TV presenter Lorraine Kelly has opened up about a period of intense anxiety and a "dark time" she experienced following the birth of her daughter, Rosie, in 1994. The Glasgow-born broadcaster, 66, revealed her struggles stemmed from her freelance employment status at the time, which led to her contract not being renewed while she was on maternity leave.
Speaking on Pete Wicks’ Man Made podcast, Kelly, then a freelance breakfast television presenter for GMTV, described the period as a "really bad time."
She explained: "Just after having a baby you’re all over the place, and I got sacked, or didn’t get my contract renewed – virtually the same thing – and that was a very dark time. That was a really, really dark time because everything’s just taken away from you and you’re like, ‘What the hell am I going to do?'"
The award-winning daytime TV host elaborated on the precarious nature of her career, stating she "basically lived from contract to contract." She added: "You might get a year’s contract, or you might get two years if you’re lucky. It would have actually been really nice if someone had told me: in 40 years you’re going to still be doing it."
This constant uncertainty, she said, manifested as "the washing machine stomach, you’d get the dredge, you’d get the fear, you’d get all the worry" every time a contract neared its end.
Kelly highlighted how this fear intensified after becoming a mother, as she worried "about just existing." She confessed: "You’re scared that it’s all going to end tomorrow, and you never lose that fear, because you think that you’re not good enough."
When asked by Wicks about the impact of anxiety, she responded: "Absolutely. At three o’clock I was waking up in the morning with, like, an elephant on my chest. You know, that feeling of ‘oh my God’ and being overwhelmed, but I soldiered on."
The presenter noted a common societal reaction to her anxiety, where people question its presence given her seemingly fortunate life. She quoted: "They say, ‘You’ve got a lovely husband, you’ve got a beautiful house, you’ve got a great daughter, you’ve got an amazing job… why have you got anxiety? What are you anxious about?’ I think those feelings that I had, I never really dealt with properly, to be honest."
While future worries persist, Kelly shared that the birth of her granddaughter, Billie, has significantly shifted her perspective, fostering a greater appreciation for the present. She reflected: "This baby has taught me so much, because now I can appreciate so much more. All the things I wanted to do with my own daughter Rosie when she was little, I couldn’t really, as I was working so hard."
Kelly’s career began at the East Kilbride News, followed by a role as a researcher at BBC Scotland in 1983, before she joined TV-am and eventually launched her own show after presenting Good Morning Britain in 1990.
