not good!'

GH: Talking of your bust, it seems to have become quite famous in its own right - you've got online fan clubs on the Internet praising it and the papers always talk about it when you wear a low-cut top...

LK: It's mad - I don't know why it happened! What was funny was when I wore a dress to the Scottish BAFTAs last year. I'd found this great strappy cream Ben de Lisi frock at the back of my cupboard, and tried it on. I was so delighted it fitted but I asked my husband: ‘Is this too revealing?' Of course, he said: ‘No, it's fine'. And I got absolutely slated by the press for it.

GH: Do you think there's a hypocrisy that says older women can't show off cleavage, but younger women can?

LK: As long as it's done in the best possible taste then it's absolutely fine. I think sometimes we get a bit silly about it.

GH: You've also spoken out against society's ‘quick-fix' surgery obsession - why is that?

LK: Listen, if you want to do it for you, and you're really unhappy with the way you look, fine. But for people who do it in order to look younger, it's not worth it. You can always tell. They're all clones. I don't understand all this Botox stuff. Why would you want to put poison in your face so it doesn't move? I actually find lines and wrinkles quite attractive - it shows someone's lived a bit! To me, someone like Tom Cruise is unattractive, whereas someone with some expression like Gerard Depardieu is quite appealing. His life is etched in his face which is nice. I used to think Nicole Kidman was beautiful years ago, but in the movie Australia her face didn't move! It was the most bizarre thing I'd ever seen. It's a shame that people feel they've got to do that.

GH: Have you ever felt under pressure to get anything done?

LK: No, and, personally, I would never do it. We should celebrate the fact we're in our prime instead of trying to achieve a 20-year-old's face and figure. Older women are far more interesting and sexy in general - just look at Sophia Loren! A good haircut can take ten years off you, and you can do amazing things with makeup, too. You don't need to go under the knife. I often worry that people go into it for the wrong reasons, wanting to look like someone else. Soon they're doing a bit more, then a bit more, because they're never happy with the results.

GH: Your daughter Rosie is a teenager now. How have you tried to give her a positive body image?

LK: As mothers, we have a responsibility not to be the ones going on scales or counting calories in front of them. Like lots of kids, Rosie can be really picky about what she eats, but the one thing I don't go on about with her is eating habits - instead, I just make sure I have fruit around the house. Often I'll plonk a bowl of raspberries in front of her when she's chatting on the phone. It's just trying to make sure she eats OK. When she was little, there were a lot of mad mothers around who insisted their child only ate organic this-and-that, and of course, they were the first kids with their heads in the biscuit tin when they got the chance!

It's about being sensible and allowing them treats, but helping them eat a healthy diet, too.

GH: Many young women now feel that being super-skinny is the body ‘ideal' - what do you think?

LK: If you are naturally teeny-tiny, then great, but there's no point in a size 16 girl trying to get down to a size 8. She'd just make herself very ill and unhappy. You've got to come to terms with who you are. I'm never going to be a size zero, so we should really try to be happy with what we've got, instead of striving for an impossible look.

GH: How can we celebrate our bodies more?

LK: I think it's all about not putting our lives on hold. So many women say: ‘I'll wear that swimming costume when I've lost half a stone', or ‘I'll go on holiday when I'm a stone lighter'. We think that losing a bit of weight will somehow make everything perfect. We've got to stop beating ourselves up and enjoy our lives while we can.

Lorraine's autobiography ‘Between Me And You' (Headline, £6.99) is out now in paperback

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