'THE OLDER I GET, THE MORE I'VE WORKED OUT WHAT I WANT IN LIFE'

CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN TALKS TO OK!'S LYNNE HYLAND ABOUT GLAMMING UP FOR TV, LOOKING FORWARD TO HAVING GRANDKIDS, AND CHOOSING THE RIGHT MAN

- CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN

Claudia Winkleman’s on the phone and she couldn’t be happier to be heard and not seen. Having dialed in bang on time, she wastes no time sharing her views on 2020’s technology.

“I find Zoom calls absolutely disgusting,” she says. “I do not enjoy seeing my own reflection. When I first started doing them, I couldn’t understand why Meatloaf was suddenly in my house.”

It’s precisely this sort of cheerful self-deprecation that has made Claudia one of the UK’s most popular celebs. Whether she’s poking fun at her complexion (“the color of Minute Maid orange juice”) or wonky eyeliner (“I look like a drunken pirate”), she’s delighted to cast herself as the plain pal to her glitzy TV wife Tess Daly. “She looks beautiful all the time, on any screen,” she says. “That’s my life, talking to an actual goddess. I love her.”

Female friendships are “everything” to Claudia, along with her family. She’s been happily married to TV producer Kris Thykier for 20 years, and they live in London with their three children, Jake, 17, Matilda, 14, and Arthur, nine. We talk to the Strictly presenter about lockdown life, falling in love, and shaking her shiny-haired stuff for Head & Shoulders…

How’s 2020 been treating you?